Our Wedding Weekend
Friday, September 22, 2006
On Friday morning I got up about 6am and started packing up everything in boxes that was not already in boxes. We then started packing the truck and getting ready to take everything up to While packing up the truck we discovered that there was no way we would fit everything in my FH truck so we started to discuss how we would get the rest of the stuff up to Maryland for the wedding. Well to my luck my friend Jon (who also happened to be the gentleman that was walking me down the aisle) happened to call to let us know he had arrived at the hotel in MD so we asked him to drive down to the house and help take the rest of the stuff up to the hotel. Well finally two hours later he arrived. Thank god one problem diverted but then there was the problem of the rain that had started to come down so we had to dig up a tarp to put over the stuff in the back of the truck.
Well we finally dug up a tarp and hit the road. By this time it was 4pm and we knew we were going to be late for the rehearsal since we needed to be there by 5pm and it was Friday and it was rush hour on top of it. So we got on the road, hoping to make good time. Well things were going well until we got just before the VA/MD state line and then we hit the traffic.
We finally made it to the rehearsal abut 6pm oh well an hour late, better late than never. So we ran through the rehearsal and then started to try and make arrangements for everyone to head on over to the rehearsal dinner. Well while FH, MOH1, MOH2, Jon, The Best Man & I were chatting we came up with a problem, how would we get the chairs over to the ceremony location from the reception hall or do we rent them. Well this had been an item I had discussed with Harvey more times than I care to count. I had to once again explain to both Harvey & Best man that NOBODY IN THE WEDDING PARTY WOULD BE DRIVING SEPERATLY. Well after talking about this for about 15 minutes, I finally had enough and blew up on them and told them they could figure it out between them and I walked away.
When I walked off I decided to call a friend of mine and vent to her about how things were not going well and I felt like people were not listening to me. Well a little while later my sister came after me apparently once I walked away the confusion worked its self out and they came up with a solution. Of course my sister had to ask the one question I felt didn’t need to be asked but she asked it anyway. “Was I sure I wanted to go through with this?” Of Course!!!
So we finally headed over to the rehearsal dinner. While on the way one of the groomsmen who had not ordered his tux from the correct store as I had asked them to decided to call me to ask me where his tux was when he went to the store where everyone else had gotten their tuxes, I had to remind him to go to the local store by his house where he had ordered his tux. While on the way I ordered the pizza’s on the way. The rehearsal dinner went pretty well. All quite and then we said good night to those not staying at the hotel. After dinner we went and unloaded both the vehicles since I would be saying good night to FH for the last time and see him for the last time until we said our “I Do’s”. So I said good night to him and gave him one last kiss as my Fiancé. After unloading the vehicles I worked on flowers and a few other items and then decided I need to wind down a little and I felt like a drink so I headed to the bar. Upon my arrival at the bar I found my Friend Jon and MOH2 (Katie). We sat and had a few drinks together and then Katie said good night and Jon and I stayed and chatted a while. While sitting there we watched the news on the TV and we got chatting with another hotel guest.
Well during our chatting with this other hotel guest it came up that I was getting married the next day. Well when she found this out she gave me a very strange look, she could not understand how I was sitting in the bar with another man the night before my wedding, so I had to explain to her that this was a dear friend of mine and that he was walking me down the aisle the next day. So after a little while of chatting with this lady we finally called it a night and headed back to our rooms. Upon my return to my room before I went to sleep I called my FH one last time to say good night and tell him I love you again. After hanging up with him I decided to call it a night and went to bed.
Saturday, September 23, 2006
I got my wake up call from my sister Lisa at 6:30am just after the alarm next to my bed went off. She decided to inform me that it was raining outside, exactly what I didn’t want to hear this morning. When I got up to answer my phone I realized that I had a wicked head ache so I decided to lay down for a little bit longer. I finally got up out of bed about 7am. It was definetly later than I wanted to but at least I felt a little better than I did at 6:30am.
After finally dragging myself out of bed I finished getting ready and gathering up the rest of the wedding supplies that we could between the three vehicles we were using. Finally at 8:30ish we finally headed over to the reception hall, an hour later than we wanted to but that’s ok. We finally arrived at the hall and I finished filling out the paper work and the ladies unpacked their vehicles. We try to arrange things as organized as possible so we could get the hall set up to make the transition from the ceremony to the reception as easy as possible.
After some maneuvering around us got the tables set up and got some of the table covers on and the different tables set up for the food, cakes, presents.
Well by this time it was getting close to 1pm and we had been waiting for my Bridesmaid Vanessa to make it to the hall but there was still no sign on her. So Lisa, Katie, Cordell and I headed over to the
Upon her arrival she announced that her family had not made it to the hotel yet and that they wanted to go change so my great friend Jon agreed to help get them to the hotel where they could shower and get ready. This was no problem since we had plenty of room in Lisa’s Jeep for everyone afterwards. So we headed inside and got seated with our respective stylist.
When my stylist asked me what I wanted I told her, it was a simple design, I wanted the front up and the back down and curled. So she did exactly that for me. The original idea she came up with was a little too high and 70’s look for me. She fixed it with no problem; she was a very nice and sweet young lady. When she finished she showed me the finished job and I loved it. We took a little bit of a break and I ran across the parking lot to get Cordell and Katie something to eat at McDonalds.
Upon my return and they finished their food we sat back down to get our make-up done. Again my stylist asked me what kind of look I was going for. I explained to her I didn’t wear make-up on a daily basis at all. I asked her to keep it simple and natural and she did just that. The finished product looked wonderful. I was so happy and all the ladies looked wonderful. So after paying for our hair and make-up we headed back to the hall.
The one problem we had ran into early in the morning was my discovery that I left my check book back at the house in Springfield so I had called Irene the night before to ask her to bring it up. So I explained to the gentleman at the hall that I had forgotten it but my fiancé’s mother would bring it up for me later in
the day. Well while I was returning to the hall he showed up again looking for the check and my future sister in law still had not showed up with it. I had to explain to him I was on my way.
Well upon my return my friend Jon informed me he had my check book in his car so I filled it out real quick and he told me not to worry about it he would go give it to the gentleman and deal with him so I wouldn’t have to. So upon our return we helped get things set up a little more and then we were rushed off to the back room where we had decided to get ready since the guys were showing up and I was not ready and had decided that Harv would not see me until I came down the aisle.
So I helped the ladies all get ready and while getting ready my wonderful cake lady Sandy showed up with the cakes so I asked my sister Lisa to go get her for me so I could personally thank her and meet her in person since all our correspondence had been via phone and emails. She was a really sweet lady and I couldn’t wait to see what she had done with the pictures I had sent her.
Well finally with about 10 minutes to go I was finally finished getting ready since helping everyone else get ready first. So at 5pm we were advised that the bell choir was not ready for us so we took this chance to go outside (since it had cleared up by this time and the sun was shining) to take some pictures of the bridal party. Finally we headed to the front of the hall where we would head and down the aisle.
While waiting our friend Mark showed up, apparently he was running a little late. We had a little fun joking with him that he was the first to see me in my gown and that he couldn’t tell a soul when he got inside. So Harv’s sister Ruth was nice enough to help direct us down the aisle in the time that we needed to.
Well it was time to head in, first headed in Vanessa, then Katie, then Lisa, then Cordell, then my flower girl Emily. Here was the moment, it was my turn, Jon took my arm and we headed in. This would be my last walk as a single women, I couldn’t wait to get down the aisle. I realized later on that I was told ahead of time to stop just before heading down the aisle for pictures and it dawned on me I didn’t stop, I must have dragged poor Jon right down the aisle.
Here I was in my gown and standing there for the first time since the night before facing Harvey with Jon holding my arm getting ready to hand me off. So when the time came when Wes (our minister) asked who gives this women to be married Jon said I do and handed my hand to Harv. Here we go, I can’t believe it, and we are finally going to say those vows that we had talked about for the past 5 years.
Everything went smoothly, with a single glitch and everything looked wonderful they way they had set everything up for me.
After the I Do’s and the exchange of rings we were finally pronounced husband and wife and I finally got to give my HUSBAND a kiss for the first time. Once we were pronounced as husband and wife and we had our first kiss we headed down the aisle and waited in the back of the room while the guest filed outside for them to re-arrange the tables for us.
While waiting for them to change everything around we got a chance to just chat amongst ourselves and say thank you to Wes for such a wonderful service. So then we let the guest back in and milled around a little bit and then we decided to head outside so the DJ could announce us and the wedding party. So outside we headed and right off the DJ made the mistake of naming the wrong person with Vanessa and then the wrong individual with Katie and with my sister. Finally came our turn, and I couldn’t wait to hear for the first time I present you Mr. & Mrs. Enokida. It was wonderful to hear.
Then we did our first dance to Shania Twain & Bryan White’s “From This Moment.” It finally gave us a chance to just enjoy one another and chat between us. It was just wonderful. Harv decided to ask me at that moment so are you happy it is finally over and see it all worked itself out, you stressed out for nothing. LOL.
So after the first dance we gave our guest a chance to just hang out for a little bit and then we hit the food since I could guarantee everyone was hungry, I know I was since the last time I had ate was the night before. For some reason I was not hungry all day, I think I just had too much on my mind all day to be hungry.
After eating and toast by the best man and the two Maids Of Honor’s we had the mother/son dance and I thought that was a wonderful moment for Harv and his mother. After all it took me forever to get the two of them to come up with and agree on a song for this. Then after a little more casual chat with the guest and enjoying ourselves we had the Bride/Best Friend dance. This gave Jon and me a few moments together and a chance for me to tell him Thank you for making this day a little more special for me by walking me down the aisle.
After the Bride/Best friend dance we called all the kids up and handed them their favors I had made for them consisting of coloring books, crayons, a little candy and a fortune cookie in each. The kids were as cute as the came up to get their favors from us. Some were so shy to come up and others ran right up to us.
Then was cake cutting time, they were amazing. Just as I wanted even with the vague pictures I sent After we cleaned up from the cake cutting procedure I started cutting up the other cakes for the guest, until one of the ladies told me to beat it and they would take care of it for me.
So after the cake cutting we did the toast to one another. Of course Harv didn’t like this because he had nothing planned, neither did I, but I told him to just wing it after all just say what he wanted, it didn’t have to be anything grand or spectacular. He was so sweet in his unplanned and unrehearsed speech.
Well with speeches out of the way the only other thing we had to take care of was the garter toss and the bouquet toss but before we could do that I had to run in the back and round up two of the ladies to help me change from my boots to my shoes that I bought for this. So after changing my shoes I called all the ladies out of the dance floor for the bouquet toss, several managed to slip out the door before I could get them. When I tossed the bouquet, my flower girl Emily got it, it was so cute.
Now it was the men’s turn. I had fun with this, calling all the single men I knew up on the dance floor including Jon who tried to hide in the kitchen where I couldn’t see him or so he thought. Well we finally got all the single boys and guys out of the floor and Harv got the garter off and tossed it to the men. One of Vanessa’s younger brothers got the garter. We decided not to do the putting the garter on the flower girl who caught the bouquet.
So now we opened up the dance floor. By this time it was getting a little late and some of our guest started to say goodnight and headed home or back to the hotel where they were staying. Harv’s mother and sister were nice enough to pack up all the wedding presents and take them home for us so we wouldn’t have to worry about it.
By 10pm the hall was more than cleared out of most of the guest and many of those that were still around decided to help us break down the hall and get things cleaned up. Well believe it or not we
had originally planned for the reception to wind down and end by 11pm, well the hall was cleared of everyone and cleaned up entirely by 11pm, so now all we had to do was wait for the Limo to show up to take us back to the hotel.
While we waited Jon and Katie were nice enough to wait with us. Well our limo pulled up, initially he passed the hall and we were saying among us where is he going, does he realize he missed his turn. Sure enough he did, he turned around and came back for us. When he pulled up he said I see a bride, and we all laughed. So we packed up the overnight bags we had and headed for the hotel and said good night to Katie and Jon.
Upon our arrival to the hotel we were able to get the hotel to take care of our cake top over night so we wouldn’t have to worry about it. So after getting checked in and handing off our cake top to the manager on duty we headed for our room, only one problem, our room was on the 2nd floor and I had to drag myself up two flights of stairs in my heavy gown. Once we made it upstairs we ran into Vanessa and her brothers, they wanted to know if we wanted to have a drink with them. I told her more than likely no, we wanted to get back to the room and relax.
Well upon our arrival at our room we got a call from Catherine, our friend from NJ and we discovered she was coming down the hall, we could hear her on the phone. We got a good laugh out of this. Well we decided to change and head on over to Catherine’s room for a little game of poker between Harv, Catherine, Katie and Jon and I would just sit and watch. This was affectionaly called the MPT (Mattress Poker Tour).
Well I ended up dozing off on Catherine’s extra bed while they were playing. Eventually I woke up about the time it was winding down, by this time it was 2am so I headed back to the room without Harv, who had started chatting with Catherine, and I didn’t realize I had the only room key between us. So about two hours later our room phone rang and I finally woke up just as it had stopped. I looked around and realized Harv had not made it back to the room so I wandered down to Catherine’s room and turned out that Harv had wandered down to the front desk to see if he could get a 2nd room key.
About the time he arrived down at the front desk and was asking for a key, Catherine called down there to let him know I woke up and was in her room so he headed back upstairs. Needless to say we all got a good laugh out of this. So after saying good night to Catherine we headed off to bed. It was the end of a very long, but wonderful day.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
We slept in a little bit and then headed down stairs to meet up with Katie and Jon for a late Brunch at the hotel restaurant. It was a really good breakfast buffet, full of breakfast items like omelets made on site for you and breakfast breads.
So after saying good bye to Jon and getting the last of our stuff packed up in Harv’s truck we headed home. One the way though we had to stop at the mall to drop off his tux’s. After dropping off the tux we headed for home. Upon our arrival, Katie was right behind us with the rest of the stuff we had asked her to bring back for us.
We unpacked the two vehicles and got ready to pack for the honeymoon. After unpacking the two vehicles we did discover a few missing items so I spent the day calling Lisa, Jon, Steve (the bartender who had taken some stuff for us as well) and Katie to see if anyone had the items in their vehicles.
So we came to the resolution that the cake serving set that we had bought and gotten engraved were missing as well as my digital camera that I had seen the last time during the reception in the back room in a box but it never made it home. So we figured these items had gotten tossed by accident.
Finally we got everything packed and arranged for our honeymoon since we were due to depart the next day. We took care of a few other last minute odds and ends. While we were packing up the vehicles someone had advised me that the huge heavy gift that had been taken out of the reception the night before was from Jon, I had to know what it was and there was no way I was waiting to get back from our honeymoon so I got a hold of Harv and we headed for the spare room and opened up the big gift. Upon opening it I discovered he had gotten us the wood TV trays we had registered for.
While unwrapping the presents we noticed to gifts from Tiffany’s and we both looked at each other and said we didn’t register at Tiffany’s, I wonder who got us gifts from Tiffany’s. So of course we had to open these as well. The first one was in a Tiffany’s bag and we opened that up, it was from our friend Jill, the first item was a silver cigar tube from Tiffany’s for Harv and the second item was a little wedding cake picture frame.
Then we went in search of the second Tiffany’s gift. Well I finally found it; it was a heavy little box. Well I opened it up and the card was from one of his poker buddy’s family. Upon opening it I discovered it was a set of candle sticks. Very nice. All I could say was Oh My God. Nothing else but Oh my god. They were beautiful.
So after opening these we decided the rest would wait until we got back from our honeymoon. After opening the gifts I went and made dinner and after dinner and getting things cleaned up and we got the last items packed we headed for bed, after all we would have an early morning ahead of us.
