Getting Ready

Saturday, September 12

As I said in my previous post I woke up early the morning of the wedding. I was awake at 4:30 am but forced myself to stay in bed until 7! I couldn't sit still so my mom and I went down to the workout room in the hotel and I ran on the treadmil for about 25 minutes. It helped to work off some of my nervous energy! My mom and I had a nice breakfast just the two of us and then headed back to the room to get showered and wait for the rest of the girls. We had the hair and make-up artist come to us at the hotel and I'm so glad we decided to do it this way! We had a huge parlor room so there was plenty of room for all of the girls to get ready and it relaxing to be able to stay in one place all morning. I loved our hair and make up people. They were both very nice, did a great job and everyone looked beautiful!
Michaela and Erin getting their hair done.

Snuggling with Merrill helped keep my nerves in check!

Shannon getting beautiful!

Starting to look a little nervous

In the makeup chair

I loved my hair!

As the morning quickly turned to noon I started getting really nervous. My stomach was in knots and I even started shaking a little bit! Right as we were about to leave the room to catch our shuttle to the church, I had a little moment where I almost lost it. I can't remember what even triggered it but all of a sudden I felt very overwhelmed and someone asked me what was wrong. I got choked up and said "I feel like I'm going to cry." My sister was right there and told me it was ok to cry. "But I don't want to cry!" This made everyone giggle and broke the moment and I was fine again. Everything seemed so surreal up until that moment and it just kind of hit me all at once that this was really happening!
Excited to be at the church and getting close to wedding time!

Jason got ready with his groomsmen at one of their apartments. I'm not really sure what they did...guy stuff I guess! I do know that Jason got about as much sleep as I did and he was feeling some nerves too. We texted a few times throughout the morning which helped calm our nerves a bit.

The hotel shuttle took me and girls to the church and then went and picked up Jason and the guys which worked out well and ensured that there was no way we would bump into each other arriving at the church. The girls and I stayed in a room at the back of the church that was way too small (especially for Millie who never sits still!) but kept us hidden from everyone arriving. I got dressed about 15 minutes before it was time to walk down the aisle. My mom and I shared a special moment and few happy tears - after all her baby was getting married!
My mom and sister helping me get into my dress

Helping Millie get ready for her big walk down the aisle!

My mom and I sharing a few tears :)

My dad seeing me in my dress for the first time

The last five minutes before the ceremony started were the longest 5 minutes of my life! Time seemed to be standing still and I just wanted to get things going!
So nervous!

Ready to walk down the aisle!