Part Three: Getting Ready

For those of you just joining in on Our Wedding Story,
Part One:  Things That Went Wrong
Part Two:  The Wedding Party
Or, click on the "All About Our Love" tab up at the top.  There you will find our love story from the beginning!  I hope enjoy Part Three!


We got married on September 10, 2011.  

Our wedding ceremony started at 5:30 p.m. under an oak tree in the court yard of a beautiful, South Carolina plantation.  

I woke up that morning at 7 am and had a very full day ahead of me.  


Even though my day started early, I was a very lucky bride.  I did not have to spend my day pointing or coordinating or stressing. Why?  We had a wedding planner!  His name is John Marshall and he was the best decision we made as far as wedding planning goes.  BRIDES-TO-BE:  If the budget allows, hire a wedding planner.  Because of John Marshall, the day of the wedding was stress-free, blissful, and perfect.  He took care of everything messy and left me and my wedding party to be pampered and whisked around town in a cloud of powder and hairspray and lip gloss.  Perfection.  :)





 I have a confession to make.  But before I spill my guts, I want to show you this picture and explain it's importance.

This picture is (from left to right) Lizzy, myself, and Brittany and it was taken at the Rehearsal Dinner.

This picture is important because it took me 2.5 hours to curl my hair.  I teased, curled, sprayed, and curled again.  I even followed a YouTube tutorial.  I did everything right!  My hair looked amazing and perfect before I left, but as soon as I stepped out into that Southern heat and humidity....the curls fell.  They were beautiful, and then they were gone.  My hair is just too long and heavy for curling iron curls and I should have known better.   
Why am I telling you this?
I am telling you this because...my deep, dark, dirty confession is...I did not shower after the Rehearsal Dinner.  I showered the morning of September 9, 2011 and did not shower again until AFTER the wedding reception on September 10, 2011.  So..the smelly cat is out of the bag.  I did not shower before my wedding.  My hair stylist told me what everyone knows, that dirty hair is easier to work with - especially for up-dos.  She forbade me from washing all of the product out of my hair.  I knew that I would sweat at the wedding and at the reception....so that means that I knew I would be showering before any consummation would occur.  So, there it is.  I didn't shower.  I was a dirty bride.  But, for a good cause!
Now, back to getting ready!  :)
The girls came to my parent's house early that morning, and we all made our way to the beauty salon to have our hair and make-up done.  

Why, yes, that is a GIANT Red Bull can in front of me.  :)  

I knew that I wanted an up-do for the wedding, but do you have any idea how difficult it is to hide 2.5 feet of hair?  It was crazy.  The hair-do felt very, very heavy.  But I also felt very, very elegant and I would not change that feeling for the world.

Here's a sneak peak of how it turned out:

We also had our make-up done! Everybody.  :)  We rented the beauty salon for the morning, and had it all to ourselves!  I am so glad my mom did that for us.  It made the day ever better.  It was very important to us that every single person, whether in the wedding or in attendance at the wedding, felt like royalty.  And it was so much fun being pampered all.day.long.  It truly was the best day, and for so many precious reasons.

Many brides around here have what is called a "Bridal Brunch" on the day of the wedding.  Is that a Southern thing?  I have no idea.  We just did not have time for such a thing, but I really did want to spent some special time with my bridesmaids that morning.  We were together ALL DAY, but I wanted a period of us not rushing to just, savor the moments.  So, after we were all "ready" we sat on the floor of the salon and had a Bridal Tea.  :)   One of the gifts I gave my bridesmaids were hand-painted monogrammed tea cups.  John Marshall, Wedding Planner, made something magically out of the set-of-four plain white tea cups I thrifted!  Our cups matched, but we all kept our own.  We sipped green tea, and it was so great and precious. 

 And, we also had some food.

Of course.  :)

This is my Flower Girl, Gracie.  She is one of my first cousins.  Her mom and my mom were sisters.  Her mom died from breast cancer a few years ago.  Her father is from Honduras, that's why she's so tan and beautiful.  If this story sounds a little familar, it's because I have a tattoo for Gracie's mom, my Aunt Lati.  I wrote about it here.  

A Little About GracieShe is 8 years old.
For several years now, she's been telling us that someone needs to hurry up and get married because she is getting too old to be a flower girl.  
She is the sweetest, most beautiful little girl in the world with such a giving and kind heart.






After we all had our hair fixed and our make-up perfectly applied, we scooted across town to "The Bridal Cottage" at the wedding venue.  This is where we all got dressed for the wedding!  We didn't have "Bridal Tea" here because my wedding planner was not allowing any food or drinks (other than water) into the Bridal Cottage since all the dresses were in there.  :)  

Mr. Robinson and I did not take any pictures together before the wedding.  This is truly one of my biggest regrets.  A lot of couples now-a-days choose to meet up before the wedding, spend some time together, and take pictures with each other.  I thought that I wanted to be conventional and traditional, and see each other for the first time at the wedding.  I wanted to look down that aisle and see my grooms facial expression when he saw me for the first time, dressed in white and on my daddy's arm.  Now, I wish we had given ourselves that special, alone time before the wedding.  My aisle was so long that I couldn't see his face, so I missed his first reaction.  We had a 150-foot aisle runner.  But, it's okay.  I have a pretty good imagination.  :)  We still decided to do pictures of me with my bridesmaids, and of him with his groomsmen before the wedding. 

While I was getting dressed, I asked the photographer where we would be taking these pictures as and how we were going to make sure the groom didn't see me before the wedding!  Everyone got very quiet.  The room was suddenly tense and nervous...and nobody would answer my question.  

Does anybody want to take a guess as to who decided to show up at the party right then? 

Bridezilla.

Come to find out, the groom was not there.  

This part became kind of a blur because I was so angry.  I just knew that he was not going to show up.

At that point, his mom and I were a little less than friendly.  It's no secret that we had some problems adjusting to each other.  A few nights before the wedding, I dreamt that his mom had talked him out of marrying me.  I just knew that my dream nightmare was coming true.  I was in such a panic.  It was hard to enjoy myself until he showed up - which he did (obviously, since we got married).  Do you have any idea how difficult it is to take pre-wedding pictures with the wedding party and family members when you aren't even sure that your Groom is going to show up?  Looking back, it was so silly of me to really think he was not coming.  He loves me and we couldn't wait to get married.  He (for whatever reason) was under the impression that he didn't have to be at the venue until 5 as long as he and his groomsmen came dressed and ready.  Just a reminder, the ceremony started at FIVE THIRTY.  It was just some mis-communication that clearly did not warrant his execution, so Bridezilla went back into her cave and the day ended up being perfect.  :)  John Marshall and my daddy had a little phone conversation with him, and the groom and his groomsmen showed up very soon after.

So, Mr. Robinson took pictures with his groomsmen.  

When they were done, the photographer handed over my wedding day gift to Mr. Robinson and photographed his reaction.

Yep, I gave him boudoir photos that I had secretly taken.  :)  I put my favorites in a little album...and I'm guessing that he liked them.  

Then, I took pictures with my bridesmaids.

And the photographer gave me the gift from Mr. Robinson.  

 It is a beautiful sign about marriage.  He knows me so well!  I love it - it's pretty, sentimental, and decorative.  That has Mrs. Robinson written all over it.!  

Now, we are ready for the wedding!  :)  Because I had a wedding planner, I did not see the space where the ceremony would take place until I was walking down the aisle with my daddy.  I can't wait to show y'all every detail...