Wedding Part 3- The Ceremony

The time had finally come.  The wedding coordinator had made herself up my hotel room and it was time to go downstairs and get in line for the processional.

Me, my Mom and Dad and bridesmaids all cramped ourselves into the elevator and descended down to the first floor.  As we got out of the elevator a serious surge of excitement hit.  We had to walk through the lobby of the Hyatt and everyone was staring and smiling at my beautiful bridesmaids and me.  We even had a few random people taking our picture as we glided to the ballroom.

Things happened pretty quick after we stepped into our places.  Kelsey was the first bridesmaid to go and boy did she look nervous haha.  Sim followed her like a pro since she's been in like 5 weddings in the past 2 years.  Holly was nervous but totally held it together.  Beth was the last one to go and walked down the aisle calm, cool, and collected.

This is the only pic of them I have all together so far...disregard the lack of smiles haha

Now it was Me and my Dad's turn to go.  I wasn't really nervous to walk down the aisle, just really pumped up.  I had an intense amount of adrenaline running through my body.  I'll never forget what one of my friends told me when she got married last summer;  "There is no reason to be nervous.  Just think of it as a HUGE soccer game and get yourself pumped to walk to down the aisle.  It's GAME TIME".  I'm pretty sure that was the best advice I had received throughout the entire wedding process.

So I hear my bridal entrance song, the Celtic version of Cannon in D, and see the big white doors open.  Me and my dad set a good pace from the get go and I see my groom waiting for me at the end of the aisle.  I started to trip a little bit on the front of my dress but quickly recovered and altered my steps so I wouldn't fall down and take my Dad with me haha.  Jordan looked a little nervous but had a smile on his face waiting for me.  I was so happy to see him, the bridal party, and all of our friends and family around us. 

 Me starting to trip on my dress haha

My Dad gave me away when we reached or Justice of the Peace and Jordan at the end of the aisle.  It was so nice to hold Jordan's hands and gage how he was feeling.  I think we both had nervous beaming smiles on our faces. 

Our JP welcomed us and our friends and family and discussed the importance or marriage and supporting one another.  She then called my Aunt Lisa and my Mom in Law Kathy to come up and deliver their readings.  Both of them spoke very clear and confident.  It was so nice having them stand by our sides and read such encouraging words.

After the readings it was time for the big moment....saying our vows.  I was so opposed to writing and saying our own vows in the beginning of this whole process because I thought I would be too nervous speaking in front of all of those people but in the end I'm glad we did it.  It was much more meaningful to hear Jordan speak his own words from his heart rather then him repeating vows after the JP. When it was my turn a got a little teary eyed but I have to say we both held it together pretty well.  My absolute FAVORITE thing about our vows is that we had each hand printed them...on Hyatt hotel and Best Western hotel paper hahaha.  I had a huge smile on my face when Jordy was reading his vows to me not only because they were sweet, but because I had noticed we were on the exact same page.  It was so "us".  We are definitely not 'that' couple that has every little detail planned so it was awesome to see that we had both written our vows on hotel paper.  Clearly we had also both written ours that day haha.

Next we exchanged our rings and completed our sand ceremony.  Of course Jordan put my ring on as smooth as can be...me on the other hand struggled a little bit getting it over those hockey knuckles haha.  I was also cracking up when we did the sand ceremony because the bride and the groom are supposed to slowly mix the sand together and Jordan ended up just dumping his in all at once.  Can't say I didn't know what I was getting into ;o)

Finally we kissed and were announced for the first time as Mr. and Mrs. Jordan Fox! Wohooo!!

That's pretty much it as far as the ceremony goes.....check back in a few days to hear all about Part 4-The Reception. Trust me...you don't want to miss it!