our wedding: getting ready

I know, I know, I'm a posting slacka. I'm a recap slacka. I'm a horrible blogger. But I have two words for you... tooth extraction. Yeah, ew. But I'm back now so give me a break.

Once noon rolled around, Mr. FP and his boys were kicked out of the cottage as the girls needed to start their prep work. For weeks, we'd been wondering where the boys would go when the girls needed to get ready. We'd thought about renting a room at a local inn where some guests were staying, but for 3 hours, this seemed wasteful. And having them drive 40 minutes back to the city didn't even make sense.

Thankfully, we got a call a week before the wedding from my aunt who owns a cottage across the water from my grandparents' cottage, where we were. She kindly offered her cottage to us if we needed extra space for the wedding party or guests to sleep. Of course, we promptly took her up on the offer and were able to use her place (which was only 5 minutes away) as men's locker and dressing room. Talk about a huge, last-minute blessing.

Getting ready went pretty much as scheduled. But it was at this point in the day where my brain turned to mush. I forgot to paint my nails. I didn't have the time or energy to curl my hair. I forgot to give the flower girls the pins that I had made for them. Maybe it was partly because things were still in boxes all around us or maybe it was that I was too frantic, but things were forgotten. Oh well. That's life. Looking back, I could care less. It doesn't phase me in the slightest that my hair wasn't curly or that my nails weren't perfect. Getting married is enough work for one day.


photos by our photographer, click to enlarge

One thing that I do look back fondly about that time of the day is our decision to break with tradition. Not only had Mr. FP and I spent the night before the wedding and the morning of the day together, but once we were both ready, we spent the moments before the ceremony together as well.

When we got back from my aunt's cottage with his men and lady, he simply walked back into the cottage and told me how beautiful I looked. There was no "first look" photos. It wasn't a dramatic moment. It wasn't even romantic.

You know what it was? It was relaxing. Relaxing as hell.

Having him with me in the last moments before I walked down the aisle was one of the best decisions we made that day and I wouldn't change it for the world.

I'm sure some people around us weren't so impressed. In fact, they were probably shocked and secretly disapproved of the whole thing. That, I am sure of. But I am also sure that I don't care. Why the hell would I want to be unnecessarily nervous on one of the most joyous day of our lives? That is one tradition I have never understood and one that we had absolutely no desire to replicate. Thank goodness for that.

In the mean time, our beautiful photographer arrived and started doing her thing. Outside there was a constant influx of guests as more and more people started to arrive.

At one point, we had way too many people packed in the tiny kitchen of the cottage, but it was nice to see some of my aunts, uncles and cousins before the ceremony.




(my pretty cousin and our program attendant with her program basket)


Our music man came early as well, partly to setup and partly to do what you see below in this photo one of our guests took.

Cottages rock.