This is the turn of phrase my husband (OMG! I have a “husband”!) used while posting a sweet thank you to one of our very good friends on Facebook yesterday. He was thanking her because without her help he might not have been able to get to the wedding at all! But let’s go back and revisit some recent ‘unfortunate events’ leading up to this particular one.
Not long after we became engaged did we find out that my husband (!) had to have back surgery – immediately. NO problem – we get it done. Then because I wasn’t taking good care of myself I develop low blood pressure, low iron, have a hypoglycemic episode while at dinner and wake up covered in blood outside of BJ’s Brewhouse with a huge gash in my forehead two weeks before my wedding.
Five stitches and a two and a half day stay at Madison Hospital later and my husband’s house gets burgled, follow that with the week before the wedding he twisted the wrong way and tweaked his back and we are back at the Dr’s, but it doesn’t stop there. Two days before our wedding I grabbed his razor and cut my left ring finger so bad I couldn’t get it to stop bleeding for well over an hour and when my sister, (a nurse) saw it the next day she even said it probably could have used a stitch or two, but by then I had worked it out.
Which leads us to the day of the wedding, where my husband went to do something sweet for his son/Groomsman, and simply stepped off the curb, heard something “POP” in his left calf and can now barely walk; thus the sweet thank you to our friend for dropping everything, driving out to our house, getting him and dropping him at the venue for pictures and then running back to her house to get herself ready. (Thank you Heather Rudeen for ‘being there’ always when we need you!)
Not once did it EVER occur to me during this entire process that I should run like hell, probably because my husband kept saying to me, right up to the minute we took our wedding vows standing at the altar, “You can still run babe.” To which I just shook my head and laughed.
Today, this morning, it does however occur to me that we have now had our fair share of bad luck and I would like to pass it along to the next in line. I’m sorry for that and I wish you (whoever you are) all the best with it, but I’m really kind of done and over these unfortunate events.
Despite all of THAT – we had one hell of a rocking, good wedding.
Momzilla and Sarah (the wedding coordinator) freaking broke their backs and necks getting that venue decorated and everything in order. It wasn’t glitch free by any means, but no one but us would EVER have known that, thus why I can tell you now.
Everything that could possibly go wrong did and the ONLY reason I didn’t flip shit and turn into a maniacal BRIDEZILLA is because of attitude. I CHOSE to have a good attitude.
Starting with the rehearsal at the venue, when our officiant didn’t have the script completed and it took us way too long to get through even one run through, much less two, I just rolled with it.
When I woke up and found it to be raining, checked the forecast for the whole day and saw we had a 30% chance of rain, I just sighed and repeated to myself what everyone else has said, ‘Rain is good luck on your wedding day!’
When I found myself all alone, driving to the hair dresser and a little sad because everyone was too busy to be with me and I wanted to share my experiences with someone – like my MOH or BM, I just cried a little, got it out of my system and moved on.
When I found myself being reprimanded for ‘being late’ to the hair dresser and makeup artist, even though my text appointment from the salon said 9:15 NOT 9:00, I just shrugged my shoulders and walked in at 9:16.
When I was being coiffed and the other hair stylist was having a snit fit because my bridesmaid wasn’t there for him to do because the time line got screwed up, and it wasn’t communicated to us, I just tried to problem solve it and keep him from having a hissy fit and her from being upset and crashing her car in the rain.
When my sister was told that because the time line was jacked that she wouldn’t get any professional makeup, we just nodded and said ‘ok’. I then told her it will be fun for me to do her makeup, so we did. Plus it meant she got to hang with me and I got some awesome company to share this experience with – win/win!
When my sister was asked to pay for her hair when our understanding was they were going to bill my Mom for that – she just paid for hers, SB’s, and the little girls and we moved on.
When I got the phone call from my husband that he had stepped off the curb and heard something “pop” in his leg and could barely walk – ok I’m not going to lie here, I did freak out a little, but he assured me come hell or high-water he would show up. (Thanks to Heather, he did.)
When the photography time line got so jacked because nobody was ready on time and my father couldn’t be found anywhere and then we found out he couldn’t get on base because he forgot his ID – I just started drinking.
The photographer (Sharon Palmer of Southern Cotton Photography and her super sweet and really handsome bf Chad McFalls) were absolute god sends. Her calm, smiling demeanor kept us still able to get shots outside despite the rain, and her flexibility on the time line kept my bitch switch from flipping. I will be ever so grateful to her for unconsciously ‘handling’ me very well.
So the list goes on and I will try to recap here by memory as best I can – Drew could barely walk so getting him from point A to point B to exchange our gifts to each other without him seeing me, blind folded was NOT fun. The officiant (whom I adore) was not on his game and snafu’d things a number of times to the point where it became just comical. He used a cell phone inside a bible and at one point it died and – yeah, we stood there. The band didn’t know about playing ‘Ava Maria’, the guests weren’t told when they could be seated so they stood longer than they should have, we think a big chunk of our I do’s were skipped and a lot more people showed up than the RSVP’s we received. I think at last count we had in excess of 80 people.
All in all, despite all and any of that – we had THE most beautiful wedding you could possibly imagine. Every element of it was absolute perfection for us. And if you don’t believe me, just check out all the pictures and eventually the video of my entrance.
Oh did I mention the entrance?
My Groom thought at about a week out that he was being funny when we were asked if I would come out to ‘Here Comes The Bride’ or “Cannon in D’, when he suggested I come out to Darth Vader’s ‘Imperial March’ to which I thought was genius and I ran with it. So there you have it, I entered the ceremony on the Imperial March until I choked that tune out and then walked down to ‘Cannon in D.’
It was surreal.
It was stunning.
It was bigger, better, and more perfect than my imagination could have EVER conjured and it was completely US!
That’s all I got here folks.
Raise your hand if you are next in line for this streak of strange luck.
Catch you on the flip side.
Lots of love,
Kat Devine
Team Devine Wedding Website 