>Wedding Day Part 3

>After my MOH and I got back from the hair salon at 4 p.m., I just sort of wandered around the condo for a minute in a daze, looking at the beautiful bridal party flowers. Then I decided to get my clothes off and put on my undies and robe in preparation for getting into my dress. I also put on my jewelry, refreshed my makeup, and fretted with my hair, which was still super curly. But of course the wind and the salt and the humidity would do their work on it later on.

Fretting with my hair.

Here’s me looking dazed, anxious and sort of out of it. This photo cracks me up.

Our officiant was supposed to be in the condo at 4:15 to meet with me, but she was 20 minutes late. We sat down when she arrived and went over the ceremony so I felt a little better after that. But I was still nervous about the fact that we didn’t have a rehearsal. (BRIDES TAKE NOTE: ALWAYS HAVE A REHEARSAL!) I knew that my girls would know what to do, but I was unsure about the guys. And I didn’t know this at the time, but the bouts hadn’t even made it over to the guys’ condo at this point.

Our photographer Donna arrived to start taking photos at 5, and so did Brian’s stepmother and stepsister (one of my bridesmaids). I gave both of them their bridesmaids and mom gifts and they were both really happy with them.

Giving out gifts to moms and bridesmaids — it’s a large embroidered canvas bag filled with goodies that I will go in detail about later on.

I was feeling really anxious and the condo was starting to fill up with lots of people – sorority sisters, various family members, etc., and it was more people than I thought would be there so I was a little frantic but happy to see everyone. I was feeling like I had to entertain everyone all at once and my immediate family was still nowhere to be seen. I’m also pretty sure that Brian’s mother was in the condo at the same time as Brian’s stepmother, but I think there were enough people there that it wasn’t totally awkward.

My parents and sister and baby nephews finally arrived and I felt way better. I felt sort of half naked running around in a robe, so my bridesmaids and my mom and the photographer and I all went in the master bedroom and got my dress on and took lots of great photos.

Donna took some photos of me looking out over the ocean and I really relaxed during that time.
Basically the 5 ‘o clock hour was full of picture taking and people just milling about in our condo. Finally it was getting closer to ceremony time, so we headed downstairs to take some more photos and get ready to head out onto the beach….