Wedding, Wedding

I keep getting emails from David's Bridal and from The Knot, still counting down to the supposed wedding date. How funny is that? I actually got a telemarket call for some wedding related thing and the guy introduced himself and asked how I was and I said, "Married, thank you." That really threw him off his script. Heh.

You can read stuff about the wedding at my brother blog here. Or Raven's blog here. But I suppose the bride has to tell her story herself, too, eh?


There is something exhilerating about playing in the rain. We (the girls) woke up at my house in the pooring rain. Of course, I would have loved to stay in bed BUT apparently I was neccessary for the ceremony and stuff. So I start getting dressed and fooling with my hair and make-up a bit. With the rain, I decided against anything elaborate or curled and found my best waterproof mascara. Raven however helped and took an amazing creative twist with it. Our photographer showed up with his wife (Erica who was a bridesmaid) took some pictures and they headed down to the site so they could pick up the flowers and apple cider donuts from Milburn Orchards (baked that day) on the way down.

Not only do I and Raven get to the site on time, but so does my Mom (early in fact yay Mom!). Mrs. Taylor allowes to get ready in her gorgeous house, she has a room that looks like a glassed in porch that we used.... of course this gave me a great view of-- torrential rain and frantic people scrambling. I have to admit, though, that the idea of sending my brother David to Wal-Mart the night before for clear ponchos for the boys was a good idea -- and they were all so courteous and handsome. DJ the eldest brother, came down from Wisconsin and aside from bringing lots of tasty cheese, he also helped organize the boys. They all did wonderfully, directing traffic, people, and doing all the last minute setup.

But apparently the tent did not shelter the land as well as we hoped. Of course, it really couldn't. It could handled rain but not monsoon, I think. So as I'm getting dressed Erica comes in and says there's a lot of mud under the tent... a LOT of mud. She doesn't want me to be too surprised. I look down at my handmade white leather moccasins from Medieval Moccasins and decide that maybe another footwear option is neccessary. Not a problem. I have pink and blue striped galoshes!

But we all get dressed successfully. I didn't have a guest book, I forgot to make one. So I asked Mrs. Taylor if she had a few sheets of stationary or something like that she could staple together for me. Her daughter, Bethany, and she actually took good paper, and ribbon, and made a guest book. That was so incredibly touching! The bouquets are amazing, the caterer is completely set up by the time the ceremony is ready to start we're all piled onto the back porch as things get rolling.... I can hear the music start to seat the mothers. Between my brothers and our ministers husband JB, who was soaked by now, just about everyone made it to the tent with an umbrella'd escort.

Erica and Raven looked absolutely gorgeous. I mean really pretty! The flower girl Brynn, and ring bearer, Trevor were adorable. I hadn't seen Doug or the guys yet. I was to walk down the isle with two brothers in front of me and two behind, with DJ giving me away and the others standing behind him. Even with the space constraints, I would not budge on my brothers giving me away, it was too important.

Just at the entrance of the tent, I find I can't walk. Oh, that's because David is standing on the hem of my dress and hay! there's hay everywhere. I made it halfway down the "aisle" very slowly since it's so short... and finally am able to see past all the people on my right and when I saw Doug, my legs just went..... all wobbly. And his eyes got all watery and red.... it was probably the hay *grin*.

But the ceremony went well from there. My friend Mike was stunning in a black satin shirt with a ruffle down the front -- he did the poetry reading (very well, the man has an amazing voice), my uncle read from the bible, the tent filtered what little light and rain there was and it was very.... authentic, I think in some ways, due to the arrangements. However the big attraction was that the first leaves of autumn had been scattered across the top of the tent by the wind and rain, and you could see them outlined against the ceiling. It was really pretty. AND there had been concern that we didn't have enough mums for the original plan, and the smaller space actually made the tent seem very full and bright.

No mishaps during the vows, which we had customized some. The ceremony seemed a bit long but I have to admit, when I looked out over the people gathered there, I knew every face, and to Doug and I, it really felt like they were sharing this with us, not spectators. Everyone really pulled together, even guests, to make this happen. Thinking about it now, I can really appreciate that -- people made it that I didn't think would make it, and some didn't that I thought would. But I think everyone had a good time.

I figure that the thing that bothered me the most was that everything went well except for the one thing I couldn't control at all and that put a real "damper" on things. But that day -- was wonderful. I love to play in the rain, and fortunately... it wasn't cold. It was just rainy. So how many people can say they got married in galoshes?

But the food was amazing and there was too much of it. Everyone got to eat their fill (this is good, I've been to too many weddings where there wasn't enough!) and it was really tasty. Blue Marlin Catering did a wonderful job and coordinated with the tent people A&M Tent Events really well. The apple cider donuts were made fresh that morning. There had been some thought of having a wedding cake but, I'm glad we didn't. Can you imagine what a mess that would have been in all that rain?

The hay.... apparently at the last minute, the idea of hay came up,since the tarps just weren't working AND were slippery. So my other brother, Daryl *grin* and the best made take a drive to a nearby farm (the mother of the girl Daryl is dating) and pick up several bales of hay to spread out under the tent... and it worked! I think, ultimately it protected Mrs. Taylor's yard, too.

This is just too funny to me for some reason. Doug was amazingly handsome. Granted none of the guys wore "traditional" formalwear, but they all pulled of their 'looks' well. I'm thinking Doug needs more doublets! Jon even bought a sword for the occasion. My brothers all wore their floofy shirts without too much complaining and looked incredibly good in them.

So pictures were taken, music was played, mead was drunk, food eaten... merriment and rain, hey it was definately relaxed, maybe a bit too much since a lot of wedding "tradition" got thrown by the wayside, but hey, I don't miss most of it. Especially not the damned garter thing which we both don't care for.

When it came time to leave, the RenFair was obviously not going to happen. We were all cold and wet and didn't want to get colder, wetter, and muddier. So the limo that Doug and I hired for 9 hours ($$$) only got used to take D and I are a long drive up Rt. 1 and back down to Barnhenge. Of course, we killed both bottles of champagne and the driver was really funny. I had some trouble getting into the limo, I asked the driver... "how do women in hoop skirts get into these things" .. he just said "very carefully".

So since there just so happened to be two brothers handy... I put them to work.... again. In the mud, in the rain, standing behind the limo, I hiked up my skirts and untied my hoop then had the boys pull it down so I could step over it (in my pink galoshes) and put it in the trunk of the limo. How funny is that? They were cracking up. I was wearing bicycle shorts underneath (how sexy is that? ), so nothing risque, no flowers in this attic, here.

So we went on our drive in the limo and just relaxed for a bit with a sigh of relief. We came home and managed to change out of our gear before friends started showing up -- of course we weren't going to let the party end at the reception! Mom even sent the boys up with leftovers and food ( we didn't have any since we were going away for a week ) -- we had beer and mead and a little hard stuff. I have to say I got quite drunk -- but had a good time, and I think everyone getting to hang out with everyone else in such an informal setting was good.

So many people pulled together to make this happen from the time we moved up the date and before that and during the wedding and reception itself I was really touched by all the love there, and as Devin said, this was definately a "Harris Wedding". I suppose my last day as a Harris had to embody that......and ya know, Doug and I are doing happily ever after quite well, I think.


We're still waiting on the proffessional photos, and I have to check and see if I can get any of them in digital form, to share. But in the post below this are some that friends and family have shared with us so far.