Hi! So the last wedding recap left off right after dinner. If you missed any of my previous posts about our wedding, you can find them at that link! We left off right after our cake cutting….
We were totally the most nervous for first dances above anything else at the wedding. Although I was a competitive dancer all through elementary and high school and have a dance minor from college, I really hate dancing now. Long story. And so does Chris. So we though, do we even need to have a first dance? And the answer from our parents was: Yes. You do. So we did. Luckily, the weather was perfect on our wedding day and we were able to have all of our after-dinner activities take place outside on the gorgeous patio that was adorned with plenty of tables and chairs for people to sit and chat and a million twinkle lights, strung all above the patio and through the trees.
Chris and I chose the song Perfect by Ed Sheeran for our first dance song, for no real reason other than it is a beautiful song and one we could see ourselves loving forever and never getting sick of. We both feel like we were super awkward while we were dancing and basically just swayed around and around in a circle and giggled and talked and kissed. It was fun, but we were really happy when it was over, haha.
Then I had my first dance with my dad to a mash-up of Alison by Elvis Costello and Brown Eyed Girl by Van Marrison. Both of those songs are really sentimental to us – the first one for obvious reasons and the second one just because we have both loved it forever. My dad and I also felt super awkward, but we had a really great conversation while we were “dancing” (if you could even call it that) that meant a lot to me. When we were done, Chris had his first dance with his mom to My Wish by Rascal Flatts.
Once those were all over, I had asked our DJ to kick off the rest of the night by playing Forever Young by Bob Dylan, aka the Parenthood theme song, aka all of our favorite show ever. Then it was just a free-for-all as far as music went. We had given our DJ a Spotify playlist of songs we would really like to hear, but let him know that it was totally okay to play songs our guests requested, too. Our goal with the rest of the evening was to allow those people that wanted to dance to dance, but to not make anyone feel weird that didn’t want to (ourselves included). So the tables strategically set up around the patio allowed people to congregate in groups and talk without being overshadowed by the music, and other groups of people gathered inside in different rooms of the mansion or at the bar. It was just what we were going for!
Chris and I did our best to make it around to chat with as many people as we could during this time, but again, I tended to hang out with the kids haha. It’s just where I belong. We were grateful that no one was pressuring Chris or I to dance, because we just plain didn’t want to. Instead, we really enjoyed having the time to socialize with our guests and before we knew it, my mom was telling me it was time to go upstairs and get changed and ready to leave!
I must admit, I sobbed when my mom and I went upstairs alone. I was just so grateful for her and everything she did to make our day so amazing and I didn’t want it to be over. But sadly, it was. She got me out of my dress and I tried my best to grab everything I would need for the honeymoon, but still felt like I was missing a million things. She reassured me that she would leave nothing behind and we would deal with organizing everything when I got home, which made an OCD girl like me go nuts.
By the time we made it downstairs, everybody was lined up to say goodbye to us and Chris had already pulled the car around to pick me up! I remember thinking to myself, how did that all happen so fast? Are they kicking us out? And they kind of were! Our parting gifts for our guests were gourmet muffins, so of course my mom sent a few of those with us to enjoy on the plane the next morning. I bawled my eyes out saying goodbye to my parents, sisters, and bridesmaids. I felt like I couldn’t thank them enough for everything they had done and didn’t just want to run out on them, but everybody was so excited for us and couldn’t wait for us to go have a great time on our honeymoon. We really do have the best people in our life.
And then that was it! We got in the car, were able to say goodbye and thank you to our wedding planner as we were driving away, and we were on the highway! It was so, so fast. We were both pretty quiet in the car, and I was able to look through the super sweet polaroid book my sister Olivia had worked so hard on throughout the night and gifted us as we left. Our drive to the airport hotel was a little less than an hour, and it really was amazing to sit in silence with my husband and see him driving us towards our honeymoon with his hand on the steering wheel and a ring on his finger. 🙂
Sometime soon I will do a honeymoon recap, and then all this wedding stuff will be over – crazy!
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In all honesty, I just got really sad as I was writing this post. Our wedding day was everything we could have dreamed of and more, and it really was over in the blink of an eye. As I write about it, I miss that day more and more. And although it is disappointing we will never have it back, I am so excited to relive it again in a few weeks when we get all our pictures back from our photographer and get to see the video our videographer put together for us.
But for now, it’s just back to real life. This has been a tough week, work-wise, for me. I have an extremely flexible job that I am good at and appreciate very much, but I am just not passionate about it. I’ve been struggling with the balance between what I should be doing and what I want to be doing. I also haven’t been feeling great this week, which sure doesn’t help anything. So I am really looking forward to a relaxing, low-key weekend with Chris. His work scheduled has been insane lately, so we both need it.
Have a great Friday and a wonderful weekend. 🙂
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