WEDDING RECAP // M & K

If you're here for a weekend recap, it ain't happening.

Although I will say this weekend was slightly more relaxing than last (in which we brought dad home from the hospital). I spent Friday night at my parents place with M. We made him dinner. Saturday we attended a couples shower for some friends who are getting married on my birthday next year! (That'd be Valentines Day, for you newbies). Sunday M and I went on, gasp, a DATE. It was a brunch date, but since brunch is pretty much our favorite meal, and we both put on real pants, it counts. We also used a gift card. Cuz we' fancy. Stopped over at my dad's again for the Vikings game, and then went home to watch Walking Dead. Twas lovely.

If you're here for more wedding posts, carry on. :)

Between the first looks, and then afterwards, M and I took photos. (That's about all there is to say about these. :))

Enjoy!

 

Photos of M laughing are probably some of my favorite, ever. I think he's the cutest :) 

 

For our thank you notes, naturally :) 

 

Up next: wedding party.

WEDDING RECAP // FIRST LOOK

I always predicted that I'd be a hot sobbing mess on my wedding day. For the most part, I was wrong- the excitement and adrenaline kept me together. There were 3 moments though where I teared up. These happen to be three of my favorite moments of the entire day.

The first, was en route to see Matt for our first look. [Note: You're going to do, or not do, a first look on your own accord but I will say it was one of the best and easiest decisions I made in wedding planning. It didn't come down to doing it so we could take photos beforehand, although that was an added bonus. It wasn't solely because I find the photos absolutely adorable. It was because spending those few moments with him before meant SO much to me. Sure a smattering of people saw me in my dress before he did, but it meant something that he got to see it first, before 220 other people.]

I headed out from behind the altar and walked up the aisle towards the back of the church, where we were doing our first look on the back steps. Someone stepped out the back door while I was halfway up the aisle and THAT moment- is my favorite of the whole day: I saw him, back turned to me, standing at the base of the stairs, nervously switching from foot to foot, rubbing his hands together, and laughing. I had to stop and steady myself. (I'm tearing up even thinking about it, again). After I took a moment, it was time to have our first look. I'll let a few photos do the talking:

This is also one of my favorites- our photographer told me to lift up my dress and show him my shoes- he didn't know they were blue. This was his reaction: 

Matt and I went and took some photos of just us while the photographer went to grab my dad for our "first look". This was the second "favorite moment" and moment I almost cried. Mostly I was still riding the high from seeing Matt, so that helped me compose myself. I knew I wanted to do something special with my dad, so having our own first look just made sense. He'd joked that he was going to cry on my wedding day, but the closer it got the more convinced he was that he would cry. I rounded the corner from the side of the church and saw him visibly wiping tears away already- which totally got to me. It was a very sweet moment :)

I love those photos.

Up next: M and I.

WEDDING RECAP // GETTING READY AT THE CHURCH

We left the house and drove over to St. Paul to get dressed at the church, and as we hopped in the car we saw the most incredible thing: THE SUN.

I think I mentioned it in passing but the weather leading up to the wedding day was one of the more stressful things I had to deal with. The entire week was sunny and beautiful and then Thursday into Friday it took a turn for the worse. They were predicting rain Friday-Sunday, and at various points, severe weather and 20 mph wind gusts. WEEP. I could've dealt with rain, but gale force winds? Nuh uh. At some point that week I bought 7 umbrellas. SO when the sun popped out and it warmed up I was about ready to burst into tears in excitement. The clouds returned while we got ready, but the rain held off until we finished ALL our photos outside before the ceremony. Praise the lord. I know this because after the ceremony the ground was wet. It stopped (or at least I didn't notice any rain) while we walked to the bus, and then sprinkled again later. We seriously got the few small windows of no rain throughout the day and it was all I could ask for.

Anyway, back to getting ready! We got to the church and loaded our stuff inside and back behind the altar where the girls got ready.

Our photographer took detail shots of the dress and rings and all that good stuff and I pretty much just paced around and breathed deeply.

About ten minutes after we got in, we heard the boys arrive. They had to walk by our room to get down to where they were getting ready. Hearing them was my first “OMG this is real.” Moment. The second, which was my absolute favorite memory of the entire day (if you made me pick one), is coming up. ;-).

The girls got dressed and then helped me put on my dress. I was able to read the card from M shortly thereafter, which was perfectly sweet.

It was right about then I realized it was go-time, and time to see Matt. We didn't have a ton of extra time to spare, which wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it also meant I didn't have a lot of time to compose myself or "prepare." It was time to go see my groom!


Up next: first look

THE BLACK LUNG

Yes, that's a zoolander reference, yes, I vehemently hate that movie.
It's just too fitting to not use.
Sunday night I felt it coming on.. a combination of that gunk that's been circulating in the metro area (and apparently has had 1/3 of M's place of employment of 400some people out this month) and probably sheer exhaustion from coordinating my dad's care and getting him home. Throw in there a semi-useless little brother (he doesn't read this, so I can say things like that) and I was out of commission HARD yesterday and 1/2 of today.

I had a way more ranty post drafted about the sibling issues but it's not even worth rehashing. Basically he's 23 and has had little to no responsibilities 90% of his life so now suddenly having to utilize foresight and make care plans for my dad if he wants to attend social function is this huge OMGALLTHESPAZES thing. He's just not equipped to manage many things at once. I kindly reminded him I was coughing up tar and trying to hold down a 40+ hour week job as a lawyer and oh yeah, coordinate ALL THE HELP by myself, and he told me "nevermind" and to "not worry about it" until we can meet up to reassess our schedules. Ugh.

That griping out of the way, I plan on publishing wedding posts now. I just felt like I should say something about my awkward absences and that I'd be posting photos again. Felt kind of weird not to.

So, there's that. :)

ANOTHER UPDATE

I think the last thing I said was that they'd be releasing my dad Tuesday or Wednesday. That quickly turned into Thursday, which turned into Saturday or Sunday. Long story, but they're managing some medications and a few small blood clots they found (which was making him dizzy/sweaty) and he's "allegedly" coming home tomorrow afternoon. I've learned my lesson, and I'll believe it when I see him sitting in his chair at home. :)

Thank you so much for all the thoughts and prayers and kind words. We really appreciate them.

With things seemingly returning to normal, or rather our "new normal" I'm probably going to resume wedding posts early next week. In case anybody was interested. Hope you all have a good weekend! I'm going on a venue tour and lunch with Leah and the other bridesmaids/personal attendant and then playing nurse hopefully to dad at home for the remainder of it. Should be fun! and low key. I hope. haha.

THE EXACT MOMENT YOU REALIZE THE PERSON YOU MARRIED IS A BETTER PERSON THAN YOU

It just happened.
Like, literally 30 seconds ago.

I mean, I had a sneaking suspicion all along this was the case but if any one moment in time confirmed it, it would be this one. I'm sure this isn't how Matt imagined being a "newlywed" would go.. nobody could foresee my healthy-as-a-horse dad having a heart attack less than a month after our wedding. But it happened. There's 2 ways you could choose to deal with that if you're Matt- be there for your spouse but eventually let your fatigue show, maybe complain a little or get short with your spouse (a.k.a. how I imagine I'd handle things).. or you can do what Matt actually has been doing.

Last night he drove to my parents with me at 7:30 while battling a wicked sore throat and a cold, and feeling like self-professed garbage, to clean out the fridge and set up my dad's room.

My moment happened today though.. He called me to let me know he's getting off work early to go to my parents, feeling worse than he did yesterday, in an impending snow storm, to hook up cable to my dad's room with my brother. He then said he'd wait for me to get off at 4:30 or so to unload and assemble a recliner we're loaning my dad, and then he offered to sit with my mom after all of that- so I can go to the hospital tonight to visit my dad for a little while.

He is more patient and more understanding and more compassionate than I could hope to be on my best day. Isn't that the type of person you're supposed to marry, anyway?

UPDATE

I wanted to start by saying thank you for all the thoughts and prayers and those of you who sent a message (I didn't mind :)). I appreciate it more than you know. Everybody always talks about how much family and friends pull together when things like this happen and you really can't understand it until you experience it- it's so overwhelming, in such a good way.

I had an earlier draft of this post written and then so much changed in the last few hours. That's always how it goes, isn't it? He's already heading home tomorrow .They said he's been doing really well, and I've noticed changes even in the last few times we've visited. He's more lucid, complaining less of pain, and is more mobile. (Updated to add: He's staying until Tuesday or Wednesday. He said he just wasn't feeling ready yet and the doctor either picked up on that and is letting him stay and also said he wasn't looking 100% (still gets dizzy and heat flashes when sitting up) so he'll still be under their watchful eye for a day or two more! Which he seemed relieved about, so that's good.

He's still really sore, obviously- but he's been saying mostly that the pain is from the cracked rib, not the giant incision down the center of his chest.. go figure. My original plan was to get the whole first month figured out but they're making it sound like he may not need 24 hours of care for the entire month, so instead we're taking it a few weeks at a time. So far we have the first two weeks covered- either my brother, Matt or I will be there with him at night, and my mom's PCA is there during the day. We've also got 2 and a half weeks worth of meals covered. We'll reassess then, see what he needs, and ask for more help if need be. I figured that was better than having 30 meals made and him being far more functional than we guessed. Of course people will drop by with meals, too, so... at least we're accounting for some of that.

I was pretty spazzy this morning about getting everything coordinated, mostly because everybody is looking to us for direction and when I'd tried to coordinate with my brother he was taking much more of a "calm down, it'll get figured out, we have some time" approach. When we heard he was coming home tomorrow he suddenly became much more amenable to talking out our schedule and coverage for the first 2 weeks.

The only frustrating aspect has been how quickly the conversation has changed from concern and deference to our family handling things and offering to help to this wave of questioning whether we are prepared, what kind of care he'll be getting, whether we've asked XYZ questions, etc. It's almost as if some people expected us to just roll him home, plop him down, and then wing it? or that there would be NO follow up from the hospital? I don't mind the concern, but the fact that their automatic reaction seems to trend towards "we don't trust you guys to handle this".... bothers me. I'm a functioning and capable adult, thanks.

So, that's where we're at. This was really word vomity. I may not resume wedding posts until I feel like we have the home situation taken care of, and some semblance of a schedule set. So.. sorry. Stay tuned?! Ha.