Our Wedding: Part 2 - The Big Day!
Written 7/8/2016
You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point of commitment. At some point, you decided to marry. From that moment of yes, to this moment of yes, indeed, you have been making commitments in an informal way. All of those conversations that were held in a car, or over a meal, or during long walks – all those conversations that began with, “When we’re married”, and continued with “I will” and “you will” and “we will” – all those late night talks that included “someday” and “somehow” and “maybe” – and all those promises that are unspoken matters of the heart. All these common things, and more, are the real process of a wedding.
The symbolic vows that you are about to make are a way of saying to one another, “You know all those things that we’ve promised, and hoped, and dreamed – well, I meant it all, every word.
Look at one another and remember this moment in time. Before this moment you have been many things to one another – acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, even teacher, for you have learned much from one another these past few years. Shortly you shall say a few words that will take you across a threshold of life, and things between you will never quite be the same. For after today you shall say to the world – This is my husband. This is my wife.
-Reading from "Union" by Robert Fulghum
I really liked the reading that we chose to replace 1st Corinthians. I didn't grow up in a religious family. In fact, my mum used churches for their free babysitting...terrible, but smart, right?! I don't want to talk too much about my religious beliefs, so I'll just say that I don't know what I believe in, but I knew I didn't want any religious aspects included in our ceremony. Right before the ceremony, my wedding coordinator sent me a timeline that included so many things that we had already told her we didn't want. When I finally confronted her on the phone, she said that she included 1st Corinthians because (in her words) "your ceremony is only going to be a couple minutes and I thought that would help make it longer." MAJOR EYE ROLL!
I woke up the morning of my wedding like usual: a messy-haired monster dressed in sweat pants uttering "I need coffee" in my groggy grumbling voice of despair. So...FUNNY STORY: Last year when Ben and I visited Destin, we drove by a little place called "The Donut Hole" which was right next to "Destin Glass Company." Ben and I have joked, sometimes seriously contemplated moving to Destin where I work at the donut shop and he goes back to being a glazier. We even went as far as calling the glass company and asking about the positions they were hiring! Crazy, right?! So, we knew we wanted to try the donut place the morning of our wedding...wait...are you noticing a trend here? I ate donuts the day before my wedding, and the day of my wedding...I didn't care about the calories, apparently lol.
We ate breakfast there and had to wait for awhile! They had two lines (one for breakfast; one for donuts) - both were equally crazy. Well, the breakfast SUCKED! I don't understand how so many people love their food! It was kind of a bummer to have a disappointing breakfast on our wedding day! Even the coffee was lacking! We ordered some donuts to go, and WOW! Those were so, so good! AT LEAST, they got that right! :)
So we did what any sensible couple would do on their wedding day...We spent the whole day at the beach! Our ceremony wasn't supposed to start until sunset, so we decided that we were going to hangout at our private little spot on the beach until we had to start getting ready! We definitely made sure to put on SPF 1000, because we were already peeling before we went down to Florida!
We brought the wireless speaker and listened to music, played in the water, carved our names in the sand, ate snacks, etc. Just an all around PERFECT day at the beach! We weren't nervous about anything! We ended up leaving the beach in the late afternoon to go pickup our flowers. I had an idea for a flower crown and Florals By the Sea did an amazing job, as well as my bouquet and Ben's boutonniere! It was so beautiful, and this is coming from a girl who HATES flowers!
Soon enough, the time for hair and makeup came! I had my hair done by Tania Crawfordand my airbrushed makeup was done by Victoria Smith. They were honestly a DREAM TEAM! I've never felt more beautiful in my entire life! They were those kind of girls that you meet and can instantly click! Since everything about our wedding was unconventional, Ben sat in the living room watching TV while they worked their magic in the same room! Weird, but it wasn't like he saw me in my dress or anything!
That beach house had KILLER lighting so I had a mini photoshoot sess with my iPhone :)
Next, my wonderful, wonderful photographer, Alena Bakutis showed up! Words cannot describe how amazing she was! She truly, truly saved our day! It was now time to get in my dress and see Ben as my fiance one last time before we tied the knot! We did a dress reveal photoshoot in the garden at the beach house, and it was a really great feeling to tap my finger on Ben's shoulder and have him turn around to see me! :)
I remember asking the photographer what time it was, because it seemed like we were taking a lot of pictures beforehand. She said 6:47 PM, and I was like "Oh wow...we're supposed to be there at 6:50!" She calmly said, 'Ok, let's just take one more shot and then we can go." When we all jumped in our cars to head to the beach entrance, it felt like we were rushing! I even forgot my bouquet and just as Ben was pulling out of the driveway, I jumped out to go grab it!
We originally planned on walking to the beach to get married, but with us running out of time, we had to drive. We parked just outside of Shirah Street Beach Access. Oh my goodness, it was busy! The wedding coordinator was not very truthful. We asked to be married in a semi-private spot on the beach. While I understand that there's really no such thing, she could have placed the arbor off to the side a bit more. She put it right in the middle of the access point, so people were EVERYWHERE!
I could list off SO MANY reasons why my wedding coordinator/company (Sunshine Wedding Company) was AWFUL. I won't harp too much on things, because we are just happy that we received the marriage license, so it was a legit operation at least! Ben was CONVINCED that they were going to steal our identities and he joked about buying LifeLock Insurance when we got home! LOL!
We called our officiant the "One Armed Bandit" because he only had one arm! His smirky, alcoholic-looking face (we're mean, we know) was burned into our eyeballs for the LONGEST time! You could just tell that the coordinator and her husband (the officiant) didn't give two shits about our wedding day. To put it bluntly, they were just really trashy people that were really good at deceiving people looking to get married. The ONE thing that I I'll give them credit for, was that when it came time for Ben and I to read our vows to each other, everyone stepped away from us. It felt like it was just the two of us talking to each other and that was a really good feeling!
Speaking of vows, Ben blew me away with his! He was stressing out all the way until the night before our trip. I might get the courage to post a copy of our vows, but for now, I like to keep them secret as they meant so much to me and him! What I will say, is that it was really neat that we both talked about the same things (without even knowing we were going to), but they were from different perspectives...and that was just so so cool!
After they announced us as husband and wife, he leaned in for the most beautiful kiss ever! I wanted to practice before the wedding so there wasn't any awkwardness, but he NAILED IT! He grabbed my face with both of his hands so gently and kissed me a couple times, and I remember looking up at him like "WOW! We did it!" He kissed my forehead and I went back to feeling all dreamy again!
There were a bunch of people on the beach (like I said). They were cheering for us! There was a high-rise hotel right behind our arbor and all of the people that were out on their balconies were cheering us on and going wild! It was actually pretty sweet!
It wasn't until after all the noise calmed down, that some random on the beach yelled, "Don't Do It, Dude!" LOL...I just laughed!
We took a bunch of pictures on the beach, and finished up more pictures at the beach house before we said goodbye to our photographer! We were SO READY to be out of our wedding clothes! The sun had set and I was so sweaty, and so was Ben! We rinsed off and changed into regular clothes to grab some dinner! I originally intended on going out in our wedding attire (in hopes that people would buy us a shot...lol jk). But, it was just WAY too hot for that once you got away from the beach's natural breeze.
I know it's cliche, but I totally wore my 'WIFE" tank top with some high rise shorts to dinner! Ben LOVED IT! However, dinner was AWFUL! We didn't really plan ahead or anything, because we would have been happy with just ordering a pizza on the beach or something. Ben decided we should get something a little fancier, so he picked a restaurant named "Bonefish." OMG...it was NOT good! Our biggest mistake was that we ordered fish we have never had before, but we told the server what kind of fish we generally like, and he lied to us! Grouper and Haddock are NOT in the same category as Red Snapper!
We were going to go out and have tons of drinks, but we were just SO TIRED! So, we went back to the beach house and got ready for bed. That's when I started having problems. I felt so sick from whatever I ate for dinner...I actually went to lay down on the couch, because I wasn't sure if I would need to run to the bathroom or not. I didn't sleep at all...It felt like my organs were shaking up and down really fast! Ben's mom said I probably ate old fish and it upset my tummy! Even Ben felt sick!
So, in a nutshell, I didn't even get to spend the time cuddling my brand new husband like they tell you in the fairy tales. Instead, I spent my night holding my body to try to stop it from shaking! :( All in all, I am so proud to call Benjamin my husband...regardless of anything else, that is the most important part of this day! :)
