Happy 4th Anniversary

Four years ago today, I married the most wonderful man in the whole world.  It was one of the best days of my life.  We got married at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, GA and our reception was at the Wilmington Island Club.  Our wedding was not without the typical chaos...so here are a few mini-stories while you enjoy some of our wedding photos.

Walking across the street to the square to take photos

Sarah (sister and Matron of honor), me, and my grandmother

Cramming under the umbrella

Running from the rain

Rain is good luck, right?:  Before the wedding, the girls were out in the square taking photos when it started to rain.  By the time we got into the church, it was pouring.  We had to blow-dry one of our bridesmaids.  We gathered to pray before we headed up to the sanctuary, and as one of my bridesmaids prayed "...Lord, let your presence be known here today..." we heard CRASH! as thunder struck.  We all chuckled.  I made it down the aisle and as Fr. Adam began to pray, lightning struck, and the electricity went out.  Fr. Adam said "Amen" and then electricity came back on.  :)  You could see sheets of rain beating against the windows of the church.  The rain broke long enough for us to get from the church to the reception.  Traffic was a little crazy, because, oh yeah, Savannah was flooding.  Come to find out, if my SIL had left her neighborhood an hour later that day she wouldn't have been able to get out because of the flooding.  It rained all during the reception and broke just long enough for us to get from the reception to the hotel.  If rain is good luck, a deluge is even better, right?*

The Boys:  Davey, Paul, Luis, Tim, Austin, Brandon, Dewey, Ben

Peter (Tim's dad), Tim, Jim (my dad)

Hurricanes and car wrecks: A couple of weeks before the wedding, Savannah had a hurricane... and sent a tree through Tim's parent's roof.  The blue tarp did not stop the wedding proceedings.*  Tim's grandmother and one of our groomsmen, on separate occasions, had car wrecks... thankfully, both were fine.  This left our groomsmen to borrow a truck to drive up from Florida.  On the way, something fell off his truck and when he stopped to pick it up, he dropped his cell phone, but didn't realize it until several miles down the road.  He had no way of calling anyone because all of his numbers were in his phone.  When he stopped at an AT&T store, for some reason, they wouldn't even let him get into his account to find a number to call us.  He eventually got to Savannah.*

Tim and his mom, Mary

The Dress:  When I went for what-was-supposed-to-be my final dress fitting (two weeks before the wedding), we noticed that it didn't seem like they had altered it...at all.  Without much fuss they took it back to actually do the alterations fix it.  When I went back, the dress was almost too small.  I ended up cutting off the cap sleeves in between the wedding and the reception because they were digging into my shoulders.  I still loved my dress. :)  *

Walking down the aisle

1 Priest, 0 Priests,  3 Priests, 2 Priests: We asked Fr. Chidi (R.I.P) to preside over our wedding because he was as much a friend as a spiritual leader and counselor.  A month or so before our wedding, my MIL asked Tim if he had spoken with Fr. Chidi recently...and after his response of "No, why?", she said she had seen something in the church bulletin about him leaving.  After we promptly called him, we found out that his visa (he's from Nigeria) had not been renewed and he would have to leave the country in order to apply for a new one... and that he would miss the wedding.  We were all sorely disappointed... and now we had no priest.  A week or so later, in a matter of one day, we were told by Tim's church in Savannah that they would find us another priest, a priest-friend that Tim had e-mailed responded that he would do it, and Tim's mom found another priest.  So now we had 3 priests!  We ended up having 2 priests preside over our wedding - Fr. Adam (Tim's priest-friend) and Fr. Stephen.  More on Fr. Stephen later.*

The Paperwork:  In order to get married at the cathedral - a parish that neither one of us were apart of - in a diocese that I was not apart of, by a priest who was not the priest at the cathedral... there is A LOT of paperwork.  Fr. Stephen called us a month before the wedding asking us if we had our paperwork.  He had just moved to Tim's church in Savannah after Fr. Chidi left, and was trying to take over where Fr. Chidi left off.  The paperwork was something Fr. Chidi was supposed to handle and one of the only things that I did not have a copy of (I was ridiculous about having copies of things and being organized...to avoid a situation such as this).  Fr. Stephen told us he would look for it in Fr. Chidi's old office...good luck.  Fr. Stephen found the paperwork...it had not been completed.  So he filled it out with us on the phone.  As Tim was driving home from work for the last time before heading to Savannah for the wedding, he gets a call from Fr. Stephen saying "they" need an original signature and did he have a fax machine.  Tim managed to stop off at our church in Athens to use their fax machine (instead of driving an hour back to work to use theirs).  We were told that the faxed signature was ok for the moment, but that when we came to Savannah, we'd have to sign in person.  This was two weeks before the wedding.  The THURSDAY before our wedding, we get a call from Fr. Stephen, who tells us he is sitting down with the tribunal and that he is not leaving until he gets our paperwork through.  We didn't hear anything after that.  Fr. Stephen was priest number 2 at our wedding and gets A LOT of credit for us being able to get married.  He has a special place in our hearts.*

The bridal party and priests

My family

Tim's family

Reception Headaches:  A couple months before the wedding, I called the Wilmington Island Club (WIC) to check in on things and make sure we were good on both ends.  When I asked for the consultant we had been working with, I was informed that he was no longer there and they would not give me any further information.  This was quite frustrating as we had worked out several details including room set-up and having cannolis as part of the dinner.  And, when they sent me an e-mail with some information I had requested, I saw that they had raised the prices we had agreed upon by $5 per person!  We were so upset because part of the reason we chose this place was so we did not have to cut our guest list.  I'm not sure what my mother-in-law did or said, but she had a meeting with them (Tim and I were both still in college in Athens), and we not only did we get the original pricing we agreed upon, but we got a HUGE platter of cannolis.  What can I say, my MIL rocks!  When I called a few weeks after the wedding to confirm our last payment, the second consultant that handled our wedding was no longer there either.  (shaking my head)*

Cutting a rug

Our first dance

The Cake: The cake topper we chose would not sit and balance properly on the top of the cake, so it sat cutely between the first and second tier.  We actually thought the way it turned out was really cute.  

The Hotel:  We arrived at our hotel after the reception, and after being greeted with applause (people standing outside the hotel just started clapping, I thought it was cute), we headed up to our room.  We walked in to find... two twin beds and stuff everywhere.  Pretty sure that's not our room.  So Tim headed downstairs, while I sat with our luggage in the hallway still in my wedding dress.  A few people walked by and I was thinking "No, my husband did not just leave me, haha".  After arguing with the desk clerk and convincing her that that was not our room, they finally realized they had given us the wrong room number... "ya think?".  

Leaving the reception through a tunnel of sparklers

Several times throughout the day, people commented to us individually that we were so calm.  While all these little chaotic moments leading up to the big day caused some anxiety along the way, when it came down to it, all the little details didn't really matter.  We had waited for this day for a long time, and both of us had great peace that had nothing to do with where or when we were getting married, but had everything to do with who we were marrying.  I'm more in love with my hubby now and that love grows more each day.  Happy 4th Anniversary!