Welcome to my Wedding Day (part three)

Before the Storm

Having a May wedding always means there's a chance of rain. We watched the forecast for months to see the predictions of what the weather would be like on May 23. I was hoping it would be okay because two of my friends who had gotten married on the same weekend the year before had good weather.

While we were all getting ready with hair and makeup in the afternoon, I heard some talk about possibly needing to move things indoors for our wedding. The day was SUPER windy. I could look outside and see the tablecloths looking like they were stuck to the table legs from how much the wind was blowing. Most of the decor couldn't stay up because of how windy it was. Oh, and on top of the wind, there was supposed to be a big storm coming in around 9 p.m. The ceremony wasn't starting until 7 p.m., so I was hopeful by then the wind would die down, and I was also hopeful the storm would delay or not happen at all.

At some point later in the afternoon, my day-of wedding coordinator came to tell me it was looking like the storm would be coming in sooner than we'd thought, and that we should consider moving things inside.

And that's when I lost it. My heart is heavy and my eyes are tearing up as I write this because of all the things that happened on our wedding day, this is the moment I remember most. My bridesmaids had left the room so I could do a "first look" with them, but when I realized after months and years of hoping and dreaming about this day that things weren't going to be how I'd planned at all, I lost it. I had tried to keep everything together through cutting the guest list, dealing with drama, working around cancellations, and even through the food poisoning that morning. But at that moment I felt like all of the weight from everything just came crashing down. Our coordinator went to get my friends because I was crying so much, so that was my "first look" with my bridesmaids. I was so upset. Sad, angry.

I don't know how long I cried. I hope it was shorter than what it felt like to me. At some point, I realized I'd always wanted an outdoor wedding. Even if other things went wrong, I wanted it to all be outside. So I asked if it would be possible to move the ceremony up an hour. Immediately, our coordinator, photographer, friends and family all got to work on moving things around and contacting family about the time change. (Remember when I said we had cut the wedding guests to only people who lived close? That came in real handy here.) Thankfully, everyone was able to get there early, and we had the wedding at 6 p.m. instead of 7 p.m. It was such a crazy time.

By the time everything was over, Ty and I got on the road and ran into the storm we'd been trying to escape. I was so glad people had been able to get home and to safety before the storm rolled in because it was rough. There was hail, tons of rain, thunder, lightning and strong wind. We had to pull over at a gas station because we couldn't see the road at all! That's when we first prayed together as a married couple. I'll always remember that. We have made it a point in our marriage to pray together at least once every day, even if we don't get to see each other that day.

Thank you for following along with our wedding day story. Our wedding day was a long, crazy day. It's taken almost a year and a half to finally put everything into words, and it feels good to finally share it with you. I left some things out, but I think you can understand the gist of it all through these three blogs. I hope our story is an encouragement to anyone else who's had a crazy, stressful wedding day. And to anyone who's currently planning a wedding, you've got this!