Finally... the Wedding Blog!

May 21, 2011 was a wonderful day in my life. It was long; started early and ended late, but at the end of it, I got to lie in the arms of my best friend.

After the rehearsal and the dinner the night before, I went over to the reception site and helped get things ready. This involved pouring candy and glass rocks and flowers into little square dishes to decorate the tables. That’s pretty much all they let me do that night. We were there until about 11, then I went home. There was one more project I wanted to do. Instead of fancy chair covers for the bride and groom, I got little wooden hearts and painted them brown and green with a J and a B in them to look just like our invitations. I had newspaper spread out on my bed, had my paint and brushes ready and turned on the TV to something… probably Say Yes to the Dress or Four Weddings. The hearts weren’t that hard to paint, but it took a while to do one coat, let it dry, do another one, make the letters perfect, and so on and so forth. When I got done with those, it was probably 12:30 or 1 in the morning.

Even though I was done with my last project, I still couldn’t get to sleep. I was laying awake, watching television until 4, yes FOUR, in the morning, knowing that I would have to get up soon and begin getting ready. When my alarm went off sometime between 7:30 and 7:45, I woke right up, like I’d had a perfect 8 hours of sleep. I walked into the kitchen to find my mom, dad and aunt up to their elbows in cabbage, which also covered the floor from one end to the other. The only thing I specifically asked my mom to do for the wedding was to make slaw. We were having barbeque and chicken, and there is no one’s slaw that I love more than hers. It was worth it! I left them to cut, chop, grind and mix, and went back into my parents’ bathroom where the big garden tub was waiting for me. I filled it with warm water and smelly-good bubbles and soaked for quite a while. I had my iPod and was playing Solitaire on it.

Everything was all good until I saw a spider fall into the water. I was okay until I couldn’t find it anymore to scoop it out. I drained the tub and washed it out and then had to refill it to actually bathe. It was really funny to me. I’d say that you had to be there, but it would be a little weird if people were in the bathroom while I was taking a bath. Just trust me. It got me off to a humorous start – I made myself laugh with the whole thing – it would have been worse if I was one of those people who freak out at the sight of a bug. But I’m not, so it was funny.

After my bath, I ate a handful of grapes and spent a few minutes browsing Facebook. I was surprised to have so much down time on such a big, important day. But all I had to do was get to the church and get ready. So I left the house and went to the church. There were already some people there getting things set up. I helped them with what was left and then went to my dressing room. A good friend went out and got me a strawberry-banana smoothie from McDonald’s and that was my breakfast, lunch and dinner for the day.

Brittany was my first bridesmaid there.

It was too early to get in our dresses, so we just sat in the room and waited for everyone else. I took out my iPod and played a few songs on it while stretching out across some chairs. Amanda showed up

soon after my brother got there with my niece, Cadence, the cutest flower girl ever.

I was standing outside the church talking to my brother, Jonathan, when I saw Blake’s big truck come around the corner. I knew that Blair was with him, so I bolted, mid-sentence, back into the church (when I thought about it later, I made myself laugh… again, for the second time that day). I don’t know what the big deal about the bride and groom seeing each other before the ceremony, or whatever that thing is. I don’t believe in luck. Blair said that we were getting married whether we saw each other or not. I just wanted that moment when I stepped out of the limo to be super special.

Also, before we parted ways the night before, I said to him, “The next time you see me, I’ll be in a wedding dress and we’ll be getting married!” It just had a nice ring to it.

Finally, all my girls were there

and all the guys were there and we were all getting ready. Well, I was waiting for my mama to get there. I figured she’d want to help her only girl into her wedding dress. Alas, she is my mother and was leaving the house (15 minutes away from the church) at 1:45, when I was already supposed to be ready so we could take pictures. I had to get ready without her. Bittersweet. But Amanda and Brooke, our fabulous director, helped me into my dress.

But she soon got there and I put her corsage on wrist and we had a nice mother-daughter moment. Yay!

Amanda put on my make-up and before we knew it, it was 2:10, time to get into the limo.

There was some kind of to-do with the direction we were going in that caused a slight delay in getting down to the pond. I don’t know what it was but it was a good thing it happened because I had left something in our dressing room. I looked down the line of girls and asked, “Did everyone get their flowers?” thinking of them and the guys (I sent Amanda and Brooke to boutonniere the boys). Then I realized that I was missing my own flowers. I had left them on the podium in the room we changed in.

Anna was closest to the door, so I yelled at her to run and get them. Slight panic, but not Bridezilla. While she was gone, the limo driver pulled us back around to the door so she wouldn’t have to walk back to where we were. Once she was in, we pulled off again, in the other direction this time. Instead of driving right down to the pond, we rode all the way around the church so that the limo would be facing the road, which worked out well.

As we rode down, we passed Marc Francis, Steve and Blair. Steve shielded Blair’s eyes so that he couldn’t see inside, which he couldn’t anyway, but it was funny to see.

I was thinking when I saw him, “He’s so handsome in that suit!” The limo was parked and we were waiting for the guys to walk down and take their places at the end of the aisle, and I started to hyperventilate and my eyes began to tear up. I closed my eyes and repeated to myself, “I’m not getting married, I’m not getting married.” My girls all looked at me, half with panic, half with laughter and asked what I was saying. I told them that I was starting to freak out and that as long as I told myself that it wasn’t me who was getting married I would be okay. I wasn’t backing out or rethinking it. All the pressure and stress of a wedding had just hit me. For just a few moments. We all laughed and I was okay again. No tears, no thoughts of running. My hands weren’t even shaking. I was all smiles and ready to go.

The limo was the best idea I had for the wedding. It allowed me to see everything without being seen. I watched all the guys walk their respective girls down the aisle. I could see all the guys standing down there with their shades on looking like Men in Black.

It was hilarious. I watched as Karla tried to get Cadence to do the bubble thing, which she wasn’t going for at all.

That was fine with me. I had decided that if she blew the bubbles down the aisle, it would be adorable, and if she didn’t, she’d still be the cutest thing that has ever happened at a pond wedding at Ridgecrest. I was right. She made me laugh and everyone was awww-ing as she wandered down the aisle. There’s only so much you can get a two year old to do. Looking cute comes natural to her.

Suddenly, it was time for me to make my grand entrance. I looked at my daddy and smiled.

I slid over to the door and handed him my bouquet. Then I gathered my skirt with one hand and took my daddy’s hand with the other and emerged from the air-conditioned limousine. It was really cool to see everything from the back. Everyone stood and I could hear my friend, Rob, singing “She’s Everything” as I walked down the aisle to the man I would from then on call my husband… among other names. J

There are many things I could say about the next twenty minutes of that day, but I’ll just say this: It was worth all the money and stress and craziness to stand in front of our family and friends and profess our love for each other and for God, and to join as one in a marriage covenant, one of the most holy of all holy sacraments we can do here, with each other and with God. A few highlights: braiding God’s Knot (gold represents God and keeping Him at the center of our marriage, purple stands for man who is the head of the household as Christ is the head of the church, and white represents the purity of the bride) while Rob sang “Love Never Fails,” one of my favorite songs and a way to get the “love chapter,” 1 Corinthians 13, into our ceremony without reading it;

my veil taking up with the wind and making me laugh; Amanda passing out (not her finest moment, but she’s cool enough that the very next day, we could joke about it… and revenge is sweet – they’ll be getting married next year!); and hearing Marc Francis announce us as Mr. and Mrs. Steven Blair Garnett Jr. The kiss was pretty fantastic too.

We got back in the limo and the driver took us for a little ride. We went all the way down Milton road to Roxboro road and came back up by Northern High and then back to the church. We laughed and kissed and smiled and took a few deep breaths. We were married! …Well, not until Steve and Karla signed the license, but for all intents and purposes, we were married and it was exciting! We stuck around the church and took some pictures while everyone headed over to the reception site. This part took longer than I wanted, but it was still good. Here are some highlight pictures.

We finally finished the pictures and Blair and I, and my niece Cadence, got into the limo and rode to Norman’s Stables for the party. I'm not sure how she worked that out, but it's hard to say no to Cadence!

The reception was a reception (check out the pictures on Facebook... It takes a LOT of time and energy to post pics in a blog!). We got there and I immediately okayed the feast to begin. The rest of the party wasn’t there yet so we couldn’t do the announcements and I didn’t want to make our guests wait any longer than they already had (an hour!). My friend, Amy, came down from Massachusetts for the wedding. She’s been a good friend since 7^th grade. She’s been my eating partner since 7^th grade. She was the first in line after my and Blair’s plates were made. I definitely did not want to keep her waiting any longer either! Once everyone was there and had gotten a little something to eat, we did the announcement of the whole party, starting with the wonderful parents. Then we have my brother, Jonathan, escorting my friend and maid of honor, Anna; Blair’s brother Blake escorting their sister Brittany; Blair’s best friend Mark escorting his girlfriend Amanda; and pulling up the rear is my best friend and maid of honor, Karla walking with my niece Cadence. After they were announced, we were announced. Mr. and Mrs. Blair Garnett. I love it!! Then we danced to “My Girl.” It was fun. The whole time, Blair was saying, “Is it over yet? Everyone is staring at me. Can I sit down yet?” He’s not big on being the center of attention. I don’t mind so much.

There was dancing and eating and laughing and celebrating. And then there was CAKE!! A beautiful cake! A delicious cake! A humongous cake that I still have pieces of in the refrigerator almost two months later! And yes, of course we smooshed it into each other’s faces. We wouldn’t be us if we didn’t. It’s okay though because then we cleaned each other’s faces off, like a good husband and wife.

I guess the next big thing was the Father-Daughter dance. It was unbelievably difficult to choose a song for this, but once I decided on one, it was like, “DUH!” It just made sense. My daddy and I have always been really close. I am the epitome of a daddy’s girl and that’s never going to change. And taking into consideration that I was a princess that day, the song just worked. Two days before the wedding, I finally decided on “Cinderella” by Steven Curtis Chapman. When one of the choruses played, my dad looked out to the people watching and said, “I’m dancing with Cinderella!” It was really cute. And that dance went very much like my first dance with Blair; there was a lot of “No, the song isn’t over yet. Yes, we have to dance the whole time. Quit complaining, it’s almost over. One more chorus.”

By this time, a lot of people had already left. My family got up and played anyway. My mom had been losing her voice for a few days and therefore could not sing, so she called me up and I sang instead. My daddy played his guitar like it was on fire. My oldest brother, Jonathan, played the drums while my other brother, James, played his bass. We “adopted” Bryan Dickerson to play the keyboards, and I sang. The first song is one of my favorite songs. It’s called “Big White Gate” by Grace Potter. She wrote it about her grandmother after she died. It’s about how it’s never too late for forgiveness and that the people in Heaven might like to hear her sing. It isn’t completely faith-based, but I still like the “It’s never too late for forgiveness” message. Steve later told me that he was walking out to the van to get something when the song started and had to turn around to see who was singing. It’s a great song to sing. It’s how I know I can sing just about anything. Anyway, the boys took over and did a few more before we ended with “Hotel California,” my all-time favorite song. I sang this one too and it was also awesome. After that, the Fabulous Hot Dog Daddios took back the stage. Deanna and a few others took our gifts and put them in the back of the truck before Karla headed up the truck-decorating committee. Brittany and I had the job of keeping Blair occupied and oblivious of what was happening to his truck. My mama and mama Cindy handed out the bubble tubes to everyone. When the truck was ready, the band announced our farewell. Everyone gathered outside and showered us with bubbles as Blair helped me into the truck… more like, he helped my dress into the truck. I blew kisses, got noggin from my niece, hugged Karla and then we were off. It was wonderful to finally be going home with my husband. We didn’t have to be in Charleston for our cruise until Wednesday, so we didn’t have to rush to get anywhere. We got home, got into pajamas, unwrapped our gifts and he made me eat some leftover pasta from the night before. We were home and we were married. It was a glorious day.