Today is our two year wedding anniversary! We’re both taking the day off to celebrate two years of wedded bliss/happily tolerating one another.

In the meantime, enjoy this recap of our wedding ceremony, originally published shortly after we returned from our honeymoon.

***

First, the official stuff

Doug and Morgana signed as our witnesses –actually, we had tons of witnesses! Phil and Meredith picked up some pizzas for lunch, and none of the other rooms had chairs, so we had a crowd piled up in the bridal chambers eating lunch while we signed. It was crazy.

I didn’t eat any pizza – I was terrified of getting some on my dress! But my mom had packed up some finger foods for me – baby carrots, tortilla chips, cashew nuts. Thanks, mom 🙂 It was exactly what I needed.

Before long, the room cleared, leaving just me and my bridesmaids. I was nervous, more nervous than I thought I’d be. I remember pacing, but actually, I think I’d already put my heels on and was more catatonic than anything. Whatever.

Allegra looked at me and said “getting married isn’t hard, celebrities do it all the time.” She knows me too well, that girl. I felt much better after a good laugh.

And then it was time to get married, really this time!

Joel’s parents walked in first, then my mom and grandpa.

Then Joel and the men.

Then the ladies.

Joel chose “The Theme from Jurassic Park” as the processional music. My mother thought we meant this as a dig at our parents, so I’ll clarify – we like it because it’s a beautiful piece of music, and it’s about a grand adventure! Which, as I understand it, marriage is.

And then it was my turn.

My dad and I walked in to the heavy metal version of “Here Comes the Bride” – months beforehand I agonized over what to walk in to. We watched Wreck It Ralph sometime last spring, which includes a wedding scene with an electric guitar “Here Comes the Bride” and I said “that! That’s what I want!”

I’d like to add that during the rehearsal, our attendants did some mighty fine air guitaring to the song, but refrained when it came time for the actual ceremony.

After we made it down the aisle

Ron started with some words of welcome, and said a prayer.

I mentioned this in my post about the rehearsal dinner, but I’ll say it again – we were so glad to have Ron marrying us. I think his ceremony struck exactly the right tone – serious, but not somber; traditional, but not formal. We’d considered asking a friend to officiate, but ultimately, Joel wanted to be married by a minister, and I wanted to be married by someone who at the very least would not forget our names. (Have you been to one of those weddings where the minister forgets one of the couple’s names? So awkward.)

Ron said some words about marriage, and then we declared our intentions.

Then, Phil and Meredith got up to read

You may recall that we met Phil and Mere in January, on our trip to South Africa. We’ve since become close with them, and wanted them to be a part of our wedding. We considered asking them to be in the wedding party, but by then, it was so late in the game that it made more sense to ask them to read.

So we did what all good friends do, which was ask them to read, pick a reading without telling them, and then not bring it up again until the rehearsal. Yup.

Anyways, they read from Rob Sheffield’s Love Is A Mixtape, which is a book I read in college and thought of for the reading because Phil and Meredith have a copy on their bookshelf. Here’s the text:

“What is love? Great minds have been grappling with this question through the ages, and in the modern era, they have come up with many different answers. According to the Western philosopher Pat Benatar, love is a battlefield. Her paisan Frank Sinatra would add the corollary that love is a tender trap. The stoner kids who spent the summer of 1978 looking cool on the hoods of their Trans Ams in the Pierce Elementary School parking lot used to scare us little kids by blasting the Sweet hit “Love Is Like Oxygen”—you get too much, you get too high, not enough and you’re gonna die. Love hurts. Love stinks. Love bites, love bleeds, love is the drug. The troubadours of our times all agree: They want to know what love is, and they want you to show them.

But the answer is simple. Love is a mix tape.”

I’ll be straight with you – I spent a few sleepless nights worrying that our reading would be a little too out there, maybe a little too depressing, not quite wedding appropriate.

But Phil and Meredith did an awesome job, got a few laughs, and then Ron wove it in perfectly to his ceremony – talking about how love is a feeling, but marriage is a promise.

And then we made our promises

We ended up using the standard vows:

“I, Jennie, take you Joel to be my husband. I promise, before these witnesses, to be your loving and faithful wife; in plenty and in want; in joy and in sorrow; in sickness and in health; as long as we both shall live.”

We kissed.

Then we got the heck out of there!

Yesterday was our first wedding anniversary!

If you want to read all about our wedding, I documented it in great detail last fall.

The first wedding anniversary theme is “paper” so I gave Joel paperback copies of Shift and Dust, the second and third books from the Wool series. I also quoted “is paper?” from my favorite scene from Borat, which I’m sure he found endearing and not annoying in the slightest.

We went back and forth about the best way to celebrate – we plotted and schemed and made all manner of ludicrous plans, but in the end, we had a low key day revisiting some memories from when we first met.

We started out with coffee at Cupcake Royale, where we went on our very first date. Then we did a little shopping, and went to the movies.

For dinner, we had Thai food from a restaurant in Wallingford, which we went to in the first few weeks we were dating. They make (seriously) the best pad Thai and mix it table side, and on that occasion our waiter mixed it with his bare hands. We have since referred to it as “the place where the guy touched our food.” (Thankfully, the waiter used utensils when we went yesterday.)

We didn’t bother to save any cupcakes from the wedding, because why eat year-old cupcakes when you can go back to the bakery and buy fresh cupcakes?

To go with our cupcakes, we (finally) cracked a bottle of champagne that we were given when we got engaged. And while we enjoyed our dessert, we watched The Comedians of Comedy, which Joel gave me for my birthday the first year we were dating.

This is the last of my wedding recap posts!

I’m sure that for some of you, this is welcome news. If you missed any, here are the links:

• The Saga of the Dress
• The Bachelorette Party
• The Rehearsal Dinner
• The First Look
• The Ceremony
• The Reception

Today is about all the little details that consumed my attention over the past year, but didn’t quite fit in with the other recap posts.

Firstly, and most importantly, the shoes

I say most importantly because out of all the wedding things, what I heard about most was the shoes!

You may not know this, but Joel is way more into shoes than I am – and that’s saying something! He’s wanted a pair of custom Chuck Taylors for some time, and decided to design some for himself and his groomsmen.

He wanted something the boys could wear again – subtle, but still special. You can’t see it in the pics, but the wedding date was embroidered in cerulean blue on the back. He also gave his guys the bright argyle socks they all wore.

***

As I was pouring myself a cup of coffee at the reception, one of the waitstaff at the Inn pulled me aside to tell me how much she loved the green heels the ladies and I wore.

“That was one of the most stylish things I’ve seen at any of the weddings we’ve seen here,” she told me. And they have plenty of weddings there!

It’s kind of funny, because I didn’t put nearly as much effort into the shoes as Joel did. I googled green shoes, sent a couple of options to Allegra and Morgana not at all expecting them to be wearing exactly the same shoes. As it turned out, they both agreed on that pair, so I ordered the same … I never would have guessed they’d be such a hit.

And as far as heels go, these were pretty comfortable and easy to walk in. Allegra and I both changed into sandals during the reception, but Morgana was intrepid and made it all night in her heels. I was impressed.

Game on

Another fun thing that came together really well was our guest book. Joel and I agreed that we didn’t want a traditional guest book because it would be something we’d look at once and then put on a shelf and never look at again. But what to do instead?

I wanted to do something game related, since we knew we’d be playing board/card games at the reception, and Joel realized we could buy blank cards for one of our favorite games, Munchkin.

The Munchkin cards turned out so great – most people wrote funny messages for us, but we got a few fun additions for our set, and some excellent drawings from the kids who were there 🙂

Comic books were harmed in the making of this wedding

Sometime back in December, I strung together two crazy ideas from the wedding inspiration site I most loved (The Offbeat Bride.) One bride made her groom a boutonniere cut from pages of comic books. And I loved the bouquets of origami flowers.

“What if,” I thought to myself “we made origami flowers out of comic books?!”

Back in December, it seemed like a good idea. But then we procrastinated until, you know, a month before the wedding, and folding a hundred flowers seemed crazy and also, oh so important! I’m not sure why I was so attached to the idea, but they ended up being so beautiful. If I’m being totally honest, they turned out much better than I anticipated 😉

We made about 50 of varying sizes and sent them to the florist for bouquets and boutonnieres, corsages and centerpieces. I loved the way she integrated them in with the cut flowers.

We didn’t have a plan for the escort cards, and my mom said “well, what if we just make another 50 comic book flowers?!” So we did. I spent countless hours folding, but it would not have come together without all the help from Allegra, my mom, Auntie Barb, and Meredith.

While she was at it, Allegra also fashioned these adorable comic book pinwheels for the centerpieces at the rehearsal dinner.

***

Our florist encouraged (or, I should say, strongly recommended) finding more ways to incorporate the comic book motif throughout the wedding. I’m really glad she did so because up to that point, all of my wedding ideas seemed very “throw it against the wall and see what sticks” so having comic books throughout made it feel intentional. And classy – can I say the comic books were classy? Mom might disagree, but I thought it was.

I found the Batman tie clip that Joel wore on Etsy.

And he designed and built this terrific cupcake stand with help from Phil. They originally came up with a very elaborate, lighted design, but time was limited, and this simplified version came together in just a couple of evenings. I loved the final results. (Also, more kudos to the staff at the Inn who set out the cupcakes; they did terrific work.)

Lastly, the Batman and Catwoman cake toppers were another thing that turned out better than I expected. I didn’t want the traditional bride and groom, but we found these toys on Amazon, and one of my coworkers tracked down the little metal skewer things that went into the cake. I wish I could take credit for this, but it was another Offbeat Bride-inspired idea.

I was happy to see that the cupcake stand and escort cards ended up being shared on Facebook, Twitter, AND Instagram! Feel free to Pin and G+ these so I can say my wedding was shared on all the major social media networks!

And that concludes the wedding posts

Thanks for sticking with me through eight weeks of wedding posts. I know that most of you reading this were there, so reading my 5000+ word recaps of the wedding might be a little boring. As my aunt put it: “you can describe the wedding in just one word – awesome!” Thanks, Auntie 🙂

There are a few more honeymoon recaps coming your way, then we’re back to your regularly scheduled programming.

After the ceremony, Joel and I disappeared to let everyone move over to the patio for cocktail hour. We intentionally carved out about fifteen minutes to ourselves after the ceremony, which I imagined we’d end up sitting together, giddy about finally being married and giggling.

What actually happened was we finally got a chance to use the bathroom (you know it’s a crazy day when you don’t get to relieve yourself.) Joel took off and hung up his suit jacket, and I repined his boutonniere onto his vest. Then, we tracked down Doug, who was to introduce us.

And we made our grand debut!

Honestly, this was one of my favorite moments of the day. It was the first chance I had to actually look around at all the people who’d come to celebrate with us, and everyone was happy and clapping … and all we’d really done was walked in and repeated some words that Ron said and kissed! Allegra was right; getting married is easy.

Since we’d done all our portraits earlier in the day, we got to hang out and enjoy our cocktail hour, which was awesome. Also, the staff at the Inn was so terrific – there was one waitperson assigned to me and Joel and she made sure we had food and drinks, put my bouquet in water for me, and just generally kept us happy all night.

I made an effort to talk to as many of the relatives as I could – getting hugs and hearing everyone tell me how beautiful it looked did not get old! – so I did not feel guilty staying in my seat and enjoying dinner rather than going around to the tables and mingling.

But first, the toasts

I held it together all day (which wasn’t difficult, I felt excited and a little nervous, but never weepy) but I tell you, the minute my dad got up to speak, I got all choked up. Dad gave the most perfect toast – he told a few jokes (“when I saw Jennie in her dress earlier, I felt my eyes well up … you’d cry too, if you were paying for that dress!” Haha, thanks Dad 🙂 ), he told a story about the day I was born, he said nice things about Joel, and Joel’s parents, and my grandpa, and my mom … it was great, Dad. Thank you.

And then, as if I weren’t emotional enough already, Morgana got up to toast. I wish I remembered more of the sweet things she had to say, but I was focusing most of my energy on not.crying. What I remember of it was lovely, though. Cheers!

Then Doug got up and lightened the mood with “I’ll say what I want said at my wedding. Dingle finch. But besides the obvious …”

Haha, so funny. All three toasts were so great.

Time to eat

The Inn at Ship Bay is known for the best food on Orcas Island – our meal did not disappoint! We had salads with goat cheese and hazelnuts and edible flowers. Then the main course, of course. No photos of dinner – everyone was too busy enjoying their food 🙂

Then it was time for cake – instead of the traditional cake cutting, we had a ceremonial cupcake unwrapping.

I took a tiny, dainty bite, and Joel took a half-cupcake sized bite. The cupcakes were, of course, from Haley’s Corner Bakery, and lucky for us, there were tons left over after the wedding. My parents, Ben and Robin, and Joel and I ended up each going home with a couple dozen cupcakes! You better believe Joel and I packed some for snacks on the plane ride to New York.

You can’t outlaw dancing

So … I know that dancing is supposedly important for wedding receptions, but Joel and I are not dancers. We tried really hard not to have dancing, and set out some board and card games instead.

For the record, when we were getting organized for the wedding, I included all of our, er, normal games (Clue, Scrabble, Scattergories, decks of cards … things like that.) As it turned out, only our rather weird games ended up making it to the island. Sorry about that. Thanks to everyone for humoring us, but I realize that not all the games we brought seemed appealing.

Since the games were a bust, we got karaoke started a little earlier than intended. And once the music got started, dancing quickly followed. The karaoke perhaps broke up the party a little earlier than anticipated, but there were ferries to catch, and children whose bedtimes were approaching.

A group of us ended up sitting outside long after the sun had set, playing Cards Against Humanity, the card game for horrible people. It’s funny, because I’d told Joel not to pack Cards Against Humanity because I was worried it would be too offensive – but it turned out to be the only game that was played! Go figure.

***

There’s just one wedding recap post left. In next week’s post: The Little Details …

And then it was time to get married!

First, the official stuff

Doug and Morgana signed as our witnesses –actually, we had tons of witnesses! Phil and Meredith picked up some pizzas for lunch, and none of the other rooms had chairs, so we had a crowd piled up in the bridal chambers eating lunch while we signed. It was crazy.

I didn’t eat any pizza – I was terrified of getting some on my dress! But my mom had packed up some finger foods for me – baby carrots, tortilla chips, cashew nuts. Thanks, mom 🙂 It was exactly what I needed.

Before long, the room cleared, leaving just me and my bridesmaids. I was nervous, more nervous than I thought I’d be. I remember pacing, but actually, I think I’d already put my heels on and was more catatonic than anything. Whatever.

Allegra looked at me and said “getting married isn’t hard, celebrities do it all the time.” She knows me too well, that girl. I felt much better after a good laugh.

And then it was time to get married, really this time!

Joel’s parents walked in first, then my mom and grandpa.

Then Joel and the men.

Then the ladies.

Joel chose “The Theme from Jurassic Park” as the processional music. My mother thought we meant this as a dig at our parents, so I’ll clarify – we like it because it’s a beautiful piece of music, and it’s about a grand adventure! Which, as I understand it, marriage is.

And then it was my turn.

My dad and I walked in to the heavy metal version of “Here Comes the Bride” – months beforehand I agonized over what to walk in to. We watched Wreck It Ralph sometime last spring, which includes a wedding scene with an electric guitar “Here Comes the Bride” and I said “that! That’s what I want!”

I’d like to add that during the rehearsal, our attendants did some mighty fine air guitaring to the song, but refrained when it came time for the actual ceremony.

After we made it down the aisle

Ron started with some words of welcome, and said a prayer.

I mentioned this in my post about the rehearsal dinner, but I’ll say it again – we were so glad to have Ron marrying us. I think his ceremony struck exactly the right tone – serious, but not somber; traditional, but not formal. We’d considered asking a friend to officiate, but ultimately, Joel wanted to be married by a minister, and I wanted to be married by someone who at the very least would not forget our names. (Have you been to one of those weddings where the minister forgets one of the couple’s names? So awkward.)

Ron said some words about marriage, and then we declared our intentions.

Then, Phil and Meredith got up to read

You may recall that we met Phil and Mere in January, on our trip to South Africa. We’ve since become close with them, and wanted them to be a part of our wedding. We considered asking them to be in the wedding party, but by then, it was so late in the game that it made more sense to ask them to read.

So we did what all good friends do, which was ask them to read, pick a reading without telling them, and then not bring it up again until the rehearsal. Yup.

Anyways, they read from Rob Sheffield’s Love Is A Mixtape, which is a book I read in college and thought of for the reading because Phil and Meredith have a copy on their bookshelf. Here’s the text:

“What is love? Great minds have been grappling with this question through the ages, and in the modern era, they have come up with many different answers. According to the Western philosopher Pat Benatar, love is a battlefield. Her paisan Frank Sinatra would add the corollary that love is a tender trap. The stoner kids who spent the summer of 1978 looking cool on the hoods of their Trans Ams in the Pierce Elementary School parking lot used to scare us little kids by blasting the Sweet hit “Love Is Like Oxygen”—you get too much, you get too high, not enough and you’re gonna die. Love hurts. Love stinks. Love bites, love bleeds, love is the drug. The troubadours of our times all agree: They want to know what love is, and they want you to show them.

But the answer is simple. Love is a mix tape.”

I’ll be straight with you – I spent a few sleepless nights worrying that our reading would be a little too out there, maybe a little too depressing, not quite wedding appropriate.

But Phil and Meredith did an awesome job, got a few laughs, and then Ron wove it in perfectly to his ceremony – talking about how love is a feeling, but marriage is a promise.

And then we made our promises

We ended up using the standard vows:

“I, Jennie, take you Joel to be my husband. I promise, before these witnesses, to be your loving and faithful wife; in plenty and in want; in joy and in sorrow; in sickness and in health; as long as we both shall live.”

We kissed.

Then we got the heck out of there!

***

In next week’s post: The Reception …

So now we’ve arrived at the part of our story that’s what you’ve been waiting for – the wedding day! Brace yourselves!

After breakfast on Saturday morning, I booted Joel out of the bridal chambers so that the ladies could take over and get ready.

One of my coworkers was a wedding planner and advised me to allow twice as much time as I thought I would need – and about fifteen minutes into it, I understood her advice! Not only did it take me longer than usual, but I was interrupted pretty often by, say, Joel coming by to collect something he’d forgotten, my mom coming by to check on me, the florist coming by to drop off bouquets … I’d allowed about two hours and fifteen minutes for getting ready and we needed every minute of it!

While the ladies were in our chambers beautifying ourselves, Joel and his parents, Auntie Barb and Uncle Gene, our family friends Tim and Diane, and the staff of the Inn were busy setting up. It turned out better than I imagined. I can be a little controlling sometimes, maybe, just a little, perhaps … and it was hard for me to step back and let everyone else take over what I’d envisioned.

As it was, I didn’t need to worry at all – I didn’t do a thing, and it all came together perfectly, AND everyone was ready in time to do pictures before the ceremony! So awesome, you guys. It feels a little insincere to thank you in a blog post, but really, genuinely, 1000 times thank you.

My favorite part of this picture is that, if you look closely, you can see Doug and Joel getting dressed outside on the balcony. I asked Joel about it later, and he explained that it was too hot in the room!

So after the ladies were ready, Joel and I had our “first look” at the bottom of the stairs to the bridal chambers (I know it’s called the bridal suite, but chambers sounds more regal.)

I set aside Joel’s boutonniere and tie clip because I wanted to put them on him myself. A little silly, but I’m so glad we were organized enough to do this. I love these photos.

(And yes, I know a tie clip doesn’t need to be that high up on the chest, but this was mostly about fashion, not function.)

What I didn’t realize was that I would also be charged with pinning boutonnieres on the other guys, too! I am a pro, now.

I hope I’m not inundating you with photos – there are tons more, check them out on my wedding page (you can see them bigger there, too!)

***

In next week’s post: The Ceremony …

When we found what would become our wedding venue, The Inn at Ship Bay, one of the selling points was that we had to book two nights there, meaning we would already be at the Inn to have the rehearsal on the day before the wedding.

It was always Joel’s and my intention to have the dinner after the rehearsal at the Inn’s restaurant. But then we realized it was outside our budget. Not like, oh a little more than we wanted to spend. Like, we don’t even have the credit card limits to make that happen.

So we started thinking about Plan B.

Before I tell you what Plan B was, let me go back and say, the number one selling point when we decided to get married at the Inn at Ship Bay was its location in the San Juan Islands. My family has been vacationing there since I was about 2, and my parents have property up there. Obviously, it’s a very beloved place for me.

So we started entertaining the idea of having our rehearsal dinner at my parents’ nearby property.

It’s another one of those things that, hindsight being 20/20, I would have done entirely differently. I ended up cooking and chopping and assembling much of the night – now I understand why most people have these things catered! Mom and Dad ended up working all night, also. But it came together so nicely, and our guests were so thrilled to see the island. It’s such a lovely place.

My memories of Friday are kind of wacky – I only managed about an hour of sleep the night before, thanks to my nerves and anticipation. I tried, I really tried, not to go bridezilla all over everyone’s asses, but it was kind of hard to be my best self under these circumstances. If you were on the receiving end of any amount of bridezilla, I’m sorry.

This was one of only a couple times I played the “it’s my wedding day and we do things my way!” card – I asked the ladies wear the heels we’d be wearing the next day, and I insisted the boys set up the PA system so that we could practice with music and the microphone. Lucky for me, several people (including our officiant) agreed. It took a little more time to get organized, but it made the wedding itself run like clockwork.

Another word on Ron, our officiant – I was so, so glad that we’d chosen someone who’s officiated many weddings to marry us. He knew exactly how to organize the rehearsal and had so many good suggestions.

Okay, enough blathering, get to the pictures!

After the rehearsal, we piled up into cars to drive across the island to catch the boat to my parents’ place.

Joel and I were immediately put to work, while my dad gave the other guests a tour. Rudy, our photographer, was particularly enamored of the old cabin. It was so fun to see the pictures he took. We ended up having a very casual barbecue – with lots of hard cider 🙂

Joel watched for sea lions.

It was an early night – Joel and I made sure to be on the first boatload back to Orcas because we still had things to get ready for the next day!

But several, including Rudy, stayed behind to catch the beautiful sunset.

***

In next week’s post: The First Look …

Like everything else about our wedding, my bachelorette party came together at the last possible moment. (I had a mini-meltdown about that, too.) But it ended up being a blast, and I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.

The thing no one told me when I chose Allegra and Morgana as my maids of honor was that when one of your maids is under 21, and the other lives on the opposite side of the country, you’ll have to do a bit of the grunt work to make your own bachelorette party happen if you want it to happen.

I don’t mean this as a complaint – having a bachelorette party isn’t life and death (obvs), and I’m grateful that I had one at all. But thinking back to the weekend in Disneyland (when Joel was hosting his brother’s bachelor party) Meredith kept asking what I wanted to do for my bachelorette party – in retrospect, she would’ve happily helped to plan it, and I severely misunderestimated how much I would actually have to do in the week before the wedding.

(I feel like I need to explain myself: my maids of honor are the best, and I’m glad I chose to give both ladies the title – there’s a lot included with the position! As it was, Allegra spent a significant part of August helping to make origami flowers and getting organized for the rehearsal dinner, and held Joel’s wedding band during the ceremony; Morgana helped plan the party even from all the way across the country, and gave the toast at the reception. I was glad to have them both with me.)

Enough of my rambling, let’s talk about the party.

After my last, frantic dress fitting, I rushed back to West Seattle to let someone else take over at the wheel.

The thing no one tells you about wedding planning is that you lose your $h!t the week before the big day. Earlier that day, I was pretty sure I’d lost my car in the parking garage (nope, I’d just forgotten that Allegra and I traded cars, so I’d been looking for the wrong car.) Now I understand why brides need someone to drive them around everywhere.

So, Meredith drove me up to HOA Salon, where we met up with Allegra and Morgana for some mani/pedis.

Then we headed over to 50 North for dinner. I picked it because I’d heard they had plenty of gluten-free options and I’d been wanting to try it for a while, and it was relatively close to the nail salon. It was a great spot! I had GF fish and chips (not something I get to eat often – actually, the last time I had them was on our engage-acation!) and a bubbly pink drink.

I should mention that Morgana picked out a sash for me, and (thankfully) a classy one at that. It says, simply, “Bride to Be” and “Bachelorette.” Thank you, Morgana, for picking the sash you did!

I wish I had more pictures to show you, but I only took two all night! I recreated this just for the blog 🙂

Actually, we skipped most of the tacky bachelorette party clichés – there were no penis-related gifts, no “last night as a single lady” jokes – it was awesome! I did get one rather racy gift from Erica, but she also gave me the blue jacket that I ended up wearing the entire wedding weekend, and all over New York City. It was the perfect thing. I have a great group of friends who are all classy ladies.

It was kind of a funny mix of ladies who came out, and most of them had never met before that night. I was a little worried they wouldn’t get along and I’d feel pressure to be the center of conversation all evening, but that didn’t happen at all. It was a great time.

After dinner, Allegra took off and the rest of us headed across the street to the bar at The Ram. Meredith ordered a root beer float with a shot of whiskey, and the float was so tall she couldn’t reach the straw!

I had a 7&7 and considered asking for a shot of ice cream to go with it, but ended up wimping out. Oh, well. There were plenty of tasty desserts to come that weekend.

And at about 11 o’clock, we called it a night! It was very low-key, but, like I said, a blast.

***

In next week’s post: The Rehearsal Dinner …

Over the weekend, I sat down at my computer, opened a blank word document, and started writing about the wedding.

Thirteen pages later, I realized I had a lot to say!

I envisioned writing two, maybe three recap posts. But since I have so many details I want to remember and behind-the-scenes stories I want to share, even after paring down the less-interesting parts of the story, clearly I’ll be posting more recaps than I originally intended!

So that you don’t get too bored/overwhelmed with wedding posts, I’m going to post one every Wednesday for the next several (many) weeks. Fridays I’ll post honeymoon recaps, and Mondays will be wildcards.

Enough boring stuff, let’s talk about the wedding!

There’s no better place to start than …

The Saga of the Dress

The week before our wedding was highly stressful and flew by in a rush of last minute to-dos. If I’m being totally honest, I had a few mini-meltdowns. Getting married suddenly seemed like the worst idea we’d ever had.

But one thing plagued me more than anything else … my wedding dress.

Not long after Joel and I got engaged, I read on theknot.com that brides should start dress shopping at least 9 months before the wedding. That seemed way too early to me (and my mom agreed) so I put it off for a while. And then, because I’d gotten so good at it, I put it off a little bit more.

Finally, in May, when I could put it off no longer, I made myself an appointment at the Wedding Suite at the downtown Seattle Nordstrom with the intention of going in and choosing a dress that day.

Crazy, I’m sure, but the clock was ticking. And actually, the dress I chose was the first one I tried on. I tried on others, of course, but I hoped for an ivory, tea-length dress that wasn’t strapless, and even though this wasn’t exactly what I’d envisioned, it was exactly what I wanted.

What it looked like in the Nordstrom fitting rooms, pre-alterations.

So here’s what happened: the expected delivery date for the dress was eight weeks out, but we asked for a rush order of six weeks – the dress was to be completed on July 15th, leaving four weeks for alterations. No problem, the saleslady said. Four weeks is more than enough time, she said.

July 15th came and went. No dress.

August 1st came and went. Still no dress. This was when I started to worry, and started making daily phone calls to my saleslady: “is my dress here yet? No? How about now?”

To go back in time several months, on the night Joel proposed, he made me pinky promise that I would not turn into a bridezilla, and I held myself to that … except in the case of the dress. I tried, I really tried, not to be an enormous b!+ch to the saleslady, but when your wedding’s in two weeks and your dress hasn’t even shipped yet … you go a little crazy. In an ironic turn of events, Joel later said I was too nice and should have been more of a bridezilla in the case of the dress.

Exactly a week before the wedding, the dress finally arrived and I had my first fitting. And the dress that showed up was completely different from the sample dress that I’d tried on! It looked the same, but the bodice had boning and the skirt had more layers … it was a little strange, and meant that the alterations were much more complicated than any of us expected.

The seamstress who ended up working on my dress was amazing, though, and made the dress fit me perfectly. All in all, I ended up having three fittings, and didn’t walk out of the store with my dress until 4:30 on August 22 – as in, two days before the wedding, 30 minutes before my bachelorette party started. It was insane.

Here’s the dress looking amazing post-alterations. Thanks Auntie Barb for sharing your photos with me!

It added much unnecessary stress, but I felt great in my dress and it looked awesome. I’m so glad it made it in time for the occasion!

I haven’t quite decided what to do with the dress post-wedding. I’ll have it cleaned for sure, then I’m considering donating or selling it. It’s a little heartbreaking to think of parting with it, but it’s even more heartbreaking to imagine the dress sitting untouched in my closet for years, because, really, am I ever going to wear it again?!

Plus, I don’t feel the need to keep it as a memento as I have the shoes, sash, headband, and necklace that I wore during the wedding that I will definitely wear again. And one other thought – I have 8 or 10 inches of material that was cut from the hem of the dress, and those scraps could be made into a special wedding keepsake, say a little handbag or clutch purse for special occasions.

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In next week’s post: The Bachelorette Party …