Hey, after a long time! I’m married now! All I have to say is that I’m glad I didn’t give in and run off to Vegas with Jarrod, because our wedding was pretty darn fun, and all the work/conflict/stress leading up to it was worth it, for the most part. The day was nearly perfect–of course, the rain and forgotten guest book were the only two small snags, but I wasn’t in any kind of mood to let it affect me…I was getting married, that was the best part!

But yes, it rained. Now the guys that rent out the Oliver Mansion for weddings are going to have to say “We’ve only had brides use the back-up plan for rain twice,” instead of the “once” they quoted me. It was fine. I got to jam to Alanis Morissette’s “Ironic” with my bridesmaids, and when it came time for the ceremony, the room was just as beautiful as the gardens, and lent itself to great acoustics for the hymns.

Well anyway, I’m going to sign off here and let you enjoy the pictures, which probably show you a lot more about the wedding than I could write about! Word has it that a new bride will begin blogging after me. I’m excited to read another bride’s perspective, and wish her–and all of you who are planning weddings–the best of luck, and stay sane.

Getting ready was half the fun. I love the picture of my bridesmaids running out of the rain. My sister is the small eye poking out from behind the three girls!

Jarrod and his guys getting ready.

All of us with our red shoes. I randomly chose a color of polish during my pedicure the day before called "Ruby Pumps". What luck! You can also see my "something borrowed" from my mom, the pearl anklet I'm wearing.

The bridesmaids! Man, getting married was so fun. I would definitely recommend it.

Right before the ceremony started. I was super nervous at this point. Well, thinking back, I was actually super nervous for most of the day before the wedding!

Aah, need I say anything? I was just happy that Jarrod showed up for the wedding! Everyone says, "The ceremony just flies by, and before you know it you're married!" But for me the ceremony felt really long...maybe because I was consciously thinking about that comment the whole time.

The view from the balcony. So you see, the backup location was beautiful anyhow (though the sun did come out during the ceremony!).

The kids watching from the balcony. I love our photographers so much.

He said "I do"! No "I...I can't!"

Signing the license.

A group shot of our wedding party. I was so glad that the sun came out for the reception and pictures.

One of the reception tables. It's true that there's no time for anything at the reception. I was so bummed that I missed the delicious-looking cheese/cracker/crudité appetizer table because we were taking pictures. We got about fifteen minutes to eat before we went around and greeted everyone, and no time at all to eat cake!

Us during the aforementioned fifteen minutes to eat. Jarrod's family set the table up so that everything on it belonged to us, including two sets and a teapot of our Mikasa Pure Red china.

The little girls' table. It looked like they were having a lot of fun and making friends with each other!

Cutting the cake. It's interesting. The cake didn't turn out quite as I had dreamed it, but I thought it was really cool anyway, and it tasted delicious! Man, cake-cutting is a lot messier than you would imagine.

So the story behind this shot is that I see a lot of bridal parties caught mid-jump in photos these days. I kind of wanted to...well, mock that trend, so we did this, and also one with Jarrod holding the bouquet and jumping, and me on the ground. Silly! Also, I am not wearing white pantyhose. I'm just that pale.

A bubble send-off. I realized a few weeks after the wedding that a sparkler send-off would have been cool too, but I would worry about the risks involved in going through two walls of flaming sticks like that. Also, the mansion being a historical site, we were not allowed to have any type of confetti, not even birdseed (which would have been my first choice.)

If you’ve been f0llowing Emily’ Bride Blog, you know that she and Jared got married on Saturday, June 5th.

She reports a perfect day…. despite some rain.  Emily will share the wedding on the blog soon.  In the meantime, her’s a sneak peek of what’s to come!

We work together.

Wow…three days to go. How did I get here? I mean, I feel like just yesterday was last Wednesday, Jarrod’s graduation, and me having a meltdown because of all the things I needed to do that night before we left the next morning. And here I am, it’s Wednesday again, I’ve had several more meltdowns, haven’t really been eating or sleeping well, and I’ve been driving madly around Goshen and the surrounding area trying to get everything we need before Saturday. I think I’m taking this all pretty well!

I mean, wow. No one could have prepared me for how ridiculous this week would be. I’ve got lists for every day that just keep expanding, and I’m just now feeling like the lists are coming to an end. I think, though, that it’s partly of my own choosing. I could find fifteen thousand tiny details that need to be finished before the wedding, but if I let them go, Saturday’s not going to collapse around me in a pile of dust. The show goes on.

Jarrod and me with the last program. Finally!

My mom’s been an incredible help through all this, just keeping me sane and feeding me toast and coffee when I’m crying at 9:00 in the morning. She told me today that she was somewhat stressed before her wedding, but she distinctly remembers smiling through the day of the wedding, because everything just came together perfectly. Gosh, I sure hope that’s how things go on Saturday!

I did have one big stressor jump onto me at the last minute, and it goes like this: The week before we left for Colorado, I created my programs at the local college computer lab. In fact, I even blogged that I had gotten them mostly done, save for a few revisions that needed to be done. I used Adobe InDesign 4.0 to create my program. Unfortunately, I didn’t save the file as a .pdf (a file which can be universally opened by Adobe Acrobat, Preview, etc.) Well, when I went back to the computer lab yesterday to make the revisions and add the seating chart, I found that the Mac lab was closed for the summer. No problem, I thought. I’ll just open InDesign on a PC. Or not.

InDesign was missing from the PC’s. I asked the student assistant, and she told me that they were updating InDesign to version 5.0, which wouldn’t be released until next week, but in the meantime InDesign had been erased from the computers. Only two Macs in the corner had InDesign version 3.0. Thank goodness! Or not.

Version 3.0 can’t open a version 4.0 file. So I had to recreate my entire program from scratch, thankfully using the printed copy as a template. It was…a disaster. But I got it done. (Sorry if the last three paragraphs were all mumbo-jumbo. Basically, the moral of the story is to backup any work you do on a computer.)

Today my sister came in from Chicago, so my family and I went to Jarrod’s to eat smoked meat and assemble the programs. My mom found a typo almost immediately: In the crossword, there’s an “across” clue section and an “across” clue section. There is now “down” clue section. At that point, all the pages were printed and we were beginning to assemble. If my guests can’t figure out that one of those “across” sections is a mistake, well then…maybe they shouldn’t be doing crosswords.

Anyway. Just assorted random junk! And tons and tons of phone calls asking me to make the tiniest decisions! I’m keeping my eye on Saturday. Well, honestly, I’ve been keeping my eye on tomorrow, when my mom, sister, aunt and I are getting massages, facials, and body wraps. That will be soooo amazing, and soooo what I need.

Well folks, I’m wrapping things up with this blog. Of course I’ll post after Saturday (heh…maybe a few weeks after Saturday) to let you know how the wedding went, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Until then, take it easy. I sure will be.

The brand new officer and his soon-to-be wife (me!). I'm smiling because now we can legally get married!

10 days folks. It’s almost go time. Anyway, I have done abso-fruitly nothing since I last wrote, or at least, I don’t believe I have. No, I take that back. There was that crazy conversation I had with Jarrod’s mom about rental items in the car on the way to the airport.

The point is, I left on Thursday morning for Colorado Springs to watch Jarrod’s graduation from the United States Air Force Academy and tomorrow morning we go back to Goshen to power through the last ten days before the wedding. I think I’ll be okay…whoo. I need a break, and I’ve been on vacation for the last week!

Anyway, since I have nothing wedding-related and current to say, I’m going to give you a little list of things that I wish I would have done differently in planning the wedding, to serve as advice for anyone just getting started with the crazy, crazy planning.

Keep in mind, I probably wouldn’t follow any of my advice here. But now that I’m the disillusioned almost-bride, here are a few pieces of wisdom that I can offer.

1) Elope. Seriously. I mean, maybe my outlook on this will change on June 5th, and I’ll say that it was all worth it just like every bride in every wedding show on TV…but weddings are not for the faint of heart (or the faint of will!)

2) Take bridal magazines with a grain of salt, and don’t believe everything they say. Martha Stewart, I am realizing, has a pretty large budget for her amazing-looking spreads and arrangements. The average bride can’t pull this off, and you’ll get frustrated trying, especially as your expenses go up and up.

3) Research before you commit. Seems like a simple one, but it ties into the previous rule of not believing everything they say. I decided to have an outdoor tea reception because Martha told me that teas were less expensive than the full meal. Number one, I didn’t compare the cost of full meals to the cost-per-person of the tea we’re having. Second of all, I had no idea how ridiculously expensive renting everything is. Had I known, I really would have rented a nice banquet hall, and probably (no guarantees though) would have settled for a buffet. But maybe not.

4) Flexibility is key. Of course. Don’t be the bride who freaks out because her icing doesn’t perfectly match her Pantone invitations. I’ve actually been pretty good on this one, and I think that as the day draws ever nearer and snap decisions need to be made, I’m becoming more and more flexible with my vision. Paper plates and napkins at the kids’ table? Sure. At least I won’t be worrying about any broken rental china.

5) Have fun! Actually, I just put that because it seems cliche Every guide tells brides to have fun. Wherever I go, people ask me if I’m excited for the wedding. At the beginning I would tell them, “I am…there’s just so much that has to happen before then!” Now I tell them, “Yes–I’m so excited!” And I really am.