How a minivan almost ended my wedding day... and other stories about the weeks leading to "I Do"

It's hard to believe the wedding has already come and gone!  Over a year of planning and it was over in the blink of an eye.  I really didn't think I was going to make it the last three weeks.  Poor John... He put up with so much. I remember sitting on the couch crying telling him I could barely tolerate myself and I didn't know how he put up with me.  I'll admit it.... I had been a grouch.  I was overwhelmed with work projects, and with the wedding coming up, my brain was overloaded.  Wedding brain... not as bad a pregnancy brain (so I've heard), but still pretty bad.

I was scrambling to finish stuff the week before we left for Florida. I took off of work early two days before we left.  My goal was to come home and finish a whole bunch of wedding stuff. LOL!  Silly me. My Silhouette cutter kept jamming and the printer was putting lines in all the photos I was attempting to print. Thankfully John managed to fix the Silhouette. The photos simply had to wait.

 This was our forecast for the week.  

Yes, we ended up stocking up on umbrellas for the big day.

After we arrived in Florida, we shopped, did printing for the wedding, put together favor bags, and ran a whole bunch of errands.  All that in between hanging out with the family.  Wednesday night was when I realized that the folder on my desktop that I had zipped and emailed myself didn't have the photos that I had painstakingly sorted and renamed for a wedding reception project. So I had to track down the original emails with the files, re download,  re sort and THEN begin printing. Three hours and many frazzled nerves later, I was done. *Whew*

I think the highlight of the week was applying for our marriage license. Not that the process was that exciting; but how many people can say they applied for their marriage license at the Mental Health Counter? Yep, way to go Escambia County, FL!

 

Friday was a hectic day.  One of my "other mothers", Vickie Mullins, was having her retirement reception that afternoon. So after getting my nails done and picking up the dress, we rushed over to visit and share stories of how she has impacted so many lives.  I'm a little sad over the fact that she is leaving  Santa Rosa UF/IFAS Extension, but she has definitely earned her retirement!

Fast forward to the rehearsal... nothing too crazy.  During the rehearsal I realized that I walk WAY too fast. What can I say? I'm a woman on a mission ;)  It was great being able to take the time to catch up with everyone at the rehearsal dinner. 

After the rehearsal dinner I got to spend some time with all of my bridesmaids back at the hotel.  It was wonderful just to sit and chill for a while.  Well, I say chill...I realized that I needed a different size photo for my guest photo frame.  Thankfully I had an amazing engagement photographer who was able to work some magic and send me a link so I could download pics to have printed. My sister crashed in my room the night before the wedding.  Which wasn't so bad... until I woke up to her laughing in her sleep. That was a little creepy.

So on to the big day... I was a bundle of nerves. I wasn't nervous about getting married.... I was nervous about everything turning out OK.  The event planner part of my brain would not shut down if my life depended on it.  I woke up on the big day and it was raining, go figure.  I went over all my checklists for the reception and relaxed a little before having my hair done by the amazing Amanda Hicks.  After that it was put on my face and grab my bags!

We were finally ready to load the cars and head over to the church!  I was heading over to my twin/bestfriend/MOH, Kaitlin's car when she saved me. A guy was backing out in his minivan and apparently didn't see us behind him.  I just froze. I saw the van backing up toward us and  I couldn't get anything to come out of my mouth. Suddenly Kaitlin starts yelling at the driver to watch where he was going. That was our first close call.

Our second close call was on the way to the church.  I didn't know what side of the church the Pfeiffer house was on, so we had to circle the block again.  Kaitlin forgot that the street was a two way street, not a one way. So I'm on my phone texting someone and I happen to glance up.  I spot a truck waiting patiently at a four way stop for Kaitlin to get on the right side of the street. So I start shouting "Wrong side!! Wrong side!!" and Kaitlin quickly swerves to the correct side of the road. Thankfully, we were able to laugh about it.  :)

The wedding was AWESOME!  I'll never forget making that  turn to walk down the aisle and I hear my friend David whisper "Breathe!!" I almost started crying during the ceremony, but made myself suck it up when I realized that no one had tissues.  I'm so thankful that John got all of his ear scratching out of the way before the ceremony (groomsmen joke).  I am forever thankful that John and I were able to spend our special day with such great friends and family. Looking back, I'm glad I had such a nice gap between the ceremony and reception.  Granted, I thought pictures would take a bit longer than they actually did.... but since pictures ended early (I hired the most AMAZING photographer) the bridal party was able to snag a beer at the Pensacola Bay Brewery which was right across the street from the church.

The reception was legendary! 

  

Such an awesome group of people (and an awesome DJ).  I bawled my eyes out during toasts. All the dancing... and the singing...the reception flew by in the blink of an eye!  At one point I ended up with champagne down my dress, and my bustle came undone so I ended up toting my train around (what an arm work out!).  By the end of the night my feet hurt so much from all the dancing and walking around.   

The rain did let up long enough for John and I to get a few pictures outside.  

We even had a wedding rainbow :D

All in all it was an amazing day, and despite all the craziness I wouldn't trade it for anything. Oh yes... in the midst of all the wedding prep- two days before the wedding, we found out we'll be moving to California in the spring!  John and I are super stoked. Now to figure out how to get out of Alaska with two pets and two vehicles in the middle of an Alaskan winter!

If you are planning a wedding in the Pensacola area- I would definitely recommend these additional vendors that made our day so awesome:

Day of Coordinator- Legacy Event Design

Caterer- Culinary Productions

Bartender- Richey's East

Cake- JB's Cakery & Confections

Going Bridezilla!

Just kidding! 


Almost.

I'm finally a month out from going "Miss" to "Mrs". It's exciting and nerve wracking all at once. I'm excited to begin this next chapter in my life, but I sometimes worry that John will get tired of me testing the fire alarm when I cook dinner. ;)  Planning our wedding has been the most exciting, frustrating, time consuming thing I have ever done. Part of me understands why some women go all "Bridezilla".

Growing up I never spent a lot of time envisioning my future wedding. All I knew was that I wanted a small intimate wedding on the beach. Fast forward a decade and I'm looking at a large wedding in a church. Not entirely too sure how that happened, but I can't complain since I get to marry the man of my dreams :)

Went dress shopping with some friends last August.  It was a blast!

Throughout all the Pinteresting and wedding website lurking I have learned one thing- weddings can make women develop a case of the crazies. If you've ever watched the show Bridezillas, you know how bad some of these women can get. If you haven't watched it- check out this Bridezillas clip.  Seriously, these women need help.  Early on in the planning process, John made the mistake of referring to me as a Bridezilla. I wasn't being one, and now he occasionally gets to watch the show with me to remind him how good he has it. :)  If there is anything that I've learned from Bridezillas, it's how not to act when planning a wedding.  When things have started to fall apart, I do my best to keep myself composed.  Truthfully... this is what I look like on the inside. 

I remember the day I realized that the address that is on the invitations was not the actual address of the church. Yeah... what church buries their physical address in a contract? My church does :)  I cried a lot that day.  Thankfully I was able to laugh about it the next day, and just kept laughing as other things fell apart and I attempted to put them back together.

Truth be told.... I could try on wedding dresses all day.  If only just to mock myself in them.

Planning a Florida wedding from Alaska hasn't been a cake walk by any means.  Looking back, I'm thankful that all the "big" contracts fell into place fairly quickly.  Note to any business owners out there... if someone asks you to not call before a certain time, please don't.  I scratched a handful of vendors off my list because I was receiving phone calls at 4:30 in the morning.  In the end it has been the "little things" that seem to have taken up the most of my time. It shouldn't be that hard  to decide on a hair piece. Well, Google provides over 9 million links when you google "White flower hair clip". Who has time for that????? Don't get me started on programs. Uggg... I don't want to admit how many hours I've spent looking at them. Part of me is tempted to cough up more money and just order some instead of DIY. 

Since I started working, I have done a lot of event planning/coordination.  When I'm planning for someone else, I get my panties in a wad if anything goes wrong.  For myself? I'm a roll with the punches type of person.  Address wrong on the invites? Meh, we'll make phone calls and update everyone. Bridesmaids dresses arriving in different shades of "Tea Rose"? Hey, I get to have a popular ombre themed bridal party! If it rains on my wedding day, you might just find me outside dancing in it. Seriously, I just want August 17th to get here already.

At the end of the day, as long as I'm getting enjoy dinner, drinks, and dancing with the ones that I love- that's all I need.  Despite all the stress of wedding planning, maybe I won't go all Bridezilla after all. Just don't hold me to that day before my wedding, lol.  If you see my eye twitching though, please pass me a drink!