From Wedding Essentials Bride Blogger, Miss Heartland: By the Monday before our wedding, I was checking the 10 day forecast every hour and it was looking like a 30% chance of rain and 85 degrees, not too bad for an outdoor wedding. Our final projects were punching holes in 350 lemon leaves,rolling 350 napkins, finalizing flowers, getting final numbers to the caterers, contacting all of the vendors to make certain everything was on as planned, etc.  On Wednesday I had a relaxing lunch with my fiance and one of his best friends from England, then went on to all my appointments: waxing, spray tanning, hair, and teeth cleaning.  I wanted to make sure I was in tip top shape for the most important day of my life!

On Thursday the butterflies began.  By then a few things had to be changed with the “wedding plans,” but I promise you it didn’t do any good getting mad, it just made everyone else stressed out too.  We quickly learned that the most important thing was still going to happen, Mike and I were going to be married in 2 days.  My mother and our wedding planner, Juli, tackled all of the changes that were taking place in the background! Every bride needs a mom, a friend, and a wedding planner to help with any of the stressors that inevitably come up, no matter how much you’ve planned.

Friday started off as a day of pampering for the girls and a fun day of golf for the guys and then came the rehearsal dinner at Firethorn Golf Course, hosted by my fiance’s parents. Once the (delicious!) food was served and everyone had a few drinks, the night turned a bit emotional … Both sets of parents got up and said a few words and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house. Their words were so encouraging and touching, neither of us had ever been happier than we were that moment.  Then our friends said such kind things, we realized how lucky we both were to have such a huge support system around us!

The Big Day

At 6:30 a.m. I jumped out of bed with a grin on my face which lasted nearly 48 hours.  I ate breakfast with all my best friends and we were off to W Hair Studio to get dolled up for the day. We caravanned out to the wedding site inMalcolm,NEand everything looked magnificent — like straight out of a movie, I was speechless.  The tent was set up, the decorators were perfecting every detail, the caters getting final numbers squared away, Juli was running around like crazy, and me … I was surprisingly calm, to be honest.

One of my bridesmaids said,  “I mean this out of love, but I totally imagined you would be bridezilla, but you are not.” There was nothing to be bridezilla about, ohhh  well nothing except the 50% chance of rain and some severe storms, that were set to come through at or around 6:00.  Did I mention that our ceremony was outdoors and that it started at 5:30 p.m.?

The last thing I said to my father before beginning our trek down the isle was, ” Please make sureto not let me fall okay?” The guests were all smiles while watching, the music was beautifully playing and I don’t think I’ve ever been this happy in all my life, this very moment while all eyes are on you, you realize how unbelievabl yblessed you are and that life always happens for a reason.  As we said our I Do’s, two geese (which are said to “mate for life”) flew by in the background. It was quite the omen and everyone at the ceremony was awestruck.  I think someone asked, “Didthey plan to have those geese fly by?”

The Rain

As soon as we were pronounced husband and wife, we ran down the isle, and not a second after we got inside, the rain came a pouring!!!!  All of our guests sprinted down into the reception tent. Yes, the storms were coming, Yes it was going to rain on our wedding day, but guess what… it held out for the ceremony and hey, a little rain is good luck (I could havegone without the 60 MPH winds that nearly knocked the tent over, but hey, what can you do).

Ever After

We all ran down to the tent, trying not to get soaked in the process.  I took a moment before entering to “take it all in.” It was another one of those moments of, awe that I wanted to push pause, to see that this many people came here for us, to watch us get married was such a beautiful moment. We spent the rest of the evening soaking it all in as husband and wife, we danced to our amazing band, DFUNK, talked to all our guests, laughed, cried, and most importantly we loved every minute of it together. We knew that this was the beginning of an absolutely amazing life together!!!!!!!!