As you may have gathered from previous blogs, RJ and I recently moved to Mississippi (shhh), for his new job. There are a lot of great things about his job, but the vacation lock-down that they currently have him on is not one of them. We were having a really hard time setting a date for our wedding next summer. We wanted to get married in Hawaii where we met. I know, that sounds super romantic. :) In fact, for the past 7 years when I've told people that we met in Hawaii, I sort of just let them assume we met on the white sands of a beautiful beach. But the truth is- we met at Dave and Busters. And my mouth was entirely full of food when we were introduced. Classy. RJ revealed this little gem in his toast at the wedding, so the jig is up. Anyway, in the words of Rick Lund, "I digress"...
The more we tried to set a date that wouldn't interrupt his class schedule, the more we realized next summer just wasn't the best time to get married. It was becoming this constant cloud of stress hanging over our (ok, probably just my) heads. So me, being the fabulous procrastinator that I am, suggested that we put the wedding off until RJ was finished with his classes. I wasn't entirely happy about this decision, but I knew it was what was best for RJ, his job, and our relationship. Well, this selflessness lasted about all of two days before I realized how much I didn't want to wait 2 MORE years to get married. I know, aren't I such a good wife? So I threw out the idea of doing it the weekend that our families were going to be in New Orleans for RJ's officer commissioning ceremony.
I really didn't think he would go for it, and to be honest, I had a lot of reservations about the idea as well. I didn't want to steal the spotlight from his big day, I was worried we would regret having a small wedding, and feel like we missed out later on... and mostly I didn't like the thought of people who are extremely special to us not being able to make it. This is something that tends to happen when you give your guests 2 weeks notice. However, despite these reservations, the idea stuck, and we tentatively put it out there to our families. Their response was positive and before we knew it, our tiny ceremony had exploded into about 30 people.
I'd love to be able to tell you that I was a really chill bride throughout this 3 week planning process, but RJ (and my family) would probably beg to differ. To be honest I had lots of moments where I questioned if we were making the right choice. NOT with getting married... I realized a long time ago that I was the luckiest girl in the world and needed RJ to put a ring on it ASAP. But the small, last minute wedding in New Orleans brought a few moments of panic....
The first was when I realized ALL of RJ's best friends were coming... and I hadn't even reached out to mine yet. I blame this lapse in communication on the fact that we spent most of the three weeks before the wedding apart. I had gone home to visit family, and attend some weddings. What's more, RJ was working nights, so between that and the time difference, our schedules were completely opposite. All of these factors led to one super chill bride. JK. In fact, I remember the feeling of tightness in my chest when I shrilly told him that I was signing us up for phone sessions of pre-marriage counseling. He loved the idea.
Luckily, I somehow was blessed with the very best girlfriends in the entire WORLD, because despite the 2 week heads up (one week for my friend B, who was honeymooning), most of them were able to be there. I can't even put into words how much it meant to me the efforts that they took to come to New Orleans. I knew that because of specific circumstances, there would be a couple of my best friends that just wouldn't be able to make it, no matter how hard they tried. (Damn you Harvard, and family weddings). But at one point I was worried I wouldn't have any friends there... so I honestly tear up when I think about how Meg and B pretty much just dropped everything and bought a ticket on the spot when I explained to them how this sneak-attack wedding came about. Seriously, these girls are incredible, and if you don't know them you should meet them immediately, that's how amazing they are.
The first panic attack averted, the second arose when when our favorite restaurant told us they just didn't have the kitchen capacity for 30 people. And the third was when my hairdresser/friend called and said she had to go out of town that weekend and wouldn't be able to do my hair. Call me crazy, but I really felt like this was a bad omen. RJ didn't have a ton of patience for the third crisis, but for the other two he was amazing. He listened patiently, and always talked me down off my crazy. No matter how bad I was feeling, as soon as we talked I felt better. And that's when I realized that none of those things really mattered. All I wanted was to marry him. When I would think about marrying him in two weeks, a huge grin would break out on my face and excited butterflies would fill my stomach. Waiting 2 years to get married was FAR more disappointing than not having flowers, or dancing, or our perfect restaurant (which we ended up getting).
So that's the story of how this "sneak-attack wedding" came to be. In the end, once the idea was put out there, I couldn't imagine not doing it. No matter how "thrown together" the event felt at times, all I really wanted was to marry Ryan. And so I did. :) It was pretty much the best decision I ever made. The weekend was absolutely PERFECT. Truly perfect. I think I must have done something really good in my last life to have gotten this lucky. If I got to do it all again there is nothing I would change. Unless I could somehow control the weather... and then I would have made it 15 degrees cooler.
Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the day...
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| My brothers are the best |
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| :) |
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| I've loved this guy for a really long time. The vows were my favorite part. |
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| Married! |
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| Gosh he is handsome! |
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| My dad was cracking me up. This was one of my favorite moments... |
As you can tell from these amazing photos- the next blog post needs to be completely dedicated to the amazing TOM HOWELL. Tom is a family friend, who is basically my second dad, since our families have known each other since I was five. He took all our pictures and I cried when I saw them. I have never seen pictures that capture moments the way Tom manages to. When I looked at all our photos, I felt like I was reliving the entire day and all the emotions of our wedding. I don't think all the money or fancy photographers in the world could have gotten me anything close to what Tom captured. I posted a ton of Tom's incredible photos to my Facebook, if you want to see more. He is honestly the best! I know I say this a lot, but we are SO lucky.
On the note of being so lucky- we seriously have the most amazing family and friends. When we decided to have a tiny wedding, 3 weeks to the day, it was inevitable that not all the people who are special to us would be able to be there. This fact should actually be considered "panic attack number one", because it was a guilt that just wouldn't go away. But whether they were at the wedding or not, our friends and family have been incredible. The kind words, and best wishes that everyone reached out to us with have meant the world. My awesome aunts even threw me a shower. :) So thank you to EVERYONE, not just the people who were there. We are so lucky to have people in our life who love us so much, and I hope you know that whether you were in New Orleans or not, we were thinking about you. I suggested inviting everyone who couldn't make it to the wedding on the honeymoon! RJ-Bear pretended he didn't hear me when I suggested that one, so I'll have keep you updated.
Sorry to ramble on as always, and to be a little sappy, but hey- if you can't be sappy in a blog talking about why you got married, when can you be? Stay tuned for more pics, and some top moments from our amazing weekend. My next blog will have less talking and more pics... promise! Love you all!
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