Pre-Wedding Glitches**** Updated**** One picture added

I am certain that there is not a party held anywhere in the entire world that does not run into a few glitches. Maybe the food is late, the flowers are incorrect or the ice runs out. This is stressful for everyone involved in the process and in the party itself.

We were lucky, really. With rain almost the entire week before the wedding and rain scheduled for 3 days after the wedding, we were really holding our breathes. It was scheduled to be an outdoor ceremony! What if the weather was bad? What if it was windy? What if there was Red Tide?

It was amazing to wake up on our wedding day to the best weather anyone could ask for. A few wispy clouds hovered on the horizon, but it appeared that the weather was not going to be an issue.

The alarm was set for 0730 so that the family could get the tables and chairs setup early. We were all staying at the hotel where the ceremony was to take place. DSD jumped out of bed, ran to the balcony to check out the weather and ran back in to the bedroom. (silly me, thinking I could grap 2 more hours). "You better call the tent guy" he said. The tent was scheduled to be setup on the 19th, but the tent guy called that morning and said the weather was iffy. IF it cleared up in late afternoon (the rain stopped by 4pm), they would get to it. If not, they would be there at dawn. Dawn. Doesn't that mean sunrise? Now it is officially fall, but sunrise is still only a little after 6am. At 0730 they were no where to be seen. I called, was apologised to profusely and was told they were an hour away. I called again at 0930. They arrived at 10. That is not dawn!

Due to the fact that they were so late in arriving, the tent people were willing to wave the normal setup fee for the tables and chairs (we had chosen to do the setup ourselves to save a little money) and they would take care of it all. DSD took them the linens and the chart of the layout that we had decided on and I went off happily to get my hair done with my mom. The tent finally left the ground about 3! (This was a BIG tent) Left the ground. It wasn't done, just up. It was not tied down or strapped on and there were no lights yet. There was no way possible this would be done AND the tables, chairs, linens and centerpieces would be setup by the time the guests started arriving about 5. The entire family rallied, throwing tables, chairs, linens and centerpieces together in the shortest amount of time possible. I even have pictures of DSD's dad and brother-in-law helping strap the tent. I am still dumbfounded at the amount of work that was done in 2 short hours. By the time I exited my room, beautifully dressed and coiffed, everything looked exactly as I had pictured it.

Sadly, due to the fact that some family members were still setting up as late as 5, we missed out on a lot of the planned family pictures that were to be taken before the ceremony. DSD's mom arrived just shortly before the ceremony started and my bff, P, almost didn't take time to shower. They both worked terribly hard to ensure that my day was as wonderful as it could possibly be. Thank you both!

I am hoping to post some actual wedding pictures soon, but, Blogger is being a little uncooperative. I will try again later (that means tomorrow!).


****I was trying to add a picture of the view outside my hotel room window, but I couldn't find it on my hard drive. This is a picture of sunset right after the wedding.