We survived our wedding (Part 2)

And then the ceremony started. (My brother's dad offered to video tape the whole thing for us on his tripod camera so everyone could enjoy themselves).

We were supposed to have coordination paid for for it, but we had to figure that out ourselves. Thankfully the rehearsal helped us carve out the do's and don'ts so we were able to do it on our own.

I had one of my bridesmaids remind SCB to tuck his vows into his jacket pocket (good thing to or he would have forgotten them).

My brother held my hand and walked me down the isle and it was perfect. SCB's mom had made me a hand made handkerchief and I carried that with my bouquet down the isle. After my brother gave me away, SCB and I Immediately turned to my bridesmaids who were holding 2 vases of pink roses that we then gave to each of our parents together along with hand written thank you notes addressed to each of them. Then we proceeded up to get married.

We all laughed when the guy in the Corvette drove by and shouted "CONGRATULATIONS!" in the middle of the ceremony (it helped lighten the mood)

We exchanged our personal vows, said our traditional ones, did our sand ceremony, exchanged our rings, got to kiss as man and wife, and in my exit I forgot to grab my flowers back from my maid of honor!  

After we exited, our guests had to move the chairs inside (Still sooooo angry about that), and we did our group shots and some solo shots with the photographer. (I'm hoping these turn out well because we didn't get a lot of good shots with my brother's camera-- but I still have my MOH's camera to look through too)... plus we got a few good ones from our guests who grabbed shots and posted them on facebook!)

My family behaved-- through the whole thing. (MIRACLE- I think after witnessing everything that went wrong since they showed up 10 mins after I did there was no way in God's green earth that they were going to attempt to make me cry since I was already holding back the tears from before the ceremony's stress).

My brother announced us all into the reception via a wireless mic (since he had to also introduce himself since he was also a groomsmen) and as we were announced we went right into our first dance song.... which we pulled off fabulously despite the fact that my handmaid garter fell down my leg and the ribbon kept tripping me up. (Yeah for floor length dresses).

After that I went around and mingled and apologized for the horrible wedding company. We then honored and thanked my grandma and the family we have been staying with with flowers and thank you notes and then did our Best Man and MOH toasts. The 2 servers I paid for who were supposed to be properly dressed weren't there. Our guests had to pour their own apple cider.... We followed that with cutting our cake.

No one came up from the company came to help us with the cake cutting so we just had to figure it out ourselves... and when the cake was brought back into the kitchen, they butchered it and didn't cut it properly. (my mom and my aunt almost walked into the kitchen to fix it for us since they both know how to as professional servers, we paid for servers so they could enjoy themselves)-- should have saved the money since the people didn't do jack... and the cake was horribly served (But tasted yummy!!!!!) hats off to the bakery for getting our suggestions for the filling PERFECT)....

We only got to actually have a slice when SCB went into the kitchen to actually track down some for us to have... well more than the one bite we fed each another!

and here's the kicker... at that point the mom and daughter wedding company should have left the site since the cake was cut and the toasts were finished.... but no... they stayed and made it awkward as hell since they walked around and kept fiddling with things.

But we continued on.

We did a few group shots with the photographer of everyone who was there and got in some more family pictures too since that was easier inside the building than out. The photographer left after about 2 hours and after some more mingling we did a second round of toasts where my "brother" gave the best speech ever. My sister followed him (and my sister only slightly got out of hand) and then we played our dad's favorite song and danced to it. His parents gave us their toast personally instead of surrounded by everyone and I was really touched by it. They told us that SCB had  married up and that there were no returns =)

After that guests started to slowly filter out. We tossed the bouquet and the garter & then my family left to go out and celebrate elsewhere and it finally mellowed out. My mom was impressed about how well mannered all my now brother in law's children were, especially with the delays. the 4 month old baby didn't cry at all during any part of the wedding or the reception, nor did the 2 year old who actually wore his cute blue tie!

With just our close friends and my now husband's family left, we brought out the mini marshmallow gun and played with that as the two year old ran around collecting them (It was soooo adorable). We opened some of our gifts while the wedding company took down everything and put it away. (At least they did one thing right).



We then drove down to the beach, walked the sand and took some candid pictures in our wedding clothes, got honked at a lot and just relaxed. It was heaven to get out of my shoes! After we finished playing at the beach and taking pictures, we drove home and dropped stuff and my MOH off at the condo and then drove through the canyon to retrieve my wedding bouquet from SCB's family who forgot to drop it off at the condo. It was nice to see them for a few mins (and it was funny to be in a campsite still in my wedding dress).

We checked into the hotel his parents got us, and still in our wedding clothes proceeded to Chili's to get some dinner (its SCB's favorite restaurant and after that crazy day I couldn't deny him!).  Back at the hotel we got cleaned up and attempted to get all the bobbi pins and stuff out of my hair... the marshmallow gun reappeared and so did some Harry Potter since a local station was doing a marathon since the new move comes out this week.  We passed out around midnight exhausted as heck but married none the less. And despite everything, I got to marry my best friend and I couldn't be happier.