The ceremonial wedding

I really need to get back into the habit of updating this more often. In my defense though, I’ve been waiting for the pro wedding pictures but they’re taking some time to get done. And because we still don’t have them yet, I’ll just go ahead and write this post and show pictures separately.

This post will also be “special” in that I’ll have a co-writer to tell you all about her side of the story of that particular day in May. Mostly because my side of the story is really, really boring.

May 23rd, from the groom’s perspective

So, basically, I pretty much got up lazily. Anais had already gone to get her hair done and make sure last-minute things get done. My morning started with a sense of dread. Not because I was about to get married, but mostly because I had to wear a tux in Florida. I’m really bad with heat and the idea of wearing not one, but two long-sleeved tops and a vest was killing me.

Once I got over this sense of dread(Breakfast and a shower helped, I might add), I put my tux on. Now, I’ve never worn one of these, let alone know what to do with the studs and cuff links. The fact that the tie came pre-tied was a bit of a saving grace. So I actually spent some time on Youtube to find out what those studs were and how to use them, and how to properly use cuff links. As it turns out, I apparently did the cuff links wrong regardless because I had folded the sleeve before putting on the cuff links, like they did in this video. No matter, I’m told I still looked good. To keep some of my sanity I also put on my spiffy Star Wars Empire tie clip(Would’ve gotten the Mass Effect Mass Relay clip, but it wasn’t available anymore :(. The Empire clip actually matched the rest of my studs/cuff links better too, as those were black as well).

Now that I was all dressed and ready, all I really had to do is wait for my then-not-yet-sister-in-law to be ready to take me over to Paradise Cove. On the way over we stopped by my other then-not-yet-sister-in-law to drop off some stuff for the reception at her house, as it was a lot closer to the reception hall, as well as picking up my friend and best man and his girlfriend.

When we got to Paradise Cove, the waiting game started. Even though we were a bit early, there were already some people there. Luckily, there was quite a bit of a breeze to keep people cool a bit. We set up our ghetto-fabulous taped boombox for the two tracks of music that we were going to play(Two Jason Mraz tracks, one for the entrance walks of the best man, maid of honour and bridesmaids and one for Anais’ entrance).

After a while, and a bit late, Anais arrived and everyone got into position for the ceremony. Which was lovely, albeit a bit windy. Actually, a bit is probably an understatement. Anyway, when the ceremony was done(We’ll have a video of this up at some point, no worries), photos were taken and while people were supposed to stick around some to drink the warm drinks we brought(Forgot the ice, d’oh!) they already started to head out to the reception hall that we had to arrange at the last minute. Good thing the bridesmaids managed to control them fairly well as they were setting up the tables.

Also, I’m just going to go ahead and plug Reverend Steve Swan for a moment there. He has been very helpful in putting together the ceremony and generally a great person throughout our dealings with him(Learning names and pronunciations and the late start of our ceremony, for example). So, if you’re in the Orlando area and looking for a reverend to marry you, recommendations for this guy from me.

May 23rd, from the bride’s perspective

I woke up anxious and stressed around 6 am, because I still had a lot to do that day. I debated whether to get up right there and do the rest of the flower arrangements we had started the night before. I actually ended up getting up an hour later or so. It took quite some time to do these floral arrangements, because it’s actually ridiculously difficult to figure out all kinds of stuff like how many flowers per vase, how to arrange them and such so it didn’t look too thinly spread. I also had to make more than we actually needed because people wanted to own some of them due to the pretty flowers we had chosen.

While I was working on these, I realised that I hadn’t done my bouquet or the men’s corsages either. So I threw the flowers for those at my mom to make, which also took a while. Once she was done with that I made her do my bouquet while I was building the bridesmaid’s bouquets with her help because those damn ribbons didn’t want to stick. By the time all the flowers were done it was already 1 and I rushed my mom to make my veil. I had poked her for months to do this, but she hadn’t and so that was another last-minute thing that had to be done.

I then hopped into a car and went up to the Millenia mall to David’s Bridals to go save the dresses from their steamy cleansing. Had to check all the dresses to see if everything was there and correct and such. From there I went to get my hair done. It took me quite some time to get to the salon, because of an accident causing busy traffic and the longest train holding up even more traffic and making me take a detour around the tracks.

Due to my tardiness I was lectured because I should’ve been there hours earlier and I should’ve put my bridesmaids to work. All of these delays made sure I wasn’t able to pick up my dad’s picture from Walgreens, so I called one of my friends to go do that after he got done getting ready at my sister’s house and get the bridesmaid’s dresses from me because I had no time to bring those to them either.

As it turns out the original hairstyle I had picked was going to take much longer than the 30 minutes that I had, so the stylist decided to put it into a loose bun with pins that would fall out during the course of the night and make my hair fall down naturally in curls. It actually took about an hour.

Then my friend came in to grab the stuff I had called him for(the dresses) and he had also already picked up the photo from Walgreens. I was wished luck and headed back home through a quicker back-way.

I realised people were being more nice when they saw I was wearing my veil and got out of my way as I drove home. Finally got home and my family had already gotten ready too, which was nice to see. Usually they’re not as timely. I ran into my mom’s room to rush my dress on and that took a while because of the corset on the dress. Took a while because you have to criss-cross the ribbon thing through the hoops.

With my dress on, all that was left was redoing my make-up and putting on my jewelry and I was ready to go. Grabbed me a chicken sandwich to eat, because I hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast. By now it’s 6pm, so basically I had gone the whole day without any food.

Took a bunch of photos and then we headed out. We had to rush because we were already running very late. Made my mom drive, because I couldn’t possibly manage with my dress. She actually drove a lot faster than she usually does, though I sometimes had to poke her because she was reverting back to her regular slow pace of driving.

When I finally got to Paradise Cove, hopped out of the car quickly and tried to stay out of sight as best I could as I got into position. Signaled my girls that I had arrived and got them to get everyone ready and cue the music and we were finally ready to begin!

I was very anxious about this whole walking down the aisle, even looking down for the most part. Got more comfortable once I reached the end and stood next to Jeff.

May 23rd, the reception

So the reception went pretty well. The food was totally awesome and so was the cake. Apparently it’s tradition to keep part of the cake in the freezer for a year to eat at the first anniversary. I can’t wait, it’s going to be amazing. After dinner came the (dreaded?) first dance. I’m not a dancer. And it shows, I was actually expected to dance to merengue(after our official first dance, which didn’t go too badly I suppose). I mean, I’m white and I can’t dance, I’m sure you can imagine what that looked like :<.

The wife didn’t like the DJ much, he had a lower price and all because he’s a friend of mom’s, but didn’t really do well following directions as far as playing music goes. We had both compiled a list of music, with my music being mostly metal/rock oriented and he played a whole two tracks off this list and started out playing stuff from his own list.

She was also very happy getting out of the wedding dress and into her purple, more comfy, dress. The wedding dress made it fairly difficult to walk and she has even tripped a few times in it. Also loved the speeches from the best man and the maid of honour, they both did very well on them.

Getting wed part 1 – Courthouse wedding

This post has been long overdue, and it won’t even be a good one because the courthouse wedding wasn’t very long or very interesting :D.

Something that might be good to know for my non-US readers is that a couple of civil services(among which is marriages) are dealt with by the Osceola county clerk and his staff in the courthouse and not at city hall. Not entirely sure if they even have a city hall like we’re used to in the Netherlands. NB. “regular” ID cards are handled by the Department of Motor Vehicles(DMV), who is also in charge of driving licenses and voter registration. Strange but true.

So, first things first. In order to get married in Florida, one must first purchase a marriage license($93.50) and then wait for three days before it becomes valid for 60 days. While it’s possible to get a discount and a waiving on those three days, we decided to just wait it out. It involves spending time in some sort of pre-marriage counseling class which costs about as much as the money you “save” with the discount. Don’t really need somebody to tell me how to share responsibilities and how to deal with our shared pool of money anyway.

After obtaining the license we had to pick a date to go back there to have the wedding performed. The date we picked is the same date as my birthday and so easy to remember. Since we applied for the license on the 19th of March(3 days after I arrived in the US), we had ample time to look for rings.

The day of the actual wedding the courthouse was practically empty, which kind of came as a surprise considering the amount of time we spent waiting in line the first time we were there. Handed over the license to the lady, who promptly directed us to a separate, and somewhat sterile, room where the simple ceremony was supposed to take place.

License stamped and just like that we were married. And have been for almost two months now.

Oh god.

It has been a while since my last post and in the mean time the year of 2012 has come, and the year of 2011 has gone. So let me start off by wishing a late happy holidays. Now, with that out of the way…

In the past few months we’ve been starting to get things sorted out for my departure and wedding. As it stands, I’ll be leaving this country on March the 15th. I’m having a bit of a tough time deciding what to bring and what to leave behind, specifically book-wise. I’ve got a fair amount of books that I enjoy. I’ll probably bring two suitcases full of clothes and smaller possessions and maybe my bass guitar. Beyond that, everything else is set. I’ve got my ticket ready, my passport with visa and the documentation I need to enter the country.

A wedding, however, is a whole different beast. So far, the venue is booked for May the 23rd. Invites have been received and will be sent out sometime this week(Mine will be, at least) and we’ve got pretty solid leads for a dj, officiant and cake and a bunch of other stuff. Still have a fair amount of time to get it all sorted out, so I’m not worried just yet.

All in all, it’s pretty friggin’ scarily close.

Ze wedding venue

Step 1 of operation “Floridian Wedding” is successful. We’ve found a nice little place that doesn’t seem very expensive and doesn’t seem to mind about the whole uncertainty in our lack of a solid wedding date. It’s called “Paradise Cove” and is located near “Lake Brian”, which is in the Lake Buena Vista area and about a 20 – 30 minute drive away from Disney World.

I haven’t been there yet myself, however, I do have a bunch of pictures and a few short videos of the place so be sure to check those out.