As of 3 days ago, I am officially Mrs. Vanderbles. Almost 3 years to the day since we started dating, Tim and I finally tied the knot. The weather ended up being perfect though the forecast said 30% chance of rain.
Friday, August 10, 2012, was our rehearsal. I took the day off work to prepare for the wedding and did some last minute grocery shopping for the wedding dinner. It was a bit overcast all day. It rained on my drive up to The White Farm but stopped raining for the rehearsal and for the 15 minutes we talked afterward. Then, as I was leaving The White Farm to drive to my uncle's house for our rehearsal dinner, it started raining again. It didn't last long, though, which is good because there were a good 20+ people for dinner so we were standing around outside. Our bridal party met for the first time (my girls knew each other but that's it) and everyone got along great! We all played some pool and drank (well, I didn't drink). Tim and his best man, Steve, ended up staying at my uncle's house until 3am just talking. I had to call Tim and find out if he was coming home. I was pissed that it was so late, the night before our wedding, and that he wasn't home yet. Yes, we stayed the night together before the wedding. We aren't traditional by any means and we already live together so we just stayed together. He and Steve even helped decorate the reception site the morning of the wedding, so he obviously saw me on our wedding day. I got probably about 4-4.5 hours of sleep and Tim got maybe 2-3 hours of sleep. We just couldn't fall back asleep. I think we got more sleep than people expected, though.
Saturday, August 11, 2012 - Our wedding day!!! The weather was partly cloudy, about 75 degrees and slightly breezy. It was only a few degrees warmer than my perfect temperature, so it was perfect. The day started by pretty much my entire family going to the reception site, the Hamlin VFW, to decorate. I bought some big poof ball things and some colored fans along with streamers/crepe paper for decorations. Everyone kinda took something and started decorating and got the job done! I didn't do a whole lot except direct and didn't even do a good job of it. So much stuff was done and I had no time at all to figure out what it was! People kept asking me what else needed to be done and I had to say I don't know, I don't know what's been done already, I need to figure out what's left. I had allotted for 2 hours to decorate the hall and it was essentially done within an hour. I had an image in my head of how to decorate and it turned out to be so much better and so much more than I ever expected or thought it could be. In my head, in all honesty, it seemed a little "trashy." But the way my family decorated it, it was cute and classy and not over done. There was a point in the morning where I was looking into the box of unused decorations and thinking that they simply weren't going to be used. My mom saw them and asked if I cared what they did with them, to which I said no, and they created this beautiful space. I truly have the best family in the world.
After decorating the reception site, Jaclyn and I headed into Brockport for our hair appointments. We got our hair done by Tricia at Salon 88 and I absolutely adored my hair. It was a curly side ponytail with swoop bangs and I had a big yellow flower as well. It looked adorable and beachy! Jaclyn and I had lunch at Wendy's and then we went to WalMart because she had forgotten her jewelry at home (a good half hour drive one way) so she bought a cute, cheap set to wear. Jaclyn went back to Hamlin to relax and I went to The White Farm to unload my car of clothes and wait for Jaclyn to come up and for my makeup girl, MaKenna, to get there. I took about a half hour nap, careful not to mess up my hair, and felt quite a bit better afterward. When MaKenna was done with my makeup, I truly looked beautiful, like old Hollywood. There was an old truck on the property and she told me depending on the pose, etc., that it could look like a pin-up shot, which is like old Hollywood glamour.
The time came for pictures to start, I was feeling beautiful and excited. I was not nervous at all. I was a bit anxious because the afternoon felt like it was just dragging by, but I wasn't nervous at all. Even though Tim and I saw each other that morning, I still wanted to get that "first look" shot, a picture of the first time he saw me in my dress. So I was in one of the rooms with double sliding doors and our photographer stood behind me to get a shot of Tim's face over my shoulder. We had some trouble getting the heavy doors open so we were all laughing and it took a minute for the site to really settle on him. He just kept saying "Wow." We got through pretty much all of the pictures and more that I wanted done before the ceremony with 10 minutes to spare (I didn't get individual shots with the girls but I did get some of the three of us so that's better than nothing).
Even as our guitarists began to play my song and my dad and I started to walk down the aisle, I was not nervous. I was excited. Our officiant (who I later found out is the mom to a girl I went to high school with) ended up calling me Dennis once during our ceremony. It was obvious that she felt terrible about it, but she corrected herself and moved on. During our vows she paused periodically and we ended up saying "I Do" several more times than we were supposed to but we went with it. No biggie. Our officiant didn't stick around after the ceremony. She skedaddled ASAP and forgot to let the guests know that we'd greet them at the reception site (as opposed to having a reception line). Fortunately, Grammy stepped up and gave that announcement to the guests as there were just a few pictures left that we wanted to take before we left. The ceremony took about 15 minutes total. Short and sweet.
We were announced into the reception only about 10 minutes later than planned and danced our first dance to I'd Find You by Chris Cagle. I love love love that song. My dad and I danced to My Little Girl by Tim McGraw, during which he told me how proud he was of me and all he wanted was for me to be happy. It sounded like he was choking up a bit but he says he wasn't. He also said that only for my wedding would he dance to a country song and that he was surprised I didn't pick an Aerosmith song. Honestly, I didn't think about it. Then, Kevin and I danced to At Last as a Step-Father/Step-Daughter dance. Dinner was delicious, as I knew it would be since Grammy was gracious enough to do some of the cooking. Our cake was awesome, too. Again, my family stepped up and coordinated getting the food ready for dinner and serving the cake. They were appalled that I was ready and willing to do it myself. I understand it was my day and I shouldn't be doing that stuff but I'm a hands on, do it myself kind of person so it was hard for me to let go of the reigns, especially because I didn't want anyone to resent me for it or anyone being angry that they did all of the work. But it was already over and done with so I have to just accept it and move on. Our DJ's wife was there as well and was more than happy to help out. She helped announce tables when they could go up and get dinner and took around platters of cake to serve the guests. Come to think of it, I'd like to give her $25 or so for all of her help as she was there as a guest and isn't family.
Jaclyn and Hope started up the dance floor and I think truly were the life of the party. The speeches were perfect and spot on. Steve was going to add so much to his but he said that the most important thing was the way Tim and I looked at each other during our first look. Jaclyn had a page typed and it was perfect. She had forgotten that she had to give a speech until the night before when I reminded her at the rehearsal dinner. What she came up with in one night was absolutely perfect, funny, and so totally us. She gave me the paper of her speech so I can include it in the beautiful scrapbook that Hope made us as our gift. Jaclyn also improvised her speech a tiny bit by including calling me Dennis. Nobody is going to let that go. What's even funnier is that we ran into our officiant at Tops on the Monday after the wedding and she told us that later the night of the wedding her daughter was at Hamlin Station (a restaurant) with someone else and somehow it came up that the other person mentioned that they were at a wedding that day where the officiant called the bride Dennis, so her daughter said Oh My God where was this because my mom did that today! It's funny how small of a town we live in.
Saturday night, Tim and I went back to The White Farm and stayed the night as it's a bed and breakfast. The room was adorable. We took my netbook and his nook with us, as well as our cards from the reception. We changed our relationship status on Facebook and opened our cards together. Then, I put on one of the sexy outfits that I bought and we consummated our marriage. There was something about it. It was so beautiful and intense.
Sunday morning we had a very light breakfast at The White Farm as my family was having brunch for my cousin before she left for school. We had fresh peaches with a few raspberries and I had a fresh, from scratch, blueberry muffin. I don't think I've ever had such delicious peaches in my life. We went home, showered and opened the remainder of our gifts together. My aunt got me a Taste of Home Baking cookbook, which I actually squealed at the site of, my uncle Dan MADE us a salt and pepper grinder set and it is so beautiful and works so much better than any other set I've ever used. One half a crank is pretty much all you need. My sister in law gave us this square white platter on which she had hand written the lyrics to our first dance song, it actually made Tim tear up. She also gave us two mugs, one says Bride and one says Groom. The B and G also have a dress and tux design with them. At brunch we had mostly left over food from the night before in addition to some hot dogs and breakfast foods like pancakes, vegetable strata and fried potatoes with onions. It was all delicious.
After brunch we went out to Grand Island to visit with some of Tim's family who were leaving early Monday morning. We had a lot of fun there as well. We had dinner at the Buffalo Roadhouse Grill while we were in Buffalo. Jaclyn had suggested it to me when I asked her for suggestions in Buffalo and someone else had mentioned it to me, too. We each had a cup of their famous Chicken Wing Soup, it was so good and not as spicy as it sounds. I got the Buffalo Chicken Pasta, which was a buffalo chicken strip over penne pasta with a creamy buffalo sauce. OMG so good. Tim had this Bootlegger pie. It was ...I forget what, it kinda looked like Chili but wasn't, served over mashed potatoes.
Monday we went to Bed Bath and Beyond and spent our gift cards from the shower and wedding, we had lunch at a cute little deli near where I work. We were going to go to the greek place that I love but they were closed. And then, after a little running around we went to The Cheesecake Factory where we got Fried Macaroni and Cheese balls as an appetizer, a Cuban Sandwich to share and two pieces of cheesecake. We got the Adam's Peanut Butter Fudge Ripple and the Tiramisu cheesecake. Everything was so so so good. We brought most of the Cuban home, along with the cheesecake, but we did try it at the restaurant.
Today we have just been relaxing and napping. We've had a very long few days and this rest day has been much needed. Tomorrow we plan on going to the Buffalo Zoo as it's not supposed to rain and it'll be in the upper 70's instead of mid 80's. I even convinced him to go on the Elephant with me and to get a picture of it! I'm so excited! So I should get to bed soon so we can go and be back by a decent time tomorrow. I should also charge my camera.
It has been a very blissful few days. I remember sitting at Jaclyn's reception in May thinking about how weird it all was. I was sitting there at her reception, she in her wedding dress, after witnessing their vows, but I still didn't feel like I was at a wedding and like she was married. I felt the exact same way at my own wedding. It felt like any other family party, not like a party for me/us. I think it was best that it seemed that way. It kept both of us from getting so nervous about speaking in front of everyone.
I truly could not be any happier.
