This week's Real-life Thursday features the "Momentous Occasions" of our lives. Looking back at my life up until now, I would say that I have had four momentous occasions: (1) meeting and eventually dating my now husband, (2) being proposed to, (3) getting married, and (4) giving birth to my daughter, Livers. Because I do not have pictures of one and two, I will talk about the other two momentous occasions of my life.
Getting Married.
We got married on June 25, 2005. J and I had been together for three and a half years at this point, and we were finally ready and very excited. The two days before and the day of the wedding were, to date, the most exciting and enjoyable of my entire life. We got married at a beach on the Carolina coast. We didn't expect a lot of our family and friends to make it when we sent out invitations, because it was a destination wedding, and most people would have to travel at least five hours. To our surprise a huge number of people RSVPed, including most of his very large Catholic family in Ohio. It was wonderful, because we got to see a lot of people we rarely see and catch up.
The meeting place where both sides of the family met up for three days was at the only hotel at this beach. It had an oceanfront bar with lots of personality: open air, bright colors, a nightly band, pool-adjacent. It was so much fun. Everyone got along beautifully, and we all enjoyed having a few drinks and getting know each other. Our rehearsal dinner was held in the restaurant above the bar, and afterwards the wedding party congregated at the bar for a second night of fun. As the night went on more and more wedding guests arrived at the beach and decided to meet us at this bar. It was so much fun! Many of J's good friends from his life showed up, so it was a huge reunion of the various people's we've known in our lives. One of his friends even brought a huge box of Fudge Rounds, an inside joke from his three college roommates. It was quite obvious to the other bargoers that this was a wedding group, and we were getting congratulations all around. One of the most touching moments was when an older gentleman and his wife came up to us asking about the wedding and offering their congratulations, and the man went up to the band and they let him sing a song to us. Totally unexpected but lovely and memorable.
When I awoke on my wedding day I was in preparation mode. I got breakfast, showered, beautified, and dressed to wait for the hairdresser to come. Many brides are very nervous and teary-eyed on their wedding day, but I wasn't at the least. In fact everyone said that I was one of the calmest brides that they'd ever seen. After I had my hair done--one hour before I had to be at the church--I was even standing in the kitchen eating fried chicken legs. My husband was the nervous one, and it didn't make it any better that the tuxedo company had not packed the bowtie. Someone from the shop had to drive it thirty minutes down to him, and luckily it reached him in time.
I started to get a little jittery when I arrived at the church, but I was in go-time mode. I was excited--I'd been wanting to marry Jeremy ever since we started dating--and wanted the show on the road. I was a little upset, because while waiting in the hallway to walk into the church I could hear it pouring down rain outside, but I took it in stride and waited for my dad to walk me down the aisle.
We had a Catholic wedding, which meant it was guaranteed to be long. Not a Full Mass, since my family isn't Catholic, but still a good forty-five minutes. It flew by, though. For the most part it was your "typical" ceremony, except when I nearly tripped walking up to the altar (only a couple of people noticed), my cousin dropped her reading glasses when reading the prayer, and the priest got the details of my profession wrong (I remember looking at my cousin with a confused look on my face). I loved when we exchanged rings, because we did this thing where we said "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," and we would gently slip the ring on the index, middle, and then ring finger, and when the priest, who was VERY Irish, gave us an unexpected and beautiful Irish blessing at the very end. I wish we had filmed the wedding in retrospect, but we didn't and will have to rely on our memories.
After a good hour of picture-taking after the ceremony we headed to our reception, otherwise known as the best party I've ever been to. J had gotten his groomsmen sunglasses and pimp LCD belt buckles that they wore when being introduced, which got a laugh. The place was beautifully decorated, with candles, rose petals, and flowers. We were economical and used the flowers from the church at the reception hall.
I was very worried about how the music at the reception would go, because the DJs had to be changed at the last minute. Our original DJ had an emergency come up and recommended his friend, also a DJ. We met the day before the wedding to discuss our plans for music, and I gave him a list of songs to hear and for what event, and a list of other songs we wanted to play. My worries were luckily fruitless, because he was absolutely amazing. We danced our first dance to a song called "Closer to Me" by a local band we fell in love with while dating named Claire and Bain Maple Yum Yum. I had chosen the father-daughter dance to be "More Than a Woman" by the Bee Gees because my dad always loved them, and it was a huge surprise of a dance. I had expected the typical dance, but my dad, who is NOT the dancer, decided to through caution to the wind and go all disco. He spun me, twirled me, moved me all around the floor. I wasn't even drunk, and it was one of the best dances ever! Everyone was shocked at the dance but absolutely tickled, because it was actually REALLY good! I just wish that I had a video! The DJ was also very attentive to the list of music I'd given him. My grandmother went to Duke and is a HUGE fan, and I thought she would get tickled if he played their fight song. He actually spent the time to find it and played it for her, and she loved it. He made sure to play "Hang On Sloopy" for the huge number of (the) Ohio State fans in the house.
The food was wonderful. I did get to eat some, but I was having too much fun talking to everyone at the reception. The cake was beautiful as well, and it was hands-down the best cake I've ever eaten. People to this day still talk about it. We had champagne flutes for the first toast, but there was no choreography for this by the hall's staff, so we had no champagne to toast.
After the formalities the dancing started again. Everyone was drinking and having such a good time. My cousin, not without drink in hand the entire night, busted out into an impromptu dance when Michael Jackson came on, and everyone got a huge kick out of it, because he was GOOD. I got so hot from dancing that I had to scour around and find pins to put my hair up. (I sweat a lot and get really red in the face when I dance.) One of my favorite party songs from college was Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back", and the DJ played it for me as I sung every word...in my wedding dress...choreographed motions, including ones for "my anaconda don't want none if you ain't got buns hon", and all. Later in the night he also played more disco, and my dad came up me and we ended up dancing another disco just as good as the first.
Later came the garter and bouquet toss. My husband and I had long ago thought it would be funny if we did a twist on the garter toss by having him pull a menagerie of things out from under my dress. We told no one of this to make it more funny, so a couple of days before the wedding we hit up a typical tourist beach store and got things like handcuffs, a kitten stuffed animal, a crab, and a scuba diver. We tried to find things that would be really funny and have slightly kinky meanings. A little before the toss we went to a backroom and he helped me strap these things to my garter, and let me tell you, keeping them on was HARD. They stayed on, and it was one of the funniest parts of the wedding. The little kids really enjoyed it, too, because it was free toys for them. I had to do my bouquet toss twice, because the first time I threw it to hard and hit the ceiling.
Finally the reception wound down. We both attended the same college and wanted it to be a part of the reception, so the last song was the our school's fight song, and all alumni at the reception moved to the floor to sing the fight song. It was hilarious.
After the reception we went to change and then congregated again at the oceanfront bar for a few more hours of togetherness. After most people left all of our friends went on the beach and went swimming in the ocean in the dark. It was truly the most magical night and few days of my entire life, and I would give anything to be able to live them again.
The First Time I Saw Livers.
I did a scrapbook page about this awhile back. This is written to Livers from me.
"You were born on January 2nd, 2007 by a Cesarean-section. Mommy had planned to give birth with an epidural, but after 12 hours she was in too much pain and too tired to go any more so Dr. Sikes decided to give Mommy a C-Section. She went in for surgery around 10:30, but things didn’t go as planned. Mommy was supposed to be awake for surgery so Daddy could be with her when Livy was born, but the spinals did not take. Because of this the doctor had to put Mommy under general anesthesia, which meant she would be completely asleep, Daddy couldn’t be with us, and we couldn’t be with you the moment you were born. When Mommy was put under it didn’t take but about 20 minutes for you to be born, and finally at 11:03 PM you arrived! Mommy, though, because of her surgery, had to wait to recover before she could meet you. When she woke up she groggily asked Daddy and Nana all sorts of questions about you, like if you grabbed Daddy’s finger, how big you were, and who you looked like. Mommy finally was rolled back into her room at around 1 AM, and shortly thereafter they finally wheeled you into the room so she could meet you. Mommy couldn’t believe how incredibly beautiful and tiny you were! You had been in her tummy for 9 months, and it seemed almost surreal that you were finally here and that she could hold you. She was afraid to hold you a bit, because you were so delicate-looking that she thought you would break. You were kind of groggy, but you did open your eyes and look at me and around the room. Mommy tried to breastfeed you, but you didn’t really seem interested (and wouldn’t for many days). You stayed in her arms for a few minutes, but she was tired (and you were, too) so the nurse put you in your crib to sleep. It was the best moment of your Mommy’s life.
Getting Married.
We got married on June 25, 2005. J and I had been together for three and a half years at this point, and we were finally ready and very excited. The two days before and the day of the wedding were, to date, the most exciting and enjoyable of my entire life. We got married at a beach on the Carolina coast. We didn't expect a lot of our family and friends to make it when we sent out invitations, because it was a destination wedding, and most people would have to travel at least five hours. To our surprise a huge number of people RSVPed, including most of his very large Catholic family in Ohio. It was wonderful, because we got to see a lot of people we rarely see and catch up.
The meeting place where both sides of the family met up for three days was at the only hotel at this beach. It had an oceanfront bar with lots of personality: open air, bright colors, a nightly band, pool-adjacent. It was so much fun. Everyone got along beautifully, and we all enjoyed having a few drinks and getting know each other. Our rehearsal dinner was held in the restaurant above the bar, and afterwards the wedding party congregated at the bar for a second night of fun. As the night went on more and more wedding guests arrived at the beach and decided to meet us at this bar. It was so much fun! Many of J's good friends from his life showed up, so it was a huge reunion of the various people's we've known in our lives. One of his friends even brought a huge box of Fudge Rounds, an inside joke from his three college roommates. It was quite obvious to the other bargoers that this was a wedding group, and we were getting congratulations all around. One of the most touching moments was when an older gentleman and his wife came up to us asking about the wedding and offering their congratulations, and the man went up to the band and they let him sing a song to us. Totally unexpected but lovely and memorable.
When I awoke on my wedding day I was in preparation mode. I got breakfast, showered, beautified, and dressed to wait for the hairdresser to come. Many brides are very nervous and teary-eyed on their wedding day, but I wasn't at the least. In fact everyone said that I was one of the calmest brides that they'd ever seen. After I had my hair done--one hour before I had to be at the church--I was even standing in the kitchen eating fried chicken legs. My husband was the nervous one, and it didn't make it any better that the tuxedo company had not packed the bowtie. Someone from the shop had to drive it thirty minutes down to him, and luckily it reached him in time.
I started to get a little jittery when I arrived at the church, but I was in go-time mode. I was excited--I'd been wanting to marry Jeremy ever since we started dating--and wanted the show on the road. I was a little upset, because while waiting in the hallway to walk into the church I could hear it pouring down rain outside, but I took it in stride and waited for my dad to walk me down the aisle.
We had a Catholic wedding, which meant it was guaranteed to be long. Not a Full Mass, since my family isn't Catholic, but still a good forty-five minutes. It flew by, though. For the most part it was your "typical" ceremony, except when I nearly tripped walking up to the altar (only a couple of people noticed), my cousin dropped her reading glasses when reading the prayer, and the priest got the details of my profession wrong (I remember looking at my cousin with a confused look on my face). I loved when we exchanged rings, because we did this thing where we said "In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit," and we would gently slip the ring on the index, middle, and then ring finger, and when the priest, who was VERY Irish, gave us an unexpected and beautiful Irish blessing at the very end. I wish we had filmed the wedding in retrospect, but we didn't and will have to rely on our memories.
After a good hour of picture-taking after the ceremony we headed to our reception, otherwise known as the best party I've ever been to. J had gotten his groomsmen sunglasses and pimp LCD belt buckles that they wore when being introduced, which got a laugh. The place was beautifully decorated, with candles, rose petals, and flowers. We were economical and used the flowers from the church at the reception hall.
I was very worried about how the music at the reception would go, because the DJs had to be changed at the last minute. Our original DJ had an emergency come up and recommended his friend, also a DJ. We met the day before the wedding to discuss our plans for music, and I gave him a list of songs to hear and for what event, and a list of other songs we wanted to play. My worries were luckily fruitless, because he was absolutely amazing. We danced our first dance to a song called "Closer to Me" by a local band we fell in love with while dating named Claire and Bain Maple Yum Yum. I had chosen the father-daughter dance to be "More Than a Woman" by the Bee Gees because my dad always loved them, and it was a huge surprise of a dance. I had expected the typical dance, but my dad, who is NOT the dancer, decided to through caution to the wind and go all disco. He spun me, twirled me, moved me all around the floor. I wasn't even drunk, and it was one of the best dances ever! Everyone was shocked at the dance but absolutely tickled, because it was actually REALLY good! I just wish that I had a video! The DJ was also very attentive to the list of music I'd given him. My grandmother went to Duke and is a HUGE fan, and I thought she would get tickled if he played their fight song. He actually spent the time to find it and played it for her, and she loved it. He made sure to play "Hang On Sloopy" for the huge number of (the) Ohio State fans in the house.
The food was wonderful. I did get to eat some, but I was having too much fun talking to everyone at the reception. The cake was beautiful as well, and it was hands-down the best cake I've ever eaten. People to this day still talk about it. We had champagne flutes for the first toast, but there was no choreography for this by the hall's staff, so we had no champagne to toast.
After the formalities the dancing started again. Everyone was drinking and having such a good time. My cousin, not without drink in hand the entire night, busted out into an impromptu dance when Michael Jackson came on, and everyone got a huge kick out of it, because he was GOOD. I got so hot from dancing that I had to scour around and find pins to put my hair up. (I sweat a lot and get really red in the face when I dance.) One of my favorite party songs from college was Sir Mix-A-Lot's "Baby Got Back", and the DJ played it for me as I sung every word...in my wedding dress...choreographed motions, including ones for "my anaconda don't want none if you ain't got buns hon", and all. Later in the night he also played more disco, and my dad came up me and we ended up dancing another disco just as good as the first.
Later came the garter and bouquet toss. My husband and I had long ago thought it would be funny if we did a twist on the garter toss by having him pull a menagerie of things out from under my dress. We told no one of this to make it more funny, so a couple of days before the wedding we hit up a typical tourist beach store and got things like handcuffs, a kitten stuffed animal, a crab, and a scuba diver. We tried to find things that would be really funny and have slightly kinky meanings. A little before the toss we went to a backroom and he helped me strap these things to my garter, and let me tell you, keeping them on was HARD. They stayed on, and it was one of the funniest parts of the wedding. The little kids really enjoyed it, too, because it was free toys for them. I had to do my bouquet toss twice, because the first time I threw it to hard and hit the ceiling.
Finally the reception wound down. We both attended the same college and wanted it to be a part of the reception, so the last song was the our school's fight song, and all alumni at the reception moved to the floor to sing the fight song. It was hilarious.
After the reception we went to change and then congregated again at the oceanfront bar for a few more hours of togetherness. After most people left all of our friends went on the beach and went swimming in the ocean in the dark. It was truly the most magical night and few days of my entire life, and I would give anything to be able to live them again.
The First Time I Saw Livers.
I did a scrapbook page about this awhile back. This is written to Livers from me.
"You were born on January 2nd, 2007 by a Cesarean-section. Mommy had planned to give birth with an epidural, but after 12 hours she was in too much pain and too tired to go any more so Dr. Sikes decided to give Mommy a C-Section. She went in for surgery around 10:30, but things didn’t go as planned. Mommy was supposed to be awake for surgery so Daddy could be with her when Livy was born, but the spinals did not take. Because of this the doctor had to put Mommy under general anesthesia, which meant she would be completely asleep, Daddy couldn’t be with us, and we couldn’t be with you the moment you were born. When Mommy was put under it didn’t take but about 20 minutes for you to be born, and finally at 11:03 PM you arrived! Mommy, though, because of her surgery, had to wait to recover before she could meet you. When she woke up she groggily asked Daddy and Nana all sorts of questions about you, like if you grabbed Daddy’s finger, how big you were, and who you looked like. Mommy finally was rolled back into her room at around 1 AM, and shortly thereafter they finally wheeled you into the room so she could meet you. Mommy couldn’t believe how incredibly beautiful and tiny you were! You had been in her tummy for 9 months, and it seemed almost surreal that you were finally here and that she could hold you. She was afraid to hold you a bit, because you were so delicate-looking that she thought you would break. You were kind of groggy, but you did open your eyes and look at me and around the room. Mommy tried to breastfeed you, but you didn’t really seem interested (and wouldn’t for many days). You stayed in her arms for a few minutes, but she was tired (and you were, too) so the nurse put you in your crib to sleep. It was the best moment of your Mommy’s life.
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18 comments:
I sooooo love your veil, dress and cake. I really like the picture of your back with hands around it. Great pictures!
This is awesome, just awesome.
KD's name is also Jeremy!
The first moment you meet your child is one you will never forget. It brings tears to my eyes when I think of meeting each one of mine...sweetest thing ever!
Interesting post..! Looking awesome in white wedding gown. Congrats….
Awww this is so sweet and what a great thing to be able to look back on. I love blogs and when you actually are let into someones life it's even better.
thanks for sharing !
I like that picture of his hands on your back while dancing. Cool!
What a beautiful post! It sure sounds like your wedding was magical. What a gorgeous bride - I loved all the special little things you guys included in your day.
And the birth of your firstborn is about as momentous as it gets!
Happy Real Life!
-Andrea
Tears to the eyes. I love moments. Such beautiful pictures of you and Livers!
I also like the picture of the back of your dress with the hub's hands around your back. Cool.
Also, looking forward to seeing your "resident pig" (as you put it) next week! :) LOL!
Wow. This is such a beautiful post! What amazing memories. Thanks for sharing!
What beautiful pictures! You had a gorgeous wedding. I love the red color. When I got married, I would have loved to have red, but it wasn't popular back then in the stone age. People would have looked at me funny. Now, if we renew our vows, you can believe I'll be having a red and black renewal!
What great pictures, and I just adore the letter that you wrote to your daughter. Something that she will treasure her whole life I am sure.
Happy Real Life Day!
What a gorgeous wedding. You looked just perfect. It sounds like it was a lot of fun!
And sweetness about Livers too, great is too mediocre a word for the pictures and letter.
Your wedding cake was gorgeous! Like my jaw dropped - maybe I'm just hungry! haha
You were a beautiful bride...love the cake...sweet baby moments. Loved hearing about your moments.
You have amazing wedding photos!!! Congrats on your little baby! I love birth stories and pics.
Your wedding pictures are just beautiful...your veil is soo pretty! Looks like it was a great day :)
And what a birth story! Momentous for sure!
Amazing pictures and stories. Your wedding sounded perfect!
Your letter to your daughter left me teary eyed, what a precious memory she'll treasure someday.
Beautiful cake! And i love the veil, too!
I would have loved to have red, but it wasn't popular back then in the stone age. People would have looked at me funny. Now, if we renew our vows, you can believe I'll be having a red and black renewal
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