Across the Shoreline: Making it up as we go along

Let’s continue with the recaps, shall we?

After our rehearsal in the backyard, it was time to actually get ready for this thing.  To be completely honest, I was sort of winging it at this point: I hadn’t really made a timeline beyond “Arrive at lodge around 9:30,” and the ceremony was set to start at 10.  At some point I had a vision of all of our bridal brigade in our room with us, helping us get ready and drinking champagne or mimosas and toasting ourselves and each other… yeah, I may have already mentioned that some of my envisionings did not come to fruition.  For one thing, 8:30 or even 9 am really is too early for champagne; for another, our room was very spacious for two people, but was crowded with more than three.  So everyone else bopped around the rest of the inn while we got ready.

um, I am the worst at makeup, and found the fact that I was spending so much time trying to put it on and asking a lot of questions HIGHLY amusing.

my wife looks like a model. you're so pretty, wife!

So we did do our basic getting-ready stuff together: makeup, gathering our things.  No one else knows how to reassure me the way Turtle does, or gives me honest feedback about weird stuff my hair is doing.  I wouldn’t have been comfortable getting ready with anyone else.  The only downside was that when I was like, “HELP ME WITH MY MAKEUP!” she was all, “Woman! I am doing my own makeup!”  Luckily one of her bridal brigade knew what she was doing and appeared to assist me.

I had decided the day before that I wanted a first look.  We didn’t get the long, amazing picture-worthy moment that a lot of people have had, but we did have a moment that was just us, when it all sort of hit me.  I started to tear up, and Turtle said, “Bird! Not now! Stop!” and then we went and got married.  So, again, not quite the big, long intimate moment I had thought it would be. Oh well.

Anyway, trying to get the First Look meant that we had to do some getting ready separately.  After first getting ready with makeup, etc, at the Inn, we packed up all our stuff and Turtle’s mom drove us to the Lodge, where we each took over a bathroom for the final touches.

I didn't actually have many final touches. My awesome Sister/Moh helped me with my shoes...

and then we took in the results of our hard work...

The whole Old, New, Borrowed, Blue thing hadn’t been important to me leading up to the wedding… and then my mother offered me something old, borrowed, and blue: the necklace I am wearing.  It’s tough to see in this picture, but it’s a small sapphire surrounded by diamonds, and it’s the necklace that my paternal grandmother gave to my mom on my parents’ wedding day.  I was really touched that my mother offered it to me for our wedding, and I was really proud to wear it that day.

In the meantime, Turtle was getting ready with her mom and friends…

 

Turtle had a little more getting ready to do than I did

one of my favorite pictures from our wedding

And finally, we were ready to see each other.  It was a carefully choreographed process; friend directed me outside and I waited at the bottom of the stairs with my back to do the door…

looking up to see my fancied-up Fancee...

Here’s part of the thing of it: I had thought that moments I had seen online, loved, and planned would feel the same way I imagined them. I had seen other people’s pictures of first looks, of getting ready, and I felt all warm and fuzzy for their groups of friends drinking champagne and relaxing with them; I felt giddy and excited for their first intimate moments together in their wedding garb. I was excited about the privacy of it, the excitement of it. And then, you guys? That’s not what we had. There were people who helped us get to the “first look” by telling us when to go, telling me when to turn around… all standing there watching. There was our photographer, waiting to catch this posed moment between us. It was not small and intimate; there was Turtle telling me not to cry, and then we had to rush off to the ceremony itself because it was nearly 10 am already, and we had to be on time! But you know what else? It really, really didn’t matter. The whole morning was so full of love, of anticipation and excitement. Everyone around us for our, ahem, “private first look” was beaming; they were thrilled to be a part of that moment, to see our excitement, to be there for us. It was perfect.

Did you or do you plan to get ready together? Have a first look? If you did, did it go as you had thought it would?