Wedding Events – The Big Day!

Unsurprisingly, I had trouble sleeping the night before/morning of the wedding. I woke up around 4:30 and just laid there until around 7 when my alarm went off. Dad made mom and I eggs for breakfast before we started our mother/daughter wedding day adventures.

Hair and makeup were first on the agenda. We drove down to Siesta Key to the salon. My mother of the bride present was for mom to get her makeup done with me. After we got all prettied up, we went to lunch at one of my favorite restaurants ever – Captain Curt’s. I’m sure we looked strange with our makeup and my updo, but their clam chowder is the best!

As we went to leave Captain Curt’s, this lady got mad because she thought mom honked at her (it was the car behind us). She got out of her car screaming as she walked toward us. All I could think was that I was going to miss the wedding because we were in jail or something. Mom just told her it wasn’t us that honked and told the lady to get back in her van so we could all just go on. Luckily that worked, but it was a crazy moment.

We picked up my bouquet and got on the road back to Bradenton Beach. Along the way, we stopped for the cupcakes. I was a little nervous about them because, after having issues with the first bakery I’d booked, we’d just switched vendors 2 weeks prior and I hadn’t had a chance to taste anything from this place. I needn’t have worried, though. It smelled so good when we walked in that we bought a couple extra cupcakes to eat on the way back… which were amazing.

Up to this point, everything was on schedule for the most part and I was feeling relaxed. That calm feeling ended when we arrived at the venue to set up. Short version was, despite only having 2 hours prior to the ceremony to prep, nothing was ready for us to decorate when we arrived and another couple interrupted our time to have their rehearsal for the following night. My parents and I didn’t leave to get dressed until about 45 minutes before the ceremony start time. We flew back to the condo and got ready in record speed, but still were late getting back to the venue. I felt awful about being late, but as mom said – there certainly wouldn’t start without me…

The actual ceremony was really nice. Despite forgetting the rings and mom having to run and get them, everything was lovely. It started late because of the issues with decorating, the officiant did the wrong reading, and it was a bit warmer than expected, but none of that mattered. I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. The food was great, though I didn’t get a chance to eat much of it because we were walking around talking to everybody. At the end of the night, we walked back to the hotel, just a couple blocks away. People along the street congratulated us and wished us luck. It was an amazing night.