So me and my crew woke up (stupidly) early on Sunday morning and helped load up the cars with all of the decorations and flowers for the reception site and headed over to hall to set up. Joey and I were still doing the whole “I cant see you till you walk down the aisle thing” so he and his crew slept in late. I did however drop by their room to drop of my wedding gift for Joey.
When Joey and I first started courting each other (not even dating) we did as so many socially awkward people do, through mix tapes. My first mix for Joey was actually a concept album with a back story that flowed from song to song, and I called it “Songs for My Socialite”. Throughout our relationship Ive released sequels on various milestones, but it had been awhile since I had done one. Since Joey and I had our eyes on frugality we made a no wedding gifts to each other rule, unless it didn’t cost us anything to make. So I suprised Joey with “Songs for My Socialite Spouse”, which featured covers of songs about weddings, autumn, New York, and general lovey dovey stuff. I also designed cover art which featured two mummies cuddling.
As I was leaving for the reception hall to set up one of my in-laws stopped me in the hallway to say “You know its supposed to rain today…”. I actually did know, as you can see in my past recaps everybody kind of knew but the forecast predicted no rain till late that evening. So I put on my bravery shorts and pressed on. FYI Readers, That sentence could be considered foreshadowing…
I feel its important to preface this next part by saying my venue was lovely, affordable, helpful, and I was very happy overall with it, and any unpleasantness that may have gone down has since been remedied in full and will never happen to another couple that has a wedding there. That being said…
Our venue had given us free reign of our space for the whole morning before our 4pm reception to decorate which is very rare to find in most venues, they told us that we could begin setting up at 8am, which was terrific. So we arrived at 8:25 ish only to find that no one was there to let us in, so we contacted our event planner and initially received no response. My mother being one of those go getters of the world actually found a janitor at the back door of the building and got us in by 8:45.
So we began setting up all of our decorations, and at about 10am our event planner showed up, in fact so did the planners for the other events they had booked within spitting distance of our space. My stress factor was pretty high already, from both not sleeping enough and a number of things going wrong at the start, and knowing that there was no an additional event going on one room over with a very loud band did not help matters. I also got overstimulated from giving out directions and having my name said entirely too often. However I pressed forward
Setting up the favors table (photo by Brooke Jensen)
Our event planner sauntered in (in shorts and a baseball cap, very wedding apropos), and told my parents that due to a recent renovation they had done on the bottoms of their formal dining chairs we would be using plastic patio chairs for our seating instead so they wouldn’t get damaged. Now I don’t mind plastic patio chairs, it really wouldn’t be the end of the world to have plastic chairs. However in the diagrams we had sent our planner we had 10 people at each table and the arm rests on the patio chairs only allowed for 7 to sit at each. So his solution was to add more tables, which is great, but if you only have 7 tablecloths, 7 centerpieces and a PAINSTAKINGLY crafted seating chart and escort card system, that isn’t a viable option, so my parents didn’t budge and they held them to their contracted agreements (on more than just this chair issue, but thats another story). So he switched gears… he decided to try talking to me.
At this point a number of people have come to me and asked me what I was going to do if it rained, and given the circumstances I was pretty much near panic attack about the whole thing. So I turn around from handling a lighting issue only to be grabbed by the shoulders by the event planner saying in the most serious and doom inducing tone ever spoken in Orange County “IT IS GOING TO RAIN, WHAT IS YOUR PLAN B?”. My heart fell out of my stomach and wanted to hurl, I stuttered something about how the forecast said it wouldn’t rain till late. His response was “MY FORECAST SAYS ITS GOING TO RAIN AT FOUR. WHAT IS YOUR PLAN B?”. The tears started welling up in my eyes and I pointed him in the direction of my parents while I excused myself to go take a walk. Just a sidenote here, that wedding planner no longer works there, and the new event planner Alex, assisted us a little that day and is phenomenal, so readers should not write this venue off.
*I later found out that it was all a ploy to get us to move inside (where they had booked another wedding mind you) so the chairs wouldn’t get damaged, AND It did not rain at all the day of my wedding, so I was also fibbed too about that 4pm forecast *
I walked about half a block and broke down and called Joey. Wedding rules be damned, I needed my husband right then. This was my epic wedding breakdown, I did not go bridezilla and get rude with anyone, and I didnt throw a tantrum but I did have a sobbing mess of a conversation with Joey. It went something like this…
ME: AND.THEN.HE.SAID*SNIFFSOBB*THAT.HIS.FORECAST*SNIFFSOBB*4!*SOBBSNIFF*RAIN! RAIN! WHAT *Incoherent sobbing* I mean what are we gonna do Joey!
JOEY: well… were gonna go and get married in the rain I guess. I mean as long as I get to marry you, who cares…
ME: … *sniff* … …yeah. You’re right. How is it you know exactly what to say?
JOEY: cause I love you.
So I went back in and my mom informed me that my Dad had gone to bat for me, he had worked it all out and the venue had pop up tent things they were putting up over the tables to protect them (why those weren’t mentioned earlier? I don’t know). The problem was solved, we would use the fine dining chairs. Everything would work out. My parents rule.
In hindsight it all seems so silly to me, but I know that all of this was a product of lack of sleep, surplus of stress and inadequate amounts of time with my spouse. Also eating something might have helped. I stopped on my way back to the hotel for a McDonalds $1 Chicken Sandwich, and nothing has ever tasted more delicious or made a bigger improvement in my mood so rapidly.
More Wedding Recaps :
Part 1: Getting There, Rain and Rehearsal
Part 2: Taco Party Rehearsal Dinner and Bachelor Parties
Awwww I’m so sorry you had such a time at first. I’m glad it all worked out. Don’t feel bad about crying and getting worked up. Most of us, having this be the most important day of our lives thus far, would be emotional if not react way worse than you described lol. I for one would’ve had some choice words for that dude! I’m glad you got a) what you paid for and b) what you really wanted!
My favorite part of your whole story is that Joey knew just what to say to make you feel better! I love this part because that is one of the reasons you are marrying him in the first place. I can’t wait to see more pictures and hear about how the rest of your non rainy day went!
I totally agree with Jessica- I LOVE that your wedding started out with a sweet example of why it’s so glorious to have each other. :)