I ran across this heart breaking wedding story and just had to share it. My heart goes out to this bride…
The Wedding that almost wasn’t
Wednesday:
4:00AM - Awake, all happy cause we’re leaving for the airport. Telling everyone we see we are on our way to get married.
11:00AM - To the court house pick up marriage license, enjoy the unbelievable weather in
Savannah for the rest of the day.
Thursday:
7:00AM - Perfect morning beach run
10:00AM - Attempt number one to contact wedding coordinator…unsuccessful
Head in to Savannah, then come back and enjoy the beach… half of guests arive for a great night out.
Multiple unsuccessful calls to coordinator…
Friday:
8:00AM - Perfect morning beach run
9:30AM - Finally reach coordinator’s coordinator who says she will tell Annastasia to call…
10:00AM - Best friend misses connecting flight, rerouted to Hilton Head, loses baggage…eventually finds baggage
12:30PM - Decide to call coordinator AGAIN. She says she’s too busy to meet with me, what do I need to know… ?? Well, she has booked a second wedding, so my wedding is bumped from 5:30PM to 6:30PM. Seriously no big deal..a few more details surface but all seems well.
Remainder of day enjoyed with entire guest party which arrives by 3PM and then heads out for a great dinner and one heck of a night…
Saturday:
9:00AM - Totally hung over 1 mile run on beach…but psyched hey it’s wedding day!
11:00AM - Weather is perfect leave to get hair done
11:30AM -Girl doing hair has never done an updo…second woman working there keeps coming over and redoing …takes 2 hours instead of one…she scared the girls in to not getting their hair done. Thank GOD for the second woman she made it happen.
2:00PM -Girls getting ready, awesome photographers have arrived
3:00PM - I get dressed, dad gives me beautiful pearl earrings
3:15PM - First moments with David on the pier…MAGICAL… weather is perfect
3:30PM - 20MPH winds begin blowing us literally off the beach…
LET THE GAMES BEGIN
Group takes pictures a few more places around the island, but the winds are intense…and well we never got a single shot on the water or any shots besides a few of D and I even in the sand.
6:00PM - Family is gathered in condo…Annastasia finally appears…”OH I’m just so frazzled, what a day it’s been for me.” Previous wedding was literally blown off the beach, all food ruined, cake dumped in sand. She sits down, looks at me and says “It’s now offically a tropical storm with winds at 35MPH and up, plus potential for lightening and rain. I can not use the tent on the beach, so we have two options. One is a ballroom down the street, but I really don’t recommend it…the other is a space in the parking garage…it’s like a blank canvas we can make it great.” LIAR LIAR PANTS ON FREAKING FIRE.
So there I stand with really very little option as we talk it over, fine just move it to the garage we all agree…but wait what time will everything start now? 7:30 ceremony, but no food til 8:30… YIKES that’s a problem…so she agrees to let us go to the condo bar and have appetizers and drinks. Now she might have agreed but it took my wonderful matron of honor to track her down over 20 times to actually make it happen (might I add my contract included a bar tab anyways!). See this was now the 6th time she had tried to reschedule things…but hadn’t actually done or moved anything.
6:15PM - Entire group heads to bar…2 teenage girls are attempting to move all decor and tables from beach to garage… 15 people from wedding party spend the next 1 1/2 hours helping them… coordinator is MIA.
6:30PM -I am so sick to my stomach I can not hardly stand up. Girls take me to bathroom and yes…on my wedding day I was barefoot and nearly naked in the bar bathroom because I had to take off my dress.
7:00PM - Family and friends are helping 2 teenage girls decorate because they don’t know what to do and the coordinator is still MIA.
7:30PM - Mother is holding wet rag to my neck and I am praying I will just puke. I keep trying to tell people I’m not stressed I was just truly sick…see when I get stressed I eat, I love it.
8:00PM - Find out the coordinator had to go home to cook some food…???! Can not figure out how the place would have gotten set up without the 15 helpers who braved the elements because they love David and I so much.
8:15PM - Am now ready to pass out, have not cried, just tried to laugh and go with the flow…seriously I was amazed as was everyone else that both David and I were laughing..at that point.
8:30PM - Matron of honor finally lays the hammer down to help get me down the aisle…the very dark aisle in the parking garage. Did not put up lights as promised, it is so dark I don’t know that pictures will come out…then again how much of that background do I want to see in a photo of me walking down the aisle.
As I’m walking I notice that someone has brought a man from a 1960 beach movie to be our minister…in jean shorts and a faded top. Luckily I had printed out the vows that she was supposed to give him because well SHE HADN’T! He did not talk with us once prior to the ceremony so did not know our names, didn’t know the flow…but David and I were pretty focused on each other and just trying to be in that moment.
8:45PM - I tell matron of honor I am going to hurl but want pictures of first dance and father daughter dance…must do immediately. THANK GOD SHE PACKED A FRIGGIN BOOMBOX, because again the coordinator had forgot any music playing device.
8:55PM - Run out of reception…to parking garage elevator, cry finally for 30 seconds until girls make me laugh. Take off dress, put on sweat pants, curl in to fetal position on bed.
9:00PM - Girls leave. I puke. Put on jacket and veil, go back to reception.
9:15PM - No plates…very little food left
9:30PM - Kids start asking if we are done and will be leaving soon…supposed to be a 3 hour reception.
10:00PM - Do cake cutting in my sweat suit…yes that was just friggin awesome…had a few bites of cake and decided food was still no good for me.
10:15PM- Kids clean up all food and start tearing everything down. Group stays but it was strange and awkward and really annoying to me.
Group partied til 2AM and we laughed all night about how “unique” it was and that surely no one had ever been to a parking garage wedding. I truly wanted to be light hearted about it because the only other option would have just made everyone said.
3AM -David and are talking about how heart broken we truly are…how mad we are at the absolute chaos of the coordinator and well how we still don’t believe it happened to us…or that we are going to have to tell people we got married in a parking garage…seriously.
Today was rough since we were tired, but we enjoyed seeing everyone off and tried to just enjoy the day. Right up until I finally sat down at the airport and realized I was going to have to live with this as our wedding day…I started sobbing…in the airport.
Resource: http://runtothefinish.blogspot.com/
OMG! That has got to be THE most horrible wedding story I have ever heard…well, short of someone running form the alter. I hope that the coordinator never does another event again…how awful. The couple must have an amazing love and security to be able to laugh through it all and keep it together. This is truely a testimony of how their future will be riding out the storms of life.