After the rehearsal dinner was finished, most people would have gone to bed, right? Beauty rest and all that? Well, Laura, JP and I went back to the house to construct the Smilebooth backdrop. (Thankfully I’d already pre-cut and measured the streamers, so all we had to do was throw.) At about 10 minutes to midnight, we realized something. JP was in the house, and we had to get him to the boys’ room at the hotel STAT. Groom turning into a pumpkin at midnight, the whole not-seeing-before-wedding thing and all that. (Yes, I do realize that we did a first look, but we had to keep some traditions alive, right?) I may or may not have broken several traffic laws to get him to the hotel by the stroke of midnight, but by golly if we didn’t shove him through those doors two minutes prior. With that out of the way, Laura and I went back home, called it quits on projects at 2 am, then slept like rocks. The next morning, we woke up at the butt crack of dawn, I ran in circles and tried to finish more projects while Laura chased me around. My stress level was clearly on the rise.
“YOU NEED TO SHOWER. Go. It’s 10:00 and we need to be at the hotel ASAP. Just breathe.”
So I did. I showered, and somehow, from some unknown place, a total calm washed over me. All of those usual Lauren stressed attributes? Totally gone. It is really hard to explain, as it is a feeling I’ve never felt before, save for that day. It honestly felt magical. I was filled with joy and on cloud nine. I was going to enjoy this day to the fullest. I was going to be a sponge, a rock, and the furthest thing from stressed. I hadn’t a care in the world, was surrounded by the people I loved, and it was our wedding day. Powerful stuff.
Laura and I loaded up my car, made complete fools out of ourselves while rocking out to some incredibly loud music, and safely arrived at the hotel. We unloaded everything into the suite with the rest of my bridesmaids. Shortly thereafter, Luke, my wonderful hair guy and great friend, arrived for hair-a-palooza 2k10. After a preliminary flat-ironing of my hair, he grabbed my camera while I wrote cards to my parents and we waited for our photographers and videographer to arrive.
I started off alright…
…but then cry number one hit while I was writing the note to my father.
I can proudly say that I only cried three times on our wedding day, and all three were brief and love-induced. No upset, no whine, no five-minute bawl, just an outpouring of emotion. I had figured I would be a teary mess the entire day. So, with one down, I finished writing my notes.
While I was writing, my mom, JP’s mom, and Laura were steaming my veil. My “Let’s just stick it in the shower and steam it up!” trick didn’t really work out too well. Thankfully mom had the foresight to bring along the handy-dandy steamer.
The girls’ dresses also waited patiently for their chance at a quick steam.
Meanwhile, poor Kristen had to use the minibar mirror because I bogarted all of the makeup counter space in the bathroom. Jerk bride.
I’m pretty sure at this point a really embarrassing or inappropriate song came on the shuffle, and Laura was an awesome MOH to run over and save my butt.
The ladies kept steaming away…
I swear they steamed my veil for a good hour or more. (Too bad it would only get smushed later!) Around this time, Mr. Odom, our videographer, and two of our photogs, Amber and Reagan, knocked on the door, and it was serious showtime!
How did you spend the early part of your wedding morning? Relaxing or trying to finish up last minute things?
*All photos in this post made by Luke, edited/processed by me.
Need to do some catching up in the recap department?
- I popped in to say hello a few days after the wedding.
- I showed off our awesome wedding video, which was subsequently publicized by Ashton Kutcher.
- The day before our wedding was entirely too hectic, and our rehearsal was almost foiled by a contact.
- I pulled it back together and had a blast at our awesome rehearsal dinner, starting with toasts and roasts, followed by us being handcuffed together, and ending with a good old fashioned beat down.
