Hitched!

The wedding went off swimmingly. Aside from a small amount of light rain, things were just perfect. All of the details that looked impossible fell in to place.

I'll start with Friday. Deb and I started out about 11 AM to run errands and check final preparations. We went and picked up Deb and Amber's dresses from the bridal shop. We would have picked up my dress, but much to my dismay there was still work to be done on it. That made me very nervous, but Deb was an absolute trooper and helped figure out a plan to make things work. We then ran to Haskell's to buy Tom's wedding present - an 18 year old bottle of Scotch. At this point my mother called to tell me my father's plane was delayed and she would be picking him up at the airport so they would both arrive at the rehearsal 30 minutes late. I was stressed about this situation, but we had to press on to the next task. Deb saved the day again by picking up the rental chairs for the ceremony just before the place closed. I busied myself finishing place cards and checking the weather over and over and over....
We arrived at the rehearsal and got the ceremony down, including the procession order and process. My parents showed up just in the nick of time! Towards the end, Deb had to save the day yet again (!) by running up to the dress shop to pick up my dress just after closing. My parents figured out where to walk and when, and then left to go pick up Takumi.

We all then headed out to Santorini's for a fabulous groom's dinner. The flaming cheese was served, wine flowed, and a belly dancer arrived to make many of us get up and dance! We had such an amazing evening, and toward the end, Takumi and his whole family came for dinner and dancing! The hard core crew was then off to the hotel to drink at the pub until the wee hours of the morning.

On Saturday, the guys and gals met up at the suites at the hotel. The girls had the party suite and the guys had the bridal suite. We could see each other across the hotel from the deck on the party suite. Our make-up person and hairdresser showed up and started to work on the bridal party. These two were outstanding! We had such fun and really got to enjoy the "getting ready" process. Sue worked on ironing her dress and the rest of us smoked our stress away. After a couple of hours, a bellhop came to the door with a package for me. Tom had sent over the most beautiful blue topaz earrings! Peter stopped by to make sure we had everything we needed (he had them bring us straws, bless his heart!) and I sent Tom's scotch back with Peter. Funny faces were made back and forth between the guys’ room and the girls’ room.

Around 2 PM the flowers arrived, just as beautiful as I imagined. As usual, we were late getting ready and made it down to the limo just after 3. It was overcast and I was getting nervous about the rain, but all that faded away when I came downstairs and saw Tom. He was dashing in his Tux and his face lit up when he saw me. I later asked him his favorite part about the day, and he said it was seeing me for the first time that day. Awwww. So away in the limo we went to take pictures at the garden. By this time a slight drizzle was going off and on, but we managed through it and Deb kept us covered by an umbrella between shots. JP was an awesome photographer and got some outstanding pictures. We took what seemed like a million pictures and suddenly it was 5 o'clock! The bridal party retreated to the shelter near the entrance and the guests trickled in. Before I knew it, it was 5:30 and time to get started!

What an experience the ceremony was. I wasn't nervous, but I was excited and hopeful the rain would hold off until after the ceremony. And then the music started.... Charles did a phenomenal job with the ceremony. The exchange of vows was amazing. I couldn't hold back the laughter and tears of joy. My Tom was just adorable and sweet and I was struck by how peaceful I felt. There was never a moment of doubt that this was what was meant to be. I was so focused on him that I didn't even notice the plane flying overhead :) I was taking in the moments, surrounded by everyone I love. A smooch and a quick recession completed the ceremony.

Much to my surprise, the ushers and bridesmaids had been keeping a secret. The programs had two spelling errors - one (sorry Jon!) was a misspelling of Jon Jackson's first name as John. The second, far more hilarious error: the Ode to Joy was listed as Beethoven's lesser known "Ode to Jose." Once this was pointed out to me, I couldn't stop laughing. Ole!

Through the receiving line, it was great to see everyone. Just after Tom and I were whisked away to the limo, the sky opened up and the rain started. Nice timing! The limo ride was fun, with Peter pouring champagne and Tom's parents honking behind us all the way. MnDOT made an unhelpful decision to close 494 and 100 Northbound that day so traffic was SLOW! We wound our way through the back streets and made it to the reception just after 7 PM. After a few minutes of cigars and entertainment outside, we made our way in for our first dance ("It had to be you"). The band was great, and Tom and I finally got a few moments to be fully absorbed into being "us." The pictures show I was sooooo happy at that moment....

I walked over to the cake table to see the cake and the picture JP had printed and framed before we arrived. Tom was right behind me and I paused at the front of the table. After a minute of looking over everything, I reach back to hold my new husband's hand. "Isn't it beautiful?" I asked as I squeezed his hand. "Yes, it is, and I'm not your husband..." came the response from JP who had walked up behind me when my husband wandered off! After I recovered from the shock, I wrangled up Tom and we did a quick cake cutting before it was time for dinner.

All of the food was amazing. We had Spanakopitas, Olive and spicy cheese appetizers, salad, and a choice of salmon two glazes (orange-ginger and teriyaki) or an outstanding pasta called Mushroom Timbale with artichokes and hot oil drizzled on the side. Yum! Everything was not only dee-lish, but also pretty.

Time for the toasts! Everyone had the most wonderful things to say, but two really stood out in my mind. Tom's dad went back to Tom's childhood and pulled out the nickname Punkin-Lunkin! He came close to tears near the end of his speech, but managed to make it to the end with a very nice blessing for both of us.

The other was my groom. He stood up and said. "Today, I feel like the luckiest man in the world, and I am so happy to have Gwen as my wife." Well you can imagine that put me right over the edge. I know that wasn't planned and was what came straight from his heart. I'm beyond words for how I felt at that moment - I'll simply say I was overwhelmed with joy at the thought that I was now married to someone my heart overflows with love for.

As the band played on into the night, we got a bit of a chance to visit and dance and laugh with family and friends. The end of the reception crept up on me, and I grabbed Tom for a final dance to, "At Last." We invited everyone who remained to join us and we packed the dance floor. There were even a few "bumper car" moments!

Around 11:30 we cleared out of Cafe Europa and made our way over to the Marriott where our suites were. We started with about 30 folks eating, drinking and just enjoying one another's company. The conversations continued until the last of the party-goers petered out around 3 AM. We headed back to our suite and collapsed into bed. Lucky for Tom and me, my sister is a night owl who stayed up into the wee hours of the morning cleaning up the party room. What a treat that was to discover the next morning!

Sunday morning we slept in a bit, getting up around 10 AM and gathering up our belongings from both rooms. A very sweet bellhop went from room to room gathering up all the boxes, bags and coolers. We stuffed the car full and headed from home. A nice late brunch with Peter and Lisa proved to be the perfect finishing touch to the party.

Here's to friends, family, the joy of a good party and a happy marriage :)