January 17, 2011 - pre-ceremony-
Our limo was supposed to pick us up at 8:30 outside the Garden Wing at the Contemporary Resort. I think after Patricia left we were around 15 minutes late. Normally I would be freaking out because I hate being late to anything, but I decided it was my wedding day and nothing was going to upset me. Thank goodness the garden wing has a huge awning outside the entrance, because it was really raining outside when we got in the limo.
We were on our way to meet David & Vicki at the Grand Floridian. It's not too far from the Contemporary, but our limo driver was sooooooo slow. I mean I don't think he broke 12 mph at all. My mom was stressing and I was trying to calm her down and let her know that her stressing was going to rub off on me. We made it to the Grand Floridian, I would say around 9am. So in total we were 30 minutes late for our pictures. Not too bad I guess.
The rain was off and on for a while. When we got out of the limo, David & Vicki were right there to greet us and the picture taking extravaganza began.
It was so exciting. I can't accurately describe the feeling of walking around having your picture taken, feeling absolutely beautiful (because everyone will be complimenting you on your day,
everyone, you can't help but feel gorgeous!
) and knowing that this is the day that you'll marry your best friend. I know it's cheesy, but really, I was filled with so much happiness that morning, it was incredible.
I want to relive that day over and over lol.
The first thing we did as we entered the Grand Floridian was walk over to the staircase. I've never been in that resort, but it is really pretty in there. People were all around sitting in the lobby and just watching us. It was a little awkward at first, I was really embarrassed, but David kept making jokes and Vicki was really reassuring, so after a little while I relaxed.
OK, I'm not trying to be mean, but whenever I read about someone saying a little girl walked by and said "look mom, a princess!" I kind of chuckled and said to myself "yeah, right". Sorry, but I just didn't buy it for whatever reason. Well, while I was on the stairs, sure enough a little girl and her mom walked by, and what did I hear?? You guessed it! It seriously was the cutest thing I've ever heard in my life. The mom and daughter stood at the bottom of the stairs watching for a minute, and the girl said "look a real princess!" and the mom made some cute comment and yea, cue the tears.
I got choked up! hahaha It was all just amazing, I couldn't help it.
Oh, Amy (planner) and her assistant (I think Beth? or something close to that) were in the Grand Floridian with us. Amy was only there for a minute, and then she shot off to places unknown (probably to the WP). Her assistant was really nice. I had corsages for the mothers, but my mom didn't have anywhere to pin hers, so the assistant went running off and managed to get an elastic on the flowers so my mom could wear it on her wrist. I thought that was really sweet.
So, David & Vicki took
tons of pictures on the stairs. A lot with me and
then my dad (who met us at the Grand Floridian with his wife and stepkids, I don't know how he even knew to meet us there
and thinking back on it, I'm shocked he was there on time!). Everyone in the bridal party just kind of stood around, so I felt bad for that. After the stairs, we went to the piano and took group shots there. Then my dad took off to the WP and we went upstairs to Citricos to take some more pics. It's beautiful in there! We took a lot of pictures, and were about to head down to the WP, when the assistant came over, spoke in her headset, and then said take more pictures! I immediately got freaked out, because I knew we were supposed to head over to the ceremony. I thought someone was missing, or that there was a tornado
rotfl: it was that bad out, the trees were sideways, so I really thought there was a tornado lol). It turned out that we waited because the wind was so bad they wanted to wait for it to calm down. It didn't really calm down at all, so after about 5 minutes, we were ushered down to the limo and off to the Wedding Pavilion. This is where we met up with Amy again, and a crew of girls holding umbrellas. I wish they had something to cover the path to the Wedding Pavilion when it's raining and windy out. It's a LONG walk out in the open.
Everyone got around me with their umbrellas, and we made our slow journey to the doors of the WP. The boys were waiting to go into the ceremony, so they were watching (not Eddie) as we were coming down the walkway. They were laughing so hard, I was so embarrassed!
My brother told me we looked like we were in the "tiv" (I think that's what he called it) from the tv show storm chasers.
At least they had a good laugh! We were put into the Bride's Vestibule (with all our poofy dresses, we hardly fit! lol). My sister looked at my bridesmaid's dress (soaked all on the right side) and got into a fit.
Thank God, Amy came in and pulled out a blow dryer and we managed to dry everyone's dresses and calm everyone down. Right before we were to start the ceremony, I had to use the bathroom...
I couldn't help it, I had a huge cup of coffee! So my poor sister was on dress duty, it was actually pretty funny having her help me pee.
She was being called out, so she didn't even let me wash my hands!!!! I told Amy and she let me go back in and wash up.
It was so stressful for my mom and sister, but I just let it roll off and enjoyed the time we had there. I knew it was the one and only time that I would be experiencing all of this.
Here's some pictures from arriving at the Grand Floridian leading up to the Ceremony:
Continued in next post -