{THE big day}

Our wedding day has come and gone. It went in a flash. It is true what they say, the day just flies by! And, as I sit here at however many feet above the earth (yes, we are currently on the plane on our way to Punta Cana for our honeymoon), I thought now would be a good time to rehash all of the details of the day for my readers. It has been a couple of weeks since I've blogged, but you can't blame me because I've been super busy with the wedding last minute planning and now the day is past us!

I have to say that the day was overall AMAZING! It wasn't without it's hiccups (most of which only myself and/or myself and Jay know about), but neither of us are going to sit and dwell on what didn't go exactly as planned and instead going to focus on the fact that the day was great, everyone had a fantastic time, and we are now officially MARRIED and husband and wife! Gosh, after all of the years of waiting to be able to say/write that, it still doesn't seem real! But alas, it is! And it feels... GREAT!

I'll rewind to the day before the wedding where we (myself, Jay, my mom, sister, dad, Wendy, Jay's parents, and Wendy's dad) started to set everything up. The tent had arrived and was set up the day before and the majority of the tables and chairs were set up as well. Everyone worked together at the barn decorating and doing what we could before the actual wedding day. My vision was coming together great even before the wedding! I have to give a shout out to whomever helped finish decorating the tent/barn the day of the wedding because I was unable to help. Everything look fantastic when I got there and it really meant a lot to me that people would take the time out of their morning to help finish putting up the decorations. We truly have the most amazing and caring and giving family members that anyone could ever ask for!

Rehersal for the wedding and dinner went well too! We just chilled at Jay's parent's house after rehersal and ate subs and chips and cookies and then went home semi early to get a good nights sleep. Jay and I did not spend the night apart like tradition. We are WAY past tradition at this point, haha! And we both knew that we would sleep that much better if we were following our normal routine. I have to say that I only had a minor bad wedding dream the night before the wedding where something was wrong with my dress and I needed to wear a different one; however, I remmeber in the dream that it wasn't the end of the world and I was only mildly upset, lol!

I was up pretty early the morning of the wedding... of course I wasn't going to be able to sleep in! We (myself, Jay, Ayden, and Jay's friend (and best man) JT all just relaxed at the house until almost 8:00am when the hair and makeup stylists arrived. At that poin the guys left to go help finish set up and the girls started to arrive to get ready. It was definitely a very relaxed atmosphere when getting ready and I LOVED it! I couldn't have asked for better bridesmaids! We had donuts and juice and were getting all prettfied. Somewhere in there my photographer, Jacki, arrived and she started her thing. It was definitely a different experience this time being in front of the camera instead of behind it like I usually am at weddings. But Jacki made being on the other side of it a piece of cake!

At some point late morning, the guys got back from setting up and joined the girls while we were still getting ready. That is definitely not typical, but it is SO Jay and JT and we all had fun picking on each other. Like I said, it was all very laid back and no stress... just what I wanted!

We finished getting ready around 1pm, I hopped in my dress, and Jay and I were off to take a few pictures of just us before the ceremony. We ended up getting to the ceremony with little time to spare, but that's okay because the wedding wasn't going to start without us anyways, haha! I hadn't planned on a ton of people coming to the ceremony, so I only had them set up about 100 chairs thinking that that would be plenty. Boy was I sorely mistaken! There was probably twice that amount of people there and I couldn't believe it! CRAZY! But we could certainly feel the love from everyone!

I was a big baby and started with the tears just about the same time that the processional song came on. Talk about emotional! That's when it all became real to me though... that it was actually happening. I have to say that I don't really know who was all at the ceremony because I was too concentrated on making it through with shedding as few tears as possible, haha! I blubbered like a baby though. Sorry, can't help it! The ceremony was great. Have I said how great things turned out enough yet?! Short, sweet, meaningful. From the reactions that I've gotten, people seemed to like it well enough! We took some pictures afterwards at the ceremony site before heading off for some more wedding party pictures. Once again, I have to say how great my wedding party was with the picture taking. It is one of the most time consuming parts and I only heard minimal complaining, and honestly, most of it (I think) was just joking complaining! Jacki rocked her stuff again getting the pictures done and then we headed to a local bar that my dad took us to many a times while growing up. We met some family there, I played a rocking game of pool with Jacki (of which ended in a draw because neither of us could get our last ball in and we ran out of time) and before we knew it, we were back at the barn and it was almost time to eat!

Supper went swimmingly... well as swimmingly as it could for buffet, but overall, I think it was okay. The food was delicious! The best man and maid of honor speeches were amazeballs (love my sister and JT). The bride and groom kissing games worked well! And afterwards, the dancing, oh the dancing! Two days later and my legs are STILL sore! It was SO much fun! Jacki ended up staying to dance after she was 'off the clock' from photo taking and we had an absolute BLAST out on the dance floor! Our DJ (who is the younger brother of a childhood bestie) rocked the barn all night long and had people dancing until the wee hours in the morning! I don't remember the last time I've had that much fun! Even Jay, who hardly EVER dances was out there rocking his stuff! We of course tried to make the rounds to our guests as well! I feel bad for not getting to see everyone that was there, but from talking to Jay, we both ended up seeing quite a few different people from each other which was good and it really is impossible to see EVERYONE. Especially when you don't leave the dance floor, haha!

It was a night for the books, readers, definitely turned out better than I had ever hoped for! They say Hoerth weddings are notorious for lasting long and being fun fun fun... we certainly got the long thing covered, and I hope that everyone who came had a good time as well! I know that Jay and I had an amazing day together and wouldn't have changed but just a few small things. But like I said, we won't dwell on the should have could have would haves, but instead on the what dids and how much fun it all was!

I can't wait to see the pictures because I know they will be great!

But for the time being, Jay and I are going to relax on our honeymoon and have a fantastic time!

CIAO! LOVE ME!