april 25, 2009

wedding day!! despite the bumps and snags that we ran into in the week prior to the wedding, we made it in one piece. and i think i surprised myself more than anything. we were behind schedule getting ready and setting up, and i didn’t care. pictures started late, and i didn’t care. it was rainy and windy, and i didn’t care. my dress was dirty and wet from being outside. my pretty, fluffy, white dress. and i didn’t care. i’m not sure what got into me. much smaller things have sent me over the edge, but i think it was the magic of the day that had me calm and stress-free.

i’m positive i shocked my sister to her core though. while shopping together for favor-making materials, we found place cards at michaels and she asked if there was going to be a seating chart. i told her “no, i didn’t make a seating chart. who am i to tell people where to sit? i’m just the bride” REAL QUOTE. she stood in the aisle with her mouth hanging open and told me she never thought she’d hear those words come out of my mouth.

okay, lets back up a little bit. friday. last minute things – finding mom’s shoes, getting mani-pedis, and the rehearsal dinner. instead of lighting a unity candle at our ceremony, we decided to throw a message in a bottle out into the water. jesse’s mom came up with the idea and we LOVED it! we had to make sure that our bottle would float. since we were throwing it into the bay, we made our experiment authentic – complete with salt water and fish :)

it worked! it floats! inside we put a flamingo & a fishing lure to represent each of us, and a note to whoever find it. it said:

Megan Suzanne Pearce
&
Jesse Lee Smith

Were married on April 25, 2009
At the Lighthouse Bungalow
On Puget Sound
In Olympia, Washington

This bottle symbolizes
the start of our new life
together

If you find our message,
Please contact us at:
(jesse’s email)

p.s. please recycle this bottle :)

the rest of friday went pretty smoothly, with just the usual day-before primping and rehearsal. here are a few of my favorite pictures from friday:

sisters getting nails done :)

cutest ring bearer on the planet

bossy bride ;)

love my girls

gorgeous table decor, thanks to my amazing m-i-l :)

my ring bearer pillow was old, my dress was new, my mom’s pink pearls were borrowed, and my garter was blue. my garter was really fun. just a store-bought cheap-o from walmart, but i went to shipwreck beads and got a pewter salmon charm and spiced it up a little bit to make it more “us” :)

getting ready was really fun. crazy chaotic, but fun. all of my bridesmaids, and the rest of my girls all crammed in one tiny room full of makeup, jewelry, hair straighteners, curling irons, high heels, and gallons of hairspray

my killer pink shoes!

cito modeling the finished bottle :)

our amazing bouquets

bride & best maid of honor ever <3

despite the wind and rain, our pictures turned out excellent. and i really thought it was in true washington style that we had an umbrella in some of them :)

jesse seeing me for the first time

andrew repcik photography :)

trying to stay warm – dancing with brother!

vicki keeping me fed! hooray for subway!

relaxing and….

watching the red sox beat the yankees! it was a great day in more ways than one!

look at those grumpy clouds!

me right before the ceremony! i was excited and jittery and nervous (mostly because i didn’t want to fall down the stairs!)

it was a really weird feeling walking outside on the balcony, watching everything going on before it was time for me to start down the stairs. very surreal. it was more wedding day magic as the music started playing and the bridesmaids and groomsmen started walking down the aisle, the grumpy clouds lifted and the sun came out.

it may sound a little selfish, but as i was standing on the balcony, watching my grandparents walk to their seats, absorbing all the people that actually came to take part in something that wasn’t really that great in the grand scheme of the world, just significant in my little corner, i felt proud of myself. proud that everything had come together. all the flowers, the dresses, the friends and family. all of my visions and hopes for the day were out in front of me and i couldn’t have been more proud of the work that was put into getting to that point.

i made it down the stairs injury-free! it was a really amazing feeling to get to the bottom and see my dad waiting for me, watching all those people stand up, just for me. i really felt like the princess i’ve always claimed to be.

this was after meeka, our gorgeous & amazing rev, said “mawwage” from the princess bride. it was outstanding, i knew it was coming and i still cracked up :)

we wrote our own vows, and i was so happy with them :) it was really strange, but each of us wrote with the same style, even though we hadn’t talked with each other about how we were going to write them. we each mentioned a little about our past together and about sweet things that we do, like fishing trips and dancing in the kitchen. it was just perfectly “us”

after jesse threw our message in a bottle!

you may now kiss the bride!

mr. & mrs. jesse smith!!!

the reception was great, just standard toast, cake, dancing, but we had an amazing time :) here are some of my favorite pictures from the reception, most are pretty self-explanitory (and i think my all-time favorite – the pinky promise! i made jesse pinky swear not to smash cake in my face… he kept his word!)

sister shoe change :)

brother played his guitar & sang at our reception. it was awesome :)

crazy full house! so many people!!

phew! the end :)

(p.s. since i have downloaded windows live writer -thanks to my bff – this entry was super easy to do! i’ve been putting off wedding blogging because blogger is so touchy about pictures and alignment. so, now that its a piece of cake – more blogs to come! expect honeymoon, my trip to charleston, and our recent vacation to vegas to appear in the near future!)