confessions of a carolina belle: June 2013

The rehearsal dinner was a blast. Probably too much fun for this poor little restaurant slave that never goes out or has any alcohol. We had so much, but I crashed into sleep on Friday night. I had bought melatonin because I was afraid I was going to be rolling around in anticipation all night. False. Crash. World War 3 could have happened outside and I wouldn't have known. However, I did wake up at 6 am bright eyed and bushy tailed, much to the chagrin of my beautiful bridesmaids.

That's when it started. The stomach turning. The head ache. The heartburn. I listened to my poor little Katie throwing up in the next room and dreaded what I imagined was an impending doom. (Side note: she was SUCH a trooper. She looked beautiful and poised even though she was surely suffering from the plague.) Meh. What's wrong? I'm not nervous but I just feel like I could die. Sweaty, shivering, nauseous. This is not what I had in mind!

The morning went by, everyone got their hair done, make up done, we had some delicious coffee, bough by a random stranger behind Kimberly in Starbucks. This is why I send her to do things like this for me. We narrowly avoided being sighted by William, because I secret agent dove into the MD McKenna's mini van and we made a speedy getaway.

The whole thing was such a whirl wind. As time passes, I remember seeing people that I'm like, "Oh yeah, they were there!" It was kind of like a dream because I remember very few specifics of the day. (Everyone told me this was going to happen but I don't really remember) But then, when I had a few minutes to be alone with my daddy, it hit me. This is it. Here we go. The actual wedding I can remember like it just happened. I was certain I was going to throw up until we actually said our vows. I kept trying to make our friend Cory laugh, but he was being serious. Who does that?

Saying our vows was one of the highlights of my day. I instantly felt better. I knew neither of us was going to back out, but it was still an option up until that moment and so the instant it was finally said and done, I was on a rocket ship straight to Cloud Nine. William said his vows like he was being sworn into the office of the President instead of marrying a girl that grew up not wearing shoes to play outside. To my surprise, I didn't shed one tear the entire day. Not so much can be said for my beloved Blove. She is so precious.

And now for the meat and potatoes. My top five of the day.

5) All of my bridesmaids putting my dress on- Now while my dress was beautiful, it probably weighed as much as a huge sack of potatoes. Luckily, I had the most incredible bridesmaids. I guarantee you that no bridal party in the history of forever has run a wedding like those girls. They worked so well together, protected me, loved me, did everything without questioning or complaining. They are the best friends I have ever had. They all took my dress out of the bag and held it up so that I could get in. With intricacy and the tenderness that only sisters can share, they put my in the dress that I had dreamed of my entire life. My beautiful maid of honor, the one who originally laced me into that dress, the first time, laced me up that afternoon. It was so special to me. I couldn't have imagined it going more perfectly. I also thoroughly enjoyed Megan putting my garter on. :-) Also be informed my loves, that the flash mob to Love on Top is number 5.5 on this list.

4) Be Thou My Vision- There is so much that went into me picking the song that I walked down the aisle to. First, having the blessing of having my father walk me down the aisle was incredible. I have always been a Daddy's girl. I was telling someone the other day about the massive tantrums I would throw when he left for work (in part because I watched too many Lifetime movies and was certain he was never coming back). He thought he looked like Big Bird, but I thought for sure he was the 2nd most handsome man I had ever seen. He was my first love and it was such a joy to be escorted by my father, a privilege denied to many.

The first time I ever remember hearing it was at Brittany MacAlester's wedding, when I was in high school. It was such a beautiful moment, it struck such a chord in my heart. Brittany had changed my life and to see her in such beauty with this wonderful Irish hymn walking towards her husband left quite an impression. I decided that day, 8(?) years ago, I was walking to that song.
The first time I ever heard our cantor, Rose, William's cousin, sing I was certain there was some 30 year old woman singing, but I'm pretty sure she was like 12 or 13 at the time. Such an incredible voice. The combination of those two aspects play in my memory over and over. I may be biased but I have never seen such a handsome sight as William standing at the end of the aisle waiting for me. It was like magic. Finally. We were here.

3) Grandma and Papa's Car- Riding away in their car was like the cherry on top of the sundae of the whole day. It was my tribute to the beauty of their marriage. They celebrate 60 years of marriage this year and I pray that we may see and learn from their love.

2) The End of the Night- to an outside to this event, I am sure that this was the weirdest thing that they ever saw. But that is how Belmont Abbey rolls. For our last 30 minutes, William and I finally got to dance and party with our friends. We got to see little James, tear up the dance floor to "Ganghnam Style". He's six. It was nuts. After the horrifying experience of them picking me up and all the horror that went along with that, we had our last dance, I couldn't tell you what song it was to. It was so surreal. All of our friends were in a circle around us, singing and dancing. It sounds weird, because it was, but it was so awesome to be surrounded by those that knew us best, celebrating us and our love. Then we actually did our exit with a rousing chant of "MCKENNA!" Thank you dears. We will never forget that. I know that was one of William's favorite parts of the day and mine as well

You will have to tune back in for my very favorite part of the day. It is a blog post in itself. I am pretty certain, the post, like the best part of the day, will be a collaboration between my husband and I. It is sure to scandalize, cause a stir, inspire, and embarrass. Be on the look out.

It was coming, coming, coming, coming, coming, coming, here, and gone. William and I had the most wonderful day on our wedding day. Someone told me it was raining that day, but I don't really remember. We both agreed that it was one of the best days of our lives...thus far. One of our wise friends said they hoped it wasn't the happiest day of our life and that the happiest days were ahead of us. We couldn't agree more.

I have so many thoughts about marriage and new found wisdom from my three weeks as a wife. But I wanted to post some of my favorite parts about the wedding and honey moon first. The honeymoon may take some serious time, because I took some serious pictures.

So you can obviously see all of the pictures that are on FB but I wanted to share some of the behind the scenes ones.

Thursday

I was so happy to be with my little Megan. I had seen all the other bridesmaids since graduating from college, but Megan moved to Minneapolis so I hadn't seen her in a year. But nothing ever changes about our friendship. I was so happy to see her.

As soon as I had people to help me with the wedding, I put them to work. We tied 200+ bells to place cards, it only took like 2 hours. No big deal. So helpful. Also, I had gotten my spray tan the day before, hence why I look like I just came back from a cruise.

Friday

We took all the bridesmaids out for lunch and mani/pedis. Literally, the worst manicure/pedicure experience I have ever had, but everyone managed to keep their cool. Good thing because I was stressssssing about it.

This picture is at the rehearsal, and I just thought it was interesting because these two people had never met before that day, but they were two of the most crucial people in supporting our relationship. Such contrast. Sacred and secular. Old and young. Both wise. Both holy. Both loving.

Little James, the show stealing ring bearer.

Ha.

My beautiful friends.

Saturday

Such a typical Megan face. I love it.

Signing the license

Going to take pictures

My poor little sicky was so beautiful, even if she felt like poop.

This girl. I swear everyday I hear about something else that went wrong with the wedding that she took care of that I never knew about. As the wedding was going on, I thought to myself, shouldn't this be more stressful? The answer is no, not if you have the best bridesmaids ever to protect and love you, lead by the best friend and maid of honor ever. They were seriously like Alpha Team. They are available for rent, for a modest royalty fee of course.