Needless to say...he proposed! January 14th. Giving us about 4 1/2 months to plan my perfect wedding. As most of you know the planning began as soon as we got back from our trip and we had most everything planned within weeks! And guess what?! It happened perfectly! June 2nd ended up being the most available day of the season for most vendors!
I ended up having about 2 weeks before the wedding without school and I am so glad I did! My mom had done a lot of the decor herself while I was busy studying, moving, and working so there wasn't MUCH left but boy did it add up!! And we kept adding! "Oh! We should do this or that!" As my mom said...it's a good thing I wasn't living at home during the last few months because the wedding probably would have cost a lot more in decorations, I would have gotten no studying in, and we would have been constantly coming up with new ideas and spending way too much time making those ideas happen. I have to say that I surprised myself and probably others with how calm and "unbridezilla like" I was (ok I might have had my moments!). I started to feel the pressure those last couple weeks but luckily we had so much help with decor preparations from my Aunt Judy and family friend Sheri (and all others who helped).
A few days before the wedding a pretty big wrench was thrown right at my head! The reception venue failed to tell us that they could not provide Budweiser products...only Coors. Now, this may not seem like too big of a deal to most....but if you know Eric's family then you know that this was a biggy!!!! I dreaded telling him! He surprisingly took it quite well. He also was pretty insistent on getting 3 kegs rather than the 2 recommended by the coordinator (strongly recommended!).
I also, before the beer incident, was informed that my grand plan of having guests outside the hall, while we took pictures, to enjoy appetizers and cocktails was a horrible idea! I left the venue in tears....yup it was finally time for my break down. I just hate it when I have a plan and it doesn't go as I want! I suppose the coordinator felt bad because she called me later that evening and told me that they would make it work and not to worry. I'm making the coordinator seem so awful but honestly she was awesome!!!!
I should also mention another hiccup we had during this planning process. After finally finding a church to hold the ceremony we thought we were in the clear! Shortly after booking the church my mom discovered that the priest was on trial. She followed the trial and one morning sent me a text that he would not be marrying us...he was found guilty. It was pretty funny when my maid of honor called me that morning. I had a feeling she was calling to tell me the bad news. It was because of her that we had even considered St Joachim so I'm sure she felt a little nervous about telling me. Luckily, I had already known of the issue which was a relief to her! Eric's mom was a big help in finding us someone to perform the ceremony. The poor guy was so overwhelmed with everything going on because of the trial that every time I spoke with him he seemed confused...never knowing who I was or when he was supposed to be marrying us. In fact...he called Eric a couple days before the wedding to make sure he WAS marrying us...seems there may have been a mix up because a Spanish speaking deacon thought HE was marrying us! We had met with him to go over vows and such and he asked for my baptism certificate. He said he didn't know how to use the copy machine and would return it to me at our next meeting. I knew leaving it with him was a bad idea! I knew that if my mom found out that I had left it there she would be furious! But how much damage could he cause? Well....apparently a lot. At our next meeting when I asked for it back he had no clue what I was talking about and swore he never kept it but offered me a COPY! Oh man! My mom better never ask for that thing back!!! Luckily days before the rehearsal he called to say that he had found it!! I was so relieved I had to tell me mom the story!
Oh and then there was the vase fiasco! Two days before the day we were supposed to take the vases to the florist we found out we didn't have 1/2 the vases! We looked all over Lodi and Stockton for the perfect vases. Luckily the florist was able to improvise and our centerpieces still turned out beautiful!
Goodness I'm sure there are more of those little things that seem enormous that the time but lets move on shall we? Rehearsal day..............
Luckily we were able to decorate the reception venue on Friday. SO thankful because it took all day and I wouldn't have been able to deal with it on our wedding day! We had awesome help.....my parents of course, my Uncle Roger, Aunt Judy, Uncle Jerry, Aunt Marsha, Bridesmaids Jeana, Gina, Sara, Jacci, Nicole, maid of honor Brittany, Jeana's boyfriend Tim, our friend Ben, Cindy, Scott, and even Cassie and Brian! (gosh I hope I covered everyone). I'll admit that I did have a little breakdown there also. It was getting late in the day and I was hoping to be finished my 3 so we would have time to get ready for rehearsal at 5 (We didn't leave until about 4). A lot of the people had left and there was so much left to do. Ok, so I might see things that others don't, that may not NEED to be taken care of...but this was the wedding I had dreamed of and I wanted everything perfect! Poor Eric got the brunt of it....he better get used to it! haha! But he's the worst at seeing what I see. I see a crooked table cloth and he sees a perfectly set table and that was not the time to tell me "It's fine Christina...lets go so you can get ready!" oh no no no (as he would say)!!! We did finally leave even though I knew there were still many things that could have been done. It calmed me to know that my Aunt would be there in the morning to finish up the details.
We quickly got ready for the rehearsal and headed to the church...where the issues continued. The parents were all late and the Deacon was becoming VERY agitated. I finally decided to start without them. It went well for the first 2 minutes until he was trying to line up the bridal party in some really odd way. I had to speak up which only flustered him more. Once I got it perfect we continued. It went fairly smooth from there.
After the church we went to dinner at Scott and Cindy's home. We really wanted the backyard feel where people felt free to get up and mingle rather than sit at a table and stare at the person across from them. Nicole and Tasha did an amazing job decorating for the dinner. It was so romantic! I thank Scott and Cindy for agreeing to have it in their backyard because it was absolutely perfect!! We handed out our gifts after dinner. We had gotten all of the parents and present grandparents a photo book of all of our engagement pictures. We even wrote little love notes in each book. Eric got the groomsmen flasks with their names engraved, with the exception of Mason who is underage..he got a fancy knife set. I had started buying for my girls early so the gift boxes kept getting bigger...I just can't resit! It started with robes. I wanted all of the girls in matching robes with my mom and Eric's mom in different matching robes and myself in a white "bride" robe. It took me forever to find the perfect ones! I don't think I took any pictures of the robes but those will be in the wedding pics. Then I decided to do something a little more personal and make them those super cute wire name hangers that some of you may have seen on pinterest. I thought...how hard can this be?! I soon figured out that they are very frustrating to make and time consuming but once you get the hang of it they are actually pretty fun. I had one, almost HORRIBLE, mishap while making them. As I was bending the wire it flew up and hit me directly in the eye. I sat there with my eyes closed for a minute praying that it wasn't as bad as it could easily be. When I opened my eye is was quite blurry. I immediately put some ointment in that I had from a previous eye mishap a while back. I just wanted it to go away, rewind 3 minutes please!! It was right after I put the ointment in that I realized that it was cut metal that had scratched my eye and I should probably get it checked to make sure there wasn't any metal remnants that would rust and cause a bigger problem. It wasn't painful at all luckily. I looked at the clock that read 5:00...CRAP! All my wonderful eye doctors are most likely home by now. I called a friend/coworker to check and sure enough the doctor was out....but luckily our newest addition was sticking around and was willing to wait for me at the office. I rushed over and had it check out. Luckily it was only a superficial corneal abrasion...but right across the pupil making my vision blurry. It was 100% healed by the 3rd day!....DARN THOSE HANGERS! :) I had also found some super cute flip flops for the girls and moms and I had matching white ones.
After rehearsal I spent the night at the hotel and some of my girls joined me...Brittany, Sara, Jeana, and Gina. Nicole and Jen also spent some time but went their separate ways come bed time. It was so much fun to spend an hour our so talking about the upcoming events. :) Some of the groomsmen stayed at the house with Eric that night...which I thought was so cute :) haha!!!!
Overall I really enjoyed those last two weeks (really the entire 4 1/2 months!). Again, I thank everyone for their help and also for putting up with me during my "moments"!
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