project: bride!: the ceremony (getting situated)

This is what our ceremony area looked like before people started to sit down:

Some benches and chairs, a couple of tables up front, our musician hanging out in the corner, all calm and peaceful like.

This is what our ceremony area looked like after our coordinator had everyone find a seat:

It looks so small to me now! It is hard for me to believe there are about 100 people crammed in there. At the time, the size of the crowd seemed huge and overwhelming, but looking back it is small and intimate and perfect.

Just minutes before this, the venue was buzzing with noise, chatter, music, cooking. I was hidden away in the back room when suddenly everything was still, and someone was telling me IT'S TIME! GET IN LINE! At this point I wasn't exactly ready. I didn't realize it was already 6:15, which was go-time. (I found out later it was actually only 6:05, but for some reason we got started 10 minutes early? I still don't know why!)

My mom was trying to put on her earrings, my stylist was still attaching my veil, and then poof, someone hands me a bouquet and I hear the song cue and its go time, people!

While I had a 30 second panic and snapped into place, the following happened:

Our officiant walked out and took her spot in front of the vertical garden.

The music started.

(OK, I am blatantly stealing this idea from my Bee friends... But when, and if, you choose to listen to these embedded songs from our ceremony, please imagine them being played by an awesome solo guitar player. If you want. Or just rock out to some of our favorite bands, that's cool too.)

Right, soooo the music started, and then...

B walked out and took his spot in front of said vertical garden!

C walked out and took her spot as well.

While G waited patiently.

Until it was her time in the spotlight , too.

Z waited quietly for his turn.

And did a superb job of walking down the aisle all by himself!

All the while, B was watching for yours truly to emerge from beyond the dark curtain!

And then, wonder of wonders, the songs changed. To my all time favorite song ever written, EVER. I had no choice but to walk out to this song, it called to me.

And so I appear!

At the last second, our flower girly got nervous, so we held hands and she walked down the aisle with me and my mom :)

To say I walked fast would be an understatement! Our musician didn't even have time to play the whole song. Sorry, guests, I wish you could have heard that Kinks song the way it was meant to be heard. I am just a naturally fast walker, and having everyone standing up and watching made me walk even faster than normal. I totally forgot about the "all guests will stand up when the bride comes out" part until it happened.

The approach.

The hugs.

Then I took my spot in front of the vertical garden, and handed off my bouquet.

I resisted the urge to give B a quick kiss, and we grabbed each others' hands (and held on for the entire ceremony, except when we were holding microphones!)