An Invited Guest - Part V

DOING IT ALL ALONE:

When you a girl thinks of her wedding she envisions all of her friends surrounding her, parties, and planning together. Getting dressed, hair dates, make up time etc. are all part of the plan. But my day came and went without any of the traditional plans. There were no parties, no bridal showers, no dress hunting. I picked my gown all on my own, went to fittings with my future MIL to help. I did not get to participate in most of the planning as my sister, according to mom, was far more qualified then me. 

I got off of work Thursday evening around 6 and drove the 2 hours to my parents house. Had to stop at a fast food restaurant to get food as I knew there would be nothing at home. The next morning I got up and went to get my nails done before the mall actually opened. After that I went to the hair salon to get a mock hair do so that they would know what to do for the wedding. Then went back to my parents home to wait for the rehearsal. After the rehearsal we went to my sisters house for the rehearsal dinner that she had arranged through my future MIL. Then home to sleep. 

The wedding wasn't till 7pm so I had a whole day to kill. No bridesmaids to hang with, no maid of honor to run around with. I went to the mall and walked around till 4 waiting on my hair appointment. Then it was off to the chapel. You get to enter the chapel 1 hour before your ceremony. Sounds like plenty of time to dress and get oh makeup right. Wrong......

I arrived and drove around town for 40 minutes looking for a place to park. Finally my future FIL saw me and ran over with some friends. One took my dress, one my slip and one the car. It was a silly sight seeing then run across the UVA campus with my white gown and slip in their arms. I slowly walked as I was still barely getting around. the wedding started 30 minutes late because of all of the debacles. 

The ceremony started and ended. We left the chapel and went around to wait for all to leave for pictures. As my mom left the guest stood to their feet and gave her a standing ovation. Again it was all about her and she stole the show. She was also kind enough to tell me I looked like a fat marshmallow in my gown during the pictures. 

We arrived at the reception that they had decided on. There was no special table for the wedding party. In fact there was no table for us at all. We finally found a place to sit and got a plate of food. When the DJ asked for the bride and groom to dance we did, came back to the table to find our food gone. We did cake, champagne, bouquet and garter belt (which again I had to make). By the time we were ready to leave almost all the guest had left. 

We went to the hotel and the next morning had breakfast with DH family and then went home. There could be a honeymoon as he had just started his new job and I had so much time off from the accident. We went to work the next day. Life was back to what ever normal would be. 

I worked full time retail as a manager trainer, 80 hours a week and hubby worked shift work. We would see each other in the coming and going for the next year. Life had begun.