Tonight's Gonna Be A Good Night [Part III]

PHOTO OPS
Taking pics is fun! Mj and I have become a walking, talking photo op.  We do all the traditional family and bridal party shots but we also try to have a little fun with it.

                                                                    

Me and my mum

After pics it takes an army of ladies to get me bustled up.  There are six bustles on my dress and of course I can't remember where any of them are so they played "find the bustle button" until I'm all pinned up.  Now I can stop kicking my dress around corners. 

GRAND ENTRANCE

Right on schedule the guests are ushered into the reception room from the cocktail hour and the bridal party waits just outside the room for our entrance. I wasn't sure if I wanted to do this but at the last minute I decided we should. We are the stars of the party right? We might as well enjoy this and it also recognizes our bridal party. I envisioned feeling shy and on the spot as we entered the room but the reality was nothing like that. I am only happy and excited to get in there. This room is filled with good friends and family and love. They cheer and clap for us as "I Gotta Feeling" blasts through the room and Mj and I sort of walk/dance into the room and it's a wonderful feeling. Tonight's Gonna Be a Good Night alright.

WHAT HAPPENED TO OUR CAKE?
We head to our sweetheart table where our champagne bottle is waiting for us. We have a chance to look around the room and see how beautiful the whole set up is. I glance to my left and think really, really hope it is just poor lighting or my eyes playing tricks on me when I see our cake sitting there. I blink a few times and it doesn't change. It's the design we picked out but instead of a pink cake with black and pink stripes around each tier we got a pink cake with dark grey and black stripes sitting there trying to pass as our wedding cake. I come to the sad realization that our beautiful expensive wedding cake is the wrong color and I am just glad that I didn't find out before. This is our night and I am not letting that impostor of a cake get me down. We'll figure out what went wrong later.

LETS EAT

The staff starts bringing out dinner plates.  I have heard stories about crazy brides who didn't even eat their entree but not us!  We sat there and enjoyed our Tri Tip steak and chatted.  It was fun to look around the room and see all of our guests enjoying themselves.  Dinner hadn't even ended yet when there were a few folks already on the dance floor....including Blue Suit.  Yeah....at the last minute I told me dad he could stay but that he had to wait until everyone else was seated to find a spot.  I had to make dad sweat a little but I am not a total and complete bridezilla.  He gifted us with a bottle of Dom Perignon for goodness sake and I don't want to punish him!  My anger was directed at my dad for totally disregarding my wishes.  Incidentally, he wasn't the only "party crasher."  One of my friends brought someone who wasn't technically invited nor did she RSVP'd for.  Nothing against this person.  I like her, but it still puzzles me how some folks just don't get it about how weddings operate.  She could have told me asked.  Moving on.

Having a smallish wedding Mj and I were able to go around the entire room and greet all of our guests at each table which was really nice.  We worked the room and then met outside for a bathroom run.  I hadn't used the restroom since I put the dress on and was happy to find I was able to do it without dunking my dress in the toilet.  Mj was in total disbelief about how the men's bathroom looked like a truck stop bathroom compared to the ladies spa like retreat.  Yep.  I had him come inside just in case I needed help with the dress.

TOASTS & TEARS

We decided to have the DJ open up the floor for toasts.  Just when I thought I was all cried out for the night I quickly find out that I am not.  One of my dear friends and co workers S stands up to speak and I am so touched by her words that the tears start flowing again.  We were in the claims trenches together having been co workers for 8 years.  I vented to her endlessly on bad days at work.  We confided in each other and shared our hopes and disappointments over countless lunch breaks.  I was at her wedding.  My goodness....sometimes you just don't realize what you mean to others and vice versa until moments like this and that is what is so wonderful this.  The room is full of love and everyone is just so happy for you.  It can be emotional.  My little sis is so shy and quiet but she wanted so much much to get up there and express her happiness for us in front of everyone.  I know how hard that must've been for her.  She says "I have always looked up to you. And I'm so happy for you" and the tears start rolling again.  I begin to wonder if I will cry through my entire wedding.  These are tears of joy though not sadness and there is nothing too bad about that.  Some toasts are funny and others make me cry.  We even had an impromptu and unexpected burst of song from my cousin-random but sweet.  We went a bit over schedule but I really think it was wonderful to give anyone the opportunity to speak.

CAKE CUTTING & FIRST DANCES
The DJ tells us we are behind schedule because we had so many takers on our toast so we move right into the cake cutting. For an impostor cake it sure did taste good. Mj and I cut the cake and I reached for a fork but he wanted us to feed it to each other with our fingers which was cute and fun. No cake in face shoving as discussed! Then it was time for the Bride & Groom first dance. Even though everyone was watching us I felt like we were in our own little world.  We move into the Father/Daughter dance to "Can You Feel The Love Tonight." Then about 40 seconds in Mj and his mom joined in. This is another tradition that we almost didn't do but I am so glad we did.

PARTY TIME
After that it really was party time.  I was just the perfect amount of tipsy and I had a blast for the remainder of the night.  We stepped out to do a few night time pics with our photographer and we chatted here and there guests and did a lot of dancing.  Weddings are a whirlwind.  You hope that everyone had a great time but almost feel badly that it goes by so fast and you don't really get to spend that much time together.  They sweep in and share a special moment with you and just as quickly they are gone.  It's just the way it goes.  Guests started coming up to say good bye as the night went on.  I still don't know exactly what time our wedding ended but as guests dwindled and we were down to just a small group of dancers I told the DJ we were ready for our last song and got down on the dance floor until the very end.  I'm so glad that people had a good time.

Even four days later I am still re living my favorite moments and am filled with so much joy over how well everything turned out.  The sights, the feelings, the emotions, the fun.  Sure, I planned to have fun at my wedding but this  night far exceeded any expectations I had.  It was just that much of an amazing night.

Part IV:  Our Wedding Rocked!