I've been waiting to tell the story of the wedding until I had all the pics to upload....but I'm tired of waiting so pics will follow eventually. Let's get this story on paper while I'm still traumatized before I forget.
Small things went wrong all day long. To be expected in a wedding. Especially an outside wedding in the scorching heat of June, when rain is in the forecast.
LUCKILY, when it started pouring, my daughter and her friends are so loud that most of them had no clue it was even raining. so the bride didn't freak out about that. She also had no idea that there was a miscommunication and there were ZERO chairs set up about an hour before the wedding.
Well, she knew. but we tried to keep all the drama from her.
The actual ceremony was BEAUTIFUL.
I found out beforehand that A was saving a seat for Baby Harper. If you have followed me for long, you know that this is her brother who passed away. The wedding planner let it slip when she was listing out who sat where, and I lost it. This is something I would have never thought of. Our family will forever have a baby sized hole in it because of losing him, but he was not on my mind at the time. what a sweet, thoughtful thing to do.
But that wasn't it. FH walked me down the aisle, and while I expected a seat to be saved for BH, I didn't expect it to be marked. It was, with the sweetest sign. and I lost it again. (these pics are just going to be grrrrrreeeat of me sweating and crying) AND THEN, here comes E, walking down the aisle like a big girl (yes, she's old enough to walk down all alone and be fine, but she DESPISES attention so this was a big deal for her) and she's holding a framed picture of BH. So very sweet and I will never forget this.
A was walked down the aisle by both her dad and FH. This was special to me because FH has been in her life since she was 6 and he has raised her as his own. He is a dad to her in every way possible, so I'm glad that he was not excluded from walking her down the aisle.
Prior to her walking down the aisle, you could hear her voice over the loud speaker, talking to her husband-to-be. This was so unique and she has such a way with words, that it was beautiful.
They wrote their own vows, and did so great. My nephew married them, which is so sweet to me.
Then, the reception.
It started off great, although I'm pretty sure there weren't enough seats for everyone.
The wedding party entrance was fun and then they went straight into the first dance. This was different, but when you find out what happened about an hour later, you'll know why I was glad that she did this first.
The first dance with FH was the sweetest. Both of them in tears and just such a special moment.
Then they announced the mother of the bride dance. EXCUSE ME, WHAT?
Side note: I've always felt like the mother of the bride and the dad of the groom get the short end of the stick on this, like we need love too! I've never voiced that....but A wanted a dance with me. I couldn't tell you what song was playing, I can only tell you I cried the entire time.
People started to eat, and drink, and be merry....it was pouring, but hey, we survived the outside wedding so who actually cares if it's raining now?!
And then BOOM. loudest noise ever. Lights out. Bulbs popping. Music stopped.
It appeared that lightning had struck the building. Then we saw fire through the window. so everyone FREAKED. especially yours truly because I could not find E right at that moment.
We were evacuated. Lots of people went home-not that I blame them. The rest of us stood on the porch, just waiting. Lightning had struck a power line, which fell and landed on the poor DJs car. His tires blew out because they were in a puddle of water. The concrete exploded and created an actual hole from the lightning. And a bush was on fire. For hours.
Sweet E has clearly been paying attention at church because she said "you mean, we had an actual burning bush?" I love that kid. A quote that I will remember the rest of my life. :)
We finally got back into the building, fired up some generators, found an iphone and a speaker (the poor DJ had to shut down because the lightning fried his board), turned on some fans and spotlights, and we partied all night.
I'm so proud of how A handled it all. Many brides would have been in tears. Not her. She took scissors to her dress because it was so hot in there, then told everyone to party on. Because life throws lightning at you sometimes, God sends rain to your parade, but how you handle it is a true sign to your character. And that child showed me that she has the best character. #proudmom
Oh, and the caterers decided to leave at the lightning strike, cleaned up nothing, and 50% of the guests got food poisoning, but other than that, it was a pretty uneventful day.
One daughter down, two to go. Hopefully it's a long time before we have another wedding. Let's celebrate another graduation before we do that, ok K?
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