Wedding weekend, part 2

I’ve already said that Saturday and Sunday went perfect. I blogged right after I woke up on Saturday while CG was in the shower. It was really windy outside, and the weather looked like it could go either way, but Mother Nature looked to be leaning more toward the rainy side.

I got in the shower after CG, and as soon as I got out, she told me to look out the window. When I pulled back our curtains, I saw something pretty unexpected: sunshine! I knew, though, that since the weather had changed from cloudy to sunny in less than an hour, the two and a half hours left before the ceremony would be plenty of time for it to get cloudy and gross again. I held out hope for the best, but I tried not to get too set on the idea that we’d definitely get to have our wedding on the beach instead of our backup location on a covered patio.

At 9:30, though, which was when K was to make the call on where to set things up for our chair delivery crew, it was still sunny. Now, if it rained, we’d have 42 guests moving their chairs to the patio. We took that chance.

I got ready with all of my best girl friends who were there – ER, CG, Rachel and Lindsay. It was a lot of fun. One of our friends brought my flowers to us, and we couldn’t believe how gorgeous they were. They were perfect.

The minister got to our room at about 10, just an hour before the ceremony, and she couldn’t believe how calm we were. I wasn’t nervous at all. We’d just been hanging out having bagels and mimosas (mmm!). I was showered, and my makeup was mostly on. I was about to marry the guy I’d wanted to marry for more than two years. As far as I was concerned, there was nothing to be nervous about.

I put on my dress and then brushed my teeth (my friends said I was the only girl they know who’d brush her teeth in her dress, but you’ve gotta have fresh breath for your wedding!). I finished putting on my makeup, and then the girls helped me fix my hair. My dad came in during that time, and I got teary eyed. That's the closest I came to crying all day.

We finished getting ready, and we all headed outside toward the beach. We met up with the photographer, who again went on and on about how calm I was -- "You're more calm than the guys!" The girls headed to the beach to sprinkly the rose petals in the aisle, and my dad and I hung back waiting for our cue to go.

Our walk to the minister and K was really long. We walk across this small wooden bridge over the sand, and then several yards to the right before walking through the rows of chairs to where K and the minister waited for us. Our hotel had a private beach, so it wasn't really crowded, but there were people out there enjoying the beach. They were all watching us, and a few even congratulated me as I walked toward the setup with my dad.

It was still a bit windy, and the wind picked up through the ceremony. K and I laughed as our minister talked louder and louder over the wind. I was worried the arch might blow over, but it didn't. The minister had a poem about marriage that she was going to read, but since the weather looked a little iffy, she decided to cut it. Thank goodness, because I kid you not, the second the ceremony was over, K and I walked down to the end of the aisle, and the photographer got a couple pictures of us. As soon as we headed back to the arch to take pictures there, it started raining. The drops were cold and huge! Our friends had started popping the champagne bottles, and they hurried to get the cups passed out so we could toast and get everyone inside. Just about a minute after it had began, though, the rain stopped. K and I used our new Tiffany glasses that our friends had sent us as a gift.

After the toast, we all took about 10 million pictures. My friends all know how I am about taking pictures of everything, so thye made sure they took plenty. ER said it had to have been the most-photographed wedding per person. I think she's right. Almost everyone there took more than 100 pictures!

We all walked along the beach to the restaurant where we had lunch reservations. It was only two doors down from the hotel. We had half the outdoor patio reserved. It was covered, which turned out to be a really good thing. The rain came in again as we ate. The people seated at tables close to the "windows" (plastic coverings that were pulled down when the rain started) had to move to new tables the staff brought in because the wind was blowing so much and it was raining so hard that they were still getting wet.

Our lunch was good, though, and we had our cake there too. It was delicious, with buttercream icing. The rain stopped about the time we were all finished eating. We all took the afternoon to ourselves.

We met up again at 6 to head to dinner in Destin at McGuire's. K and I had eaten there in Pensacola last August, and as soon as we found out there was one in Destin, we knew we had to go there! The restaurant just has such a cool atmosphere, and it's so much fun. Everyone absolutely loved it.

After dinner, we went out to Howl at the Moon, which happened to be right next to our hotel. K's roommate's girlfriend had made us "Bride" and "Groom" sashes for the night, and those turned out to be the best idea ever. Not only did we not have to pay cover, but people bought us drinks all night. Lots of drinks. We had a blast!

It was just a fun, silly night. It was so cool to have all our worlds collide like that, and everyone hit it off so well. We couldn't have asked for a better day.

On Sunday, K and I woke up around 9:30 and had breakfast with a few of our friends. We were able to slowly say bye to everyone as they left. It just worked out that the time everyone was leaving was staggered throughout the morning. We'd say bye to one friend, and then another would appear. We were able to spend some time talking to everyone that morning before they left. Everyone couldn't say enough how much fun they'd had, how perfect the weekend had been for them, and how pleasantly surprised they were at how much time we'd all gotten to spend together.

That afternoon, K and I headed to the beach. We were sitting in two chairs relaxing and watching the waves when K said, "What's that?" We looked out into the ocean about 50 yards out, and we saw dolphins diving out of the water! They were flipping and jumping out over and over again. It was the coolest thing ever. We went out into the water for a bit, but the waves were so wild that we were tired after only a few minutes. I even managed to get knocked under by one wave.

We spent about three hours on the beach, and then we took Rachel and her boyfriend to the airport. We headed back to Destin to eat at Mellow Mushroom (yum!), and then we played miniature golf. We had fun spotting all the lizards that were running around all over the course. Then, we got some frozen custard and headed back to the hotel.

K and I couldn't believe how well everything turned out. I had been worried about how things would go, since I planned the whole weekend through the Internet and tons of phone calls. Neither of us had ever been to Fort Walton Beach or Destin, but we were so glad we'd chosen that place for our wedding. We decided we'd have to come back for vacation and that it would even be the perfect place for family vacations in the (far!) future. I told K that even if I'd gone to the Destin/Fort Walton Beach area to plan everything, I'd have chosen exactly the same hotel, the same restaurant for lunch, the same minister and the same place to get our cake and flowers. It was just perfect!

***pictures coming later today***

See Part 1 of this post here. See photos here and here.