Helllllllo, girls!!
I have been so excited to share our day with you all!! It will be long, so pllllllease don't hate me!
On Valentine's day we stayed at my Mom's house because she was taking us to the airport in the morning.
While there, she gave me the most wonderful wedding gift. It was an old hanky of my grandpa's that had the material from my dress sewn onto it and had two dangling hearts-one for my Grandma and one for my Grandpa. Sweetest, most wonderful gift ever. My
Grandpa and I were really close and he passed away my Senior year of high school. My Grandma passed away when I was 4 years old, so this was a way to feel them with me on the wedding day.
We flew down to Florida on 2/15. We had a nice,
relaxing time in Orlando. We chose Orlando because low prices on flights, and our cruise left out of Port Canavrel. While there we picked up the items to finish our welcome bags and got our marriage license! The Key West forecast for Sunday was
saying thunderstorm. I was nervous!
On Friday, the 17th, we drove down toKey West. When we arrived, we checked into our rental for the week. That evening I get a text from my Aunt telling me my Dad and his girlfriend need to
stay with us. Now. This is ridiculous. We had a 2 bedroom rental for 4 people. My family had 2, 3 bedroom townhouses for the week. There was PLENTY of room for everyone. But apparently, I was the crazy person and the b**ch for saying it wasn't
possible. She said horrible, horrible things to me that night about how I should be bending over backwards for them because they all paid to come down here. Oh I was SO mad. Fi...ooops DH was LIVID. I called my mom who was driving in fromMiami and she
told them all to leave me alone, it was my weekend and to deal with it. DH, my mom, and I kept saying "Wedding > their vacation". They didn't get that. Everyone was there a week. They couldn't even give me TWO days for the wedding without being
jerks.
Saturday was the Welcome Party day!! We had our first meeting with the DOC that morning...LOVE. HER. She really just took control, she totally got my vision. She was amazed at my thrifty buys (haha) and completely
impressed with my DIY's. That was so nice to hear! Unfortunately, when we arrived and were looking through the box we mailed down, I realized I forgot my tears of joy packets inOhio, along with the WE DO for our cake table. I was majorly, majorly
bummed.
After meeting with her, my then FI and I walked aroundKey Westdid some sightseeing and had lunch. Once we got back to our rental, we packed all of our goodies into our welcome bags and got dressed. The Welcome Party was to start at 6:30pm. I
don't know if any of you have been toKey West, but parking can be a nightmare-especially when we were navigating our way to the restaurant for the first time. We found a parking garage right below the restaurant and just as that is happening, my phone
starts ringing, DH's phone is ringing and we were trying to find a spot. It is like 5:55pm, I answer DH's phone and it is his Father, saying "WHERE ARE YOU AT IT, WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" and I snapped...I was like, the party starts at 6:30, we are
trying to get everything settled. and he was like, "WELL. We are here because you told us it started at 6." Are you kidding?! I told you!? Read the invitation I sent you! I sure as heck did NOT mess up the time of the party I have had planned for
months. I was so upset. I was full of stress already and that just made me lose it. We walked in and I found the person who would be taking care of our party. He could tell I was a mess and was like, "Sit down, relax, I am going to get you a drink and
your party will be wonderful" Love him. He was amazing to us all night! The rest of our guests arrived (on time!) and we began our evening. We had a delicious dinner, everyone mingled and got to know each other, and drinks were flowing all night.
After the party we were ready to head out to a few bars. We ended up at Irish Kevin's it was just the bridal party, the parents and family split and went to bed or to a different bar. We were having a blast, and then one of my girls slipped a
note to the band that I was getting married tomorrow. So I was taken on stage, got on my knees and had 1/4 bottle of tequila poured down my throat!! Oh.my.gosh!! I was done. I couldn't believe I was able to do it. After that, I had tons of jello
shots. And at that point, I was ready to be dropped at the hotel room I had for the night. My MOH (sister) had her 5 year old son, so she stayed with him, my 2 girls had their boyfriends so they stayed with them, but I was to have one of my girls at the
hotel with me. She SERIOUSLY comes over and says, "I'm staying out." and I was like, "It is the night before my wedding!!" I seriously have dreamed of this night for years, just hanging with my ladies and having a fun, girly time. She walked away
from me, asked for DH's key to our room and he, not knowing what happened, gave it to her. I was pissed. He was SO mad when he found out what she was doing. He tried to stay with me and I said no way! He and his best man dropped me off at the hotel
and got me settled in. The hotel had champagne waiting...yum! So I showered, sat in a fluffy robe and drank champagne while I talked to DH on the phone. Around that time I realized my rude bridesmaid thought the room number was 359 when it is 356, so
I sent a text and told her the correct room number, just because I didn't want to have to deal with a mess. She walked in less than a minute later and said, "I'm so sorry." and then followed with, "It wasn't even fun" HELLO!? How about admitting you
should have never gone!? It was like 2am.
I sent a detailed timeline to everyone a few weeks prior to the wedding, but after the welcome party and the night before, I had ZERO faith that anyone would listen to me. My two bridesmaids that stayed at their own hotel were sweet as can
be and asked if I still wanted them there at 9, I said to go ahead and just arrive around 11am.
I passed out finally. I felt like I slept until 1pm when I woke with a bloody nose. I looked outside and it was STUNNING! There wasn't a cloud in sight and it was beautiful. And then I saw that it was only 7am! It hit me that it was my
WEDDING DAY!!!
I decided to let go of all of my anger, stress, and frustration. Nothing was going to ruin this day! I grabbed my video camera to take some video of the view, some coffee and water and sat out the balcony. It was so peaceful and I think I needed
that time to myself. It allowed me to slow down for the first time in months and just take it all in. Even if my guests were driving me nuts...they love Justin and I enough to come all the way down here for a week.
