Almost three weeks ago I had the extraordinary privilage of helping put together Chelsey & Alan's wedding & man did I learn SO much from it. For anyone who doesn't know, the Merritts go to Sanctuary Baptist with us & have two beautiful children. They have been engaged for a while, but decided to get married on November 11th, 2011 just a couple of weeks prior to the date. When Mandie invited me to Chelsey's girl's night, I hadn't even been planning on going to the wedding (due to Anthony's softball tournament that night). We hadn't been super close until a little over a month ago when Chelsey asked me to do a name painting for her & Alan (above...which I'm so happy they both love!), Anyway, I really wanted to go to the girl's night, so I met them at McCray's in Lawrenceville on Thursday evening. Throughout the night, Mandie just kept talking about how much she needed to get done before the wedding. Well, I don't have anything to do on Fridays normally because I don't have work or school. I told Mandie to call me if she needed anything the next day because I love all things wedding, planning & creating.
For some reason, I woke up earlier than normal on Friday morning & went ahead & got ready. Anyone knows me knows this is highly unusual & that I prefer to stay in my pajamas & catch up on the DVR on my days off. Getting up turned out to be exactly what I needed to do, because right when I got out of the shower Mandie texted me asking if I could meet her up at the church. I picked up some Chick Fil A for us & we got to work. The first thing we realized was that we needed florist tape, so we drove to Loganville Flower Basket to pick some up (Chelsey & Mandie had gone in there a few days prior, but decided it would be more practical to just get some assorted arrangements from Kroger & make something beautiful out of those!). The nice older lady at the counter gladly gave us what we needed and sent us on our way.
Once we got back to the church, (after a few missed turns because we were both so distracted thinking about everything that needed to be done) we hurried up & ate breakfast. Then, the arranging began! We cut the flowers down & ripped off the leaves (& removed all things yellow) & got started on Chelsey's bouquet first. It was such a delicate balance figuring out what looked good together & how to arrange things. The weirdest part is that normally I would have been totally annoyed with whoever I was working with, but me & Mandie just bounced ideas back & forth off each other, took turns holding/rearranging the bouquet, and ultimately got the it looking just perfect! (well, in our opinions at least...) Up next was Alan's boutonniere & that came much easier than the bouquet. The hardest part was figuring out which flowers to use :) We have both joked that we need to go into business together...partners in crime I tell ya. We work so well together & both have such a passion for planning, design, & cooking...so possibly wedding/event planning on the side sometime in our future?? Also looking forward to helping with her son Carson's birthday party this weekend! Excited!!
After checking the two most important flower pieces of the day off our list, we had a few more errands that we needed to run. The reader's digest version that looks a lot like the lists we made on the back of receipts: Party City (napkins); Pieces of the Past antiques (window pane); Dollar Tree (plates & silverware); Kroger (apple cider ingredients, flower arrangement fillers, & cups); & Chevron (snacks). Ironically after leaving the gas station, the second that we got back to church again & started pulling up the hill Mandie's car started acting funny & died. It really freaked both of us out, but luckily Mandie's husband Clint was there...he identified the problem as running out of gas :( good thing he was already at church, because he went & got her some :)
Anyway, Mandie's Gammy gave her a few gorgeous antique Mason jars with handles and everything, which we used for the centerpieces. It was a delicate balance trying to figure out what should go together & how many of each flower should go where. We also had to deal with the fact that we had bought the fillers at the store but had already made Chelsey & Alan's flowers. We really wanted to include these & thought they would make them that much more beautiful & full, so we wound up just placing some over top of the floral tape & wrapping again. Before we knew it, three centerpieces & two more boutonnieres (Chelsey's dad, left & her son Roland's, right) were made.
The task of arranging the church properly was one of the most difficult parts to settle because there were so many options on where to move the chairs. We finally decided on 1/2 of the chairs facing the stage for the ceremony with another 1/2 pulled around in a layered horseshoe for the reception. Coincidentially, the arrangements that were already on the stage matched the fall wedding colors perfectly, so we moved them to line the isle. We also got three tables for food & drinks out & placed them accordingly.
By this time, it was already nearing 4:00 (wedding time...7:00) & we both needed to go home to get different parts of the wedding ready. For Mandie, it was getting tablecloths & table runners from a friend since the ones that she ordered weren't going to come in until the next day. She also had to get ready for her part singing in the wedding & emailing me the music that she needed so that I could burn a couple of CDs for ceremony & reception music. My first order of business was cleaning off the window, which had been sitting outside at the antique store for quite some time. I still wasn't able to get it perfectly clean because the wood kept chipping every time I scrubbed, & I was running out of time fast. I went inside to cut & paint the the burlap for the banners that I was going to make (MR | MRS for two chairs & CHELSEY | AND | ALAN for three buffet tables). Once the flaps were drying, I started on the task of making CDs. When Mandie emailed me the file for the song she needed, it came up as only being 0:19 long. This isn't normally the kind of thing I would have checked, but for some reason I noticed & thank goodness I did. I ended up just re-buying the song on iTunes because we wouldn't have had enough time to try to sort it out any other way. At one point I was actually pleading the blood of Jesus over my computer because it was being so tempermental & not working. I made a playlist of songs that would be used but didn't have enough time to burn the CDs before leaving (they take about 20 minutes each & at that time my computer wouldn't stay on unless it was plugged into a wall) or to paint the window.
I ended up packing everything but the kitchen sink (& the light colored burlap that was going to be used for Chelsey's bouquet & one of the CDs...& the crock pot) into my car. I'm talking makeup, hair, clothes, computer, paint supplies for the window & all of the other supplies needed to decorate the wedding. I arrived at church a little after 5 & started painting the window. By the time I finished that, Mandie & I realized that the hot glue gun needed for the banners & bouquet wrap was still at her house & she couldn't get Clint to answer the phone to bring it to church. I decided to just go to their house & get it really fast. Cue awkward moment of the month: him answering the door half-dressed because he thought I was Mandie...LOL. At this point, I was extremely thankful to A. be too busy to process the situation & B. know exactly where the glue gun was (yes, I made sure to tell her when I got back for those of you who are worried she will see this & be mad haha). I also realized that I left the CDs, crock pot & light burlap at my house, so I had to stop back by there too. I found most of what I needed quickly, but turned the house upside down to still not be able to locate that fabric, which ended up sitting on the kitchen table. By some miracle, I got back to church by 6:15. We're very fortunate that both Mandie & I live so close to our church ;)
Still on the To-Do list before the wedding:
-Finish burning CDs
-Put out assorted decorations (window, "&" sign, etc.)-Wrap boutonniers in twine; add two straight pins
-Wrap bouquet in burlap; add twenty straight pins (took me forever & some finger-pricks to figure out how to get them in there without the sharp parts poking through)
-Glue burlap banners together on twine; place on tables/chairs
-Give/pin on boutonnieres (Roland was so excited to get his & that made my heart smile!!)
*Place centerpieces/flower arrangements on tables
*Put out napkins, cups, forks & plates
*Make apple cider & sweet tea (which turned out to be terrible because it was hot & the sugar didn't settle)*Get dressed & put on make-up/pull hair back (I was still in jeans, a hoodie & hair in a bun until after the ceremony started)
The items with *stars* next to them still were not finished before 7, so I stayed in the back working on those things during the actual ceremony. I have to say a huge THANK YOU to Amber Ridgeway & Josh Fortner for staying back there with me as long as they could to help out (figuring out how to hang the banners) & especially Amber for being my emotional support while I was stressing to the max & burning/pricking my little fingers to death :) I got the last of the preparations finished just in time to get semi-ready & go out to join everyone else in celebration.
Even though I wasn't able to witness the wedding itself, I could hear parts of it from the back & was able to see the two of them exchanging parts of their vows while I was setting things out. It was beautiful in every way & I got so much out of the experience. I have only been to two other weddings, but I think actually putting some elbow grease into this one just taught me so much. Even though they planned their wedding in a short time, they still got married. Satan was all about trying to mess up this wedding because it was absolutely God's will. Sure, things went wrong (me losing the burlap, the tablecloths not arriving on time, the song file being wrong, even the zipper on Chelsey's dress malfunctioning just before the ceremony started...which we got taken care of so please don't be mad at me for posting this Chels! Ha), but God was there to intervene & make sure that we could manage the problems. We didn't run out of gas until we were safely at church where Clint could help us; Mandie's friend had several extra tablecloths; I had an extra safety pin with the pins I was using on the flowers; and there were so many people there to help us when we needed it. I feel much better prepared for if/when things go wrong in our wedding. There should be a little cheer for every bride when she's on the verge of having a bridezilla meltdown over bumps in the road: "That's all right! That's okay! We're getting married anyway!!" Someone please remind me this in about eight months because at the end of the day all that matters is the marriage that has begun.
Anyway, I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to Chelsey & Alan for involving me in one of the most important days of their lives & to Mandie for trusting me so much to help her pull everything together. I won't soon forget it! :)
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