Saturday, July 25, 2009

An Unfortunate Sequence of Events

The night before the wedding there was a rehearsal dinner at the Napa Rose, a restaurant in a Disneyland hotel (NEAT). Before we ate, Micah and Heather ran through with us what they'd practiced at the rehearsal at the chapel a few nights before.

For the bridesmaid's part, we were to walk down the aisle and line up on the left side of the altar. I was to go first. So much for being able to go without glasses and just follow the person in front of me. We ran through it once or twice, were told about the little yellow triangles on the floor to guide our positioning etc. Then we ate a very delicious dinner.

In talking to Heather a little at the dinner she expressed how nervous she was, and that she was scared something would go wrong or that she'd mess up what she was supposed to say etc. She had the perfect, bridely jitters.

The next morning the wedding was at ten o'clock. We were told that we could practice from nine to nine-thirty. I was glad, as I had never been in this type of wedding, hadn't seen the chapel's layout yet, was wearing those heels (I haven't worn heels since I got married since Greg, um, doesn't like them on me.) and have pregnancy wobbliness on top of my normal spastic tendencies.

We arrived a little after nine and rushed to dress so we could practice. But the bride wasn't there yet. So we didn't actually practice and I just peeked in the chapel once but was mostly wandering the grounds with family.

At five or ten 'til 10 the photographer was taking pictures of my family on the lawn and I was feeling as though it was very late. I ran to the dressing room to ask the other bridesmaids if we should be with them. They said yes.

I ran back to get my sisters and we got our bouquets and all six of us ran around the chapel to the back where we would enter from.

While we were running we started getting in order, me in front. At the back of the church I stood first. There were loud whispers from the wedding planner (I think that was her title) for us to hurry up! Get in order! Etc. I just stood ready and let her take care of the girls behind me.

Sooner than I expected I heard her voice in my ear, "Okay, you can go in now." I was starting to turn my head for confirmation and felt a light nudge on my back. Oh! Better go!

I walked as gracefully as I could down the aisle and turned left at the altar and took my place.

But Anne wasn't behind me. She was supposed to start walking when I was half way down the aisle. She should have been right behind me!!

Whatever. Once I was standing where I thought I was supposed to be (totally forgot to look for yellow triangles) I tried to sneakily remove my glasses and held them with my bouquet. Anne kept not coming. I smiled into the audience and reflected more than I had before on how very empty the front of the chapel was. How very, very empty.

I had no idea what was going on but I tried to smile as if I had been sent there to smile for everyone. To give them a hint of what was to come, or something. I was just hoping that there were more bridesmaids to come. And SOON!

I did not see the wedding planner at all. I kept looking for a sign from her (that I had done something wrong or to sit down or come back or anything). Granted I had my glasses off, but I could see her talking to the harpist (beautiful music!!) but never motioning to me or even looking in my direction. But I saw Anne standing there waiting. (FOR WHAT!!?)

Both my mom and dad kept giving me sympathetic smiles, which I appreciated. I wondered if I should sit down (I was standing right by a pew) until the other girls came but decided against it.

Finally Anne started walking. Hooray! Oh, wait. Then she went back . I noticed movement from the other side of the front of the chapel.

The groom and groomsmen came out of a door in the front and started lining up. So it was them, and me. Cute.

For the record, my level of embarrassment through this whole thing was a zero. I felt pretty confident that something had happened after I started walking so they had to change plans or something. But my level of feeling bad for being the one who sort of ruined the effect was well above a zero. Especially when Heather's words from the night before came back to me of her fears about something going wrong.

Once the groomsmen were nicely lined up the music changed (I think) and Anne started coming. And she looked great. All the girls did as they came in behind her. And I finally felt relief. We arranged ourselves:


See me smiling my relief to all my new-made friends in the audience?

Then Heather and Micah were married. It was a lovely ceremony.


Afterward I tried to find the lady in charge (to apologize/find out what had happened), but I never did. However, from talking to a few different people I learned that some guests had come in behind us while we lined up and were hesitant to go sit down so the lady told them, "Okay, you can go in now." Yeah. Right in my ear. (I swear!)

It wasn't until even later that I found out that the push I got on the small of my back was not from her but from Anne who also heard her and also thought she was talking to me.

Here's what I assumed we were lined up like when I started going in:

Here's what it actually looked like: (notice in the picture above it's Anne at the front of the line and not me. I'm at the front of the chapel). And that's my actual first step of doom. (I was seriously so shocked when I saw this picture, just today. I had NO IDEA we weren't all lined up.)


So there's my story. I already mentioned a couple of posts back that the wedding was wonderful. I never felt like anyone blamed me or really even cared about my big blunder. It was completely lost in the awesomeness of the day. And I got lost in it, too!

Here's another shot of my family, this time with our newest sister!

20 comments:

Alison Wonderland said...

The thing is that if you had told her ahead of time that this would have happened the bride would probably have been really upset but now, and definitely later, well, it just doesn't matter. And I bet it will be the most frequently told story from the whole wedding. Perfect weddings (just like everything else) do not make for good stories.

Kazzy said...

Just think of yourself as the little precursor of the wonderful things to come! I love love love the red. And what a gorgeous building. You all look lovely!

ps funny that your husband doesn't like you in heels!

Randi said...

I'm cracking up at your post tags! I love the red, you look fantastic, and you are definitely, definitely NOT a loser!

Anonymous said...

That wedding is just GORGEOUS and that chapel is to die for! I think you look beautiful, Lis! I'm so glad no one was upset and I think you did an awesome job!

Melanie Jacobson said...

Oh, this would so be me.

Nice dresses.

Annette Lyon said...

The post title says it all--it wasn't anyone's fault, just an unfortunate situation that happens to be funny after the fact. (Glad it wasn't me, although in the same situation, it so would have been.)

Lara Neves said...

This post just makes me love you even more than I already did! I'm always the one causing the unfortunate events and I should never never be in the front of a wedding line up like that. In fact, I was supposed to be at my brother's wedding a few months ago. Guess who ended up going in dead last? Yeah. Me.

Your family is lovely and I love the red dresses! You are beautiful!

Cajoh said...

Funny how something always seems to happen at weddings. Sounds like you held your composure and was able to make it look like it was planned.

Josi said...

Thank goodness you weren't embarassed while you were up there--that would have made those few seconds seem like eons! And look at it this way, you made a memory :-)

Kimberly Vanderhorst said...

You handled it so well! And look fabulous doing so, to boot.

That has got to be the most stunning chapel I've ever seen. Wow.

Heidi said...

Hoo-wee! What a funny story! Love it! Clearly the wedding was wonderful and beautiful (except for the bridesmaid who looks like she's about to lose her dress).

Erin said...

You handled things beautifully. I feel really bad that I messed up the last wedding I did. I had played for the single bridesmaid and was waiting to see the bride at the top of the aisle. But there was another girl just standing there and she looked like she could be in the wedding party. I kept waiting for her to come down and playing the music for the bridesmaid. Finally I saw the father of the bride poke his head around the corner and I was like oh, I guess they are back there waiting for me to start "Here comes the Bride". Then at the end of the wedding I started the recessional wedding music early. That was even more embarrassing I think. Weddings are stressful even for someone who has done a hundred...

Erin said...

But you looked so beautiful while making that teeny, tiny mistake.

Beautiful pictures! (Well, not necessarily the pictures themselves, but the people in them and the place the wedding was located.)

Anonymous said...

The dresses turned out so lovely! That's all that matters, right? How everbody looks in the pictures? Will the bride really remember what happened? I swear, weddings are like childbirth....so much time and effort goes into planning these things, and nobody remembers all the pain and agony when all they have to remember everything by is the pictures.

MelancholySmile said...

What a great story! Funny how the 'embarrassing' events always seem to be the ones that give a wedding character. J and I always talk about the our toppled wedding cake. It fell over on the ride to the reception, and my brothers cleverly put a sign next to it that read, "Do Not Touch". Awesome.

PS You look fabulous in red. And if I hadn't already known you were prego, I never would have been able to tell from these photos!

Mrs4444 said...

I have never seen a more beautiful chapel in my life! Wow. I love that you weren't embarrassed-well done!

Cynthia said...

Wow! You all look great! I wouldn't worry at all about the 'blunder'- no one really thinks much about those kinds of things, it's rather expected.

I will say that your new sister is drop dead gorgeous. Yowza! And the chapel is lovely- it feels like it's outside. Very nice.

melissabastow said...

You know what would have been REALLY embarrassing? If you had gotten to the front -alone- and then realized that the back of your dress was tucked into the waistband of your undies. Oh, and also if the photographer had gotten a good shot of it too, for posterities sake.

Susan said...

I love reading your blogger's posts, Lisa. I hope you'll have time to keep blogging!

charrette said...

I bet no one even noticed. They probably thought you were somebody special and important to had to go out first. You were smart to stand there and stay in character.

And what a gorgeous family! The chapel could only be more gorgeous if it had, well, mirrors reflecting eternity.