So as most of you know I just got married last weekend. If any of you were wondering why I seemed to disappear outta the blogging scene, that is the main reason. The last month or so before the wedding took alot out of us....it takes alot more to create a wedding then I had ever imagined! We hit alot of bumps along the way, but in the end I'm very happy with how our big day turned out. Since I'm still coming down from the high of becoming a Mrs. I figured I would share my story with you of everything we went through to make this wedding day possible. It was a long and complicated process to say the least, but in the end I wouldn't change it for anything!
Jamie and I got engaged on my birthday September 6th, 2009. After we first got engaged we had decided to get married on December 18th, 2010. For some reason I had decided I wanted a December wedding and that it should be somewhat close to Christmas. Seeing how I wanted our colors to be red and silver this idea seemed perfect! Well after being engaged for a few months we realized that a December wedding wasn't going to be possible....not unless we wanted to wait until December of 2011 that is. Well I didn't want to wait that long so we started thinking of other options. One night while I was at dinner at my friend Melissa's she asked what our dating anniversary was. I told her February 26th. Next thing I know she tells me that feb 26th falls on a Saturday in 2011 and that we should make it our date so our anniversary would never change. *Lightbulb* Why didn't I think of that??? As soon as Jamie called that night I passed along the idea to him and he seemed to like it too. So February 26th, 2011 it became!
Next came the issue of where to get married. We really liked the ballroom at the Conference center and Inn in Clemmons, but decided against it because of its price and the fact you HAD to use their caterers. Our search went on for months before I decided to talk to my grandma's church and see if we could have the ceremony there since my church was too small. Luckily her pastor said yes and it couldn't have been a more beautiful location! We went with the tanglewood barn for the reception, also a beautiful choice.After that things seemed to start falling into place.
My mom came on as our "planner" (she has a degree in wedding coordinating), and she helped us make alot of the decorations (she's also very crafty). If it wouldn't have been for her being so crafty and us being bargain hunters we'd probably have gone broke on decorations alone. My family also decided to do their own catering to save money....we all worked our butts off the week before preparing food and putting decorations together. My friends also helped with this and if it wasn't for them I probably would have lost my head during the end!!
I also had alot of luck in the "wedding sweepstakes" that I kept getting entered into from all the bridal shows we went to. First I won a free honeymoon package for a 3 day/3 night stay at a Wyndham resort. Sadly I never got the chance to claim it because both Jamie and I needed to sit in on a bridal show registry party...we never had the time to do so. As much as a free honeymoon would've been awesome I don't look at it as much of a loss because we'd been throwing around the idea of going on a Carribbean cruise. Then I won a $250 gift certificate from Windsor jewelers from Skirt! magazine. This one I was able to claim and used to get Jamie his wedding band!
We booked a band whom I've become friends with over the past few years to play at the reception. They're called the Lloyd Dobbler Effect, and if you haven't heard of them you should look them up because they're awesome! Alot of my friends fell in love with them last weekend and I wouldn't be surprised if people ask me for their name and info in the future for parties and weddings. :)
Now here's where the complications start. Before the wedding I think we had to change the bridal party about 4 times! Two of the girls who were originally supposed to be bridesmaids got pregnant and had to drop out because of their due dates. Or let me rephrase that, one of them was nice enough to tell me she wouldn't be able to because of timing and financings, the other one seemed to fall off the face of the Earth! The only time I've heard from her in the past year was her saying congrats on my Facebook wall the day of my wedding. Another friend dropped out because she moved and didn't think she'd be able to still afford the dress. Funny thing is the night before the wedding she was pulled back in as an emergency replacement for my sister who had to step out because of illness! Only now can I sit back and laugh about that entire situation (though it still hurts my sister missed my wedding day)! We also struggled with how to have 4 people on Jamie's side and finally decided a month before the wedding to add his youngest brother as a junior groomsmen alongside my brother Sam even though all the girls on my side were grownups.
Everyone in both our families seemed to get sick the week of the wedding. My mom had a respitory infection and everyone else in both families seemed to have the flu. Luckily everyone was healthy (enough) on the wedding day. Sadly I'm now sick the week after with a sinus infection and stomach bug, but I'm grateful that we weren't going on our real honeymoon this week or things would be alot worse!
Now for the worst part....THREE days before the wedding the pastor who was supposed to marry us backed out!! Now this man is supposed to be not only a man of the Lord, but also a good friend of mine. How many servants of God OR friends do you know who would leave someone hanging 3 days before their wedding??? It almost sent me into a spiral of depression when I got his e-mail on Facebook (yes he used Facebook of all things to let us down). I remember crying, cussing, then feeling guilty that I was cussing a minister. A big part of me wants to hate him no matter how wrong hate is, but the better part knows I shouldn't. His "reasoning" was beyond a load of bull, and it really left everyone involved in our wedding day in a bind. So my mom hopped online and within an hour found a replacement who I've learned to call RevG. RevG is a true Godsend and saved us!! I cannot be grateful enough to him for pulling together a ceremony in 2 1/2 days....even if it cost us quite a bit! On a sadder note I found out some pretty bad things about the pastor I called my friend yesterday, and therefore i'm glad things happened the way they did. Having him marry us could have tainted our marriage! :/ I will be praying for him and the people who have been wronged by him. Thats really all I feel comfortable in saying at this moment.
So now for the day of the wedding! If it wouldn't have been for my entire family, and the entire bridal party we never would've gotten things pulled off in time! Stupid me forgot to print out the programs so my dear friend Randy took a rough draft copy that my maid of honor Katy made that morning to Staples and got them printed out a few hours before the wedding. My friend Meghan and her mom came to the barn early and did a BEAUTIFUL job setting up our candy buffet. My bridesmaids, Randy, grandma, and mom and I all setup the decorations at the barn, and mom helped her friend Kay fix the food until it was time to go. When I got to the church at 2:15 I found out we were locked out! I almost had an anxiety attack, and my grandma's pastor was close to an hour late getting there to let us in! As soon as we were in i had to run to the parlor to make sure I was hidden when Jamie and his family arrived! My friend Meridith who was our usherette started doing my hair for me while Heather (another bridesmaid) did my makeup. Literally 15 minutes before the ceremony was supposed to start I was rushing to get in my dress, get laced up, and get my monsterous heels on (which is almost a 3 person job)! When I heard Silent Lucididy start to play I was like, "Oh my gosh is it really time??" I've never wanted to pass out more! lol
But it did start and a big chunk of that day is still a blur! Luckily we'll have a video soon so we can actually sit back and enjoy it all. Even though we may have struggled financially, we somehow managed to pull of this beautiful fairytale of a wedding! I didn't get to use a caterer like I wanted (but man the food was amazing anyway...my family knows how to cook!), or get to use the photographer I wanted (I'm really sorry!), and tons of other things came up that I can't even remember right now it was still the best night of my life. Thus proving that money isn't what makes the world go round.....its LOVE! If it wasn't for my love for Jamie I think I would have let my mood been ruined on the wedding day by remembering the fact that we didn't have everything I had wanted when I first started planning. I wanted to have 3-4 photographers to make sure I didn't miss ANYthing that night. I wanted a photobooth so I could take silly pictures with Jamie and my friends then make an awesome scrapbook with the photos. I had also wanted to incoporate karaoke somehow at the reception because i love to sing (I got to sing with the band at the end of the night though and that was pretty wicked!). The point is....there was so much more I had wanted to make our big day "perfect". And it took me walking down the aisle towards the man I love to realize thats all I ever needed for the day to be perfect....Him and his love. Luckily those are two things that are now mine forever til death do us part! :)
~Shay Watkins~
p.s: Sorry just HAD to use my new last name!! ;)
So after stopping and talking to my dear friend yesterday I wanted to come back an add a small paragraph to this blog...
I'd like to personally apologize to two very important people who helped us during our wedding journey, Misty and Tammy. They deserve a fair mention and I can't believe I didn't give them one at all! These two ladies are both beautiful inside and out, they are both BEYOND talented, and they have made me a very happy bride! The bridal portraits they did for me were gorgeous, and the one they framed for me as a gift makes me tear up everytime I look at it. The pictures they have taken for me will provide me with a lifetime of memories and the ones I've been fortunate enough to see so far make me smile and giggle with joy. I cannot wait to see the overall package that they have created for us, I know each picture will be awesome! If you ever need a photographer whether its for bridal portraits, weddings, engagements, or something else I highly recommend you look them up!
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