I do...

Part II
The Wedding Day:

I woke up from a great night's sleep (really!) around 8 am. After a touch of cereal and some coffee with mom I headed out to the hair salon for my 9am appointment where I met Ang and Stef. Maura, the hair goddess, worked on my hair while Lucia, the make-up miracle, did Ang's make-up. Stef got her hair done along with me, and was done with her make-up by the time I was ready for mine.

Maura asked if I wanted my curls pinned up in the back and I said "Sure, lets go for it." 5 minutes after she finished I had a mini-meltdown and insisted that she take them back down and let them hang. She obliged and I was so happy that we made the change. It made a huge difference and I went from kind-of-not-liking my hair to loving it!

Lucia worked her magic with Mineral Hygenics and for the rest of the day, every time I passed a mirror, I had a "Well hello there, Beautiful!" moment.
We all finished close to 11, and headed back to my mom's house to get dressed and wait for Nicole, Kaleigh, and Jen to arrive.

Jim the photographer arrived right at 11:45, so I dropped my left-over-rehearsal chicken and slipped into my dress so he could take the obligatory zipping-up shots. He took several of me putting earrings on, then necklace, then bracelet, etc, before heading out to the pond.

Finally, the pond into which my dear step-dad poured so much blood, sweat, and tears gets it time to shine!

Jim took a few pictures of me moseying around the pond, and also a picture of me with each bridesmaid near the pond. I'll admit, every time a car drove by I thought "Oh no! It's Ryan! He can see me!" Stef finally called Ryan's dad and made sure they gave us a 5-minute warning before their arrival.

Soon, we got the call. I ran inside and well, panicked! What do I do? Where do I go? When do I come out? All the bridesmaids huddled at the garden window on the porch, and I walked out the sliding glass door along the brick walkway to Ryan. He was standing there with his back to me, in his tux. My instructions were to tap him on the shoulder and he'd turn around.

I walked up and stood right behind him. I hummed a little "Do do da do..." just to make him wonder when I'd tap. Then...tap, tap, tap. He slowly turned (to his left, just like Jim told him).

And there he was, smiling from ear to ear looking daper in his tux. We just smiled at each other for a few seconds, he told me I looked beautiful, and we smooched as the camera clicked away. It was a great moment. Ryan finally understood why I spent the last month freaking out over every mosquito bite, bump, and bruise on my legs.

After snapping some more pictures around the pond, we headed into the limo and off to the park for more pictures.

To be continued...