Our Wedding Day!

So it's been.......... 5 months since I last wrote on here! Holy Canoli!!!  That is a bit ridiculous.

I totally thought that I'd be able to keep up with non-wedding blog posts throughout the wedding planning process... turns out I didn't do so well on that front, lol.  Anywho, I have returned to blogging... I may not be a frequent as I'd like (multiple posts per week) but I will actively write. Scout's honor ;-)

Since my ghost-mode was brought on by wedding planning stresses and whatnot, I figured that my "comeback" post should be the wedding story.  I'm sure I'll post more photos later.  So here goes.

Lamar and I got married on Sunday, June 15th.  It was Father's day and we had LOTS of friends and family in town.  That morning I got up super early (for my standards...) and had a blast getting ready with my girlfriends.  My bestsisterfriend, Amber, did my makeup which made it feel that much more special.  At random times throughout the morning I remember thinking 'I should eat' but be it nerves or excitement or forgetfulness I couldn't sit down to do it.  (Later on my cousin told me that she was sneaking me apple slices by calling my name and shoving a slice in my mouth.  lol! seriously!?)  Soon it was time to get cinched up into my dress.  In hindsight I should have told them it was too tight, but at the time all I was thinking was 'at least it's not gonna slip down'.

After a few hours of primping, all the ladies were ready.  We rode to the church in a stretch hummer (which I am still trying to decide how to like *shrug*).  Oh and it smelled like smoke and the AC was horrible.  We got to the church but couldn't go in because the guys hadn't made it there yet.  So we waited.  When it was time for the wedding to start and the men still hadn't arrived, I got worried and called Lamar.  He told me he was on the way.  I knew that meant he was not just going to be a couple mins late... but I said ok.  Soon it was half an hour past the scheduled start of the wedding and he still was missing.  Good ol' freak out me went just like this: wonder what's taking him so long... I hope he's OK... What If He Got Stuck In Traffic... WHAT IF HE GOT IN AN ACCIDENT!?!?!?!?!?!  OMG! HE'S BEEN IN AN ACCIDENT! ON OUR WEDDING DAY! HOLY CRAP! ::frantically dials phone:: 

He was fine. And soon arrived at the church.

When I saw him I was like c'mon yall, I'm getting out of this limo NOW!  All the guys were in the church in their places and we were FINALLY able to get out of the limo. 

First look with my dad :)

My cousin Marquita beautifully sang 'From This Moment' for the wedding party's entrance.  My friends Ricardo & Tasha sang 'God Bless the Broken Road' for my entrance.  I know it sounds super corny, but when the doors opened I only saw Lamar.  He looked so happy.  He also looked a little like he was holding his breath.  I wanted to speed walk down the aisle.  My dad and mom gave me away without crying and then we were walking up to our huppah.

Lamar and I talked and laughed a lot during our ceremony.  We held hands the whole time.  These are the sweet little things I remember.  Lamar's younger brother, Jason, sang 'I Want to Spend Tomorrow Here with You', my old roommate, Cherie, shared a reading called 'The Art of a Good Marriage', and our friend, Brianna, played violin while we lit the unity candle.  I loved having them participate in our ceremony.

One of the highlights of our ceremony was the kiss.  And not for the kissy face reason.  Lamar decided to "choreograph" a bit to Kiss de Girl from the Little Mermaid.  The bridesmaids were dancing and the groomsmen were encouraging him to get on with the kiss.  The best part was that our guests didn't know it was coming so there was a collective whaaat?? at the beginning. :) 

This is probably one of my favorite kiss pictures because of Allan's epic fist pump!

Just before we were pronounced husband & wife we had a 37 seconds moment.   I wanted to do it because SO many people kept telling me that my wedding day would be a blur of smiles and people and I wouldn't remember hardly any of it or who was there.  I figured that if I could take a bit of time to look at everyone and consciously make the memory I should.  So based on the quote from Mr Magorium's Wonder Emporium "37 seconds well spent is a lifetime", we stood and looked out on all our friends and family.  I am VERY glad we did it.  It's the only time I remember seeing my best friend Ricky :)
We were then pronounced and everyone clapped and cheered.  The last part of the ceremony was a blessing read by our fathers.  Well it was supposed to be read by our fathers... Lamar's dad read the part I gave him, but my dad decided not to read the one I gave but to make up his own instead.  I'm so glad it still went with the theme of the blessing.

The reception was pretty standard, I think, well except for the appetizers and drinks during the cocktail hour.  Those were all created by Lamar and put together by him & the groomsmen (which was the reason for his late ceremony arrival). They were delicious.  We had toasts to our parents, toasts from the Best Man & Maid/Matron of Honor, mother son dance, father daughter dance, first dance, cake cutting... all the necessities.

All the toasts were really awesome. We're so blessed to have such great friends and family.

There were a couple surprises such as, my Maid of Honor, Sheree's toast was a poem she wrote to Eminem's "My Name Is" and that was really cool.  She even had these christian folk doing the call and response (HI - my name is - WHAT - my name is - WHO - my name is mrs. mrs. mrs. ryan!) Lamar changed our first dance song at the last minute to 'At Last' and Tasha sang the mess out of it.

I always have so much fun dancing with Lamar :)

He also asked Marquita to sing 'Fever' and we chair danced along (a la Cosby's). Ricardo and Vincent also sang during dinner.  When Lamar and his mom danced, they looked so sweet ^.^ I remember he was wondering if she would actually dance.  I'm glad she did.

Look how cute these two are!

The father-daughter dance was definitely a surprise for everyone because not only did my dad put together a choreographed dance segment to 'Billie Jean'... it turned into an impromptu dance battle between us! lol! Then when we got the the actual dance to 'Daddy's Angel' there are now quite a few pictures of my dad's crying face. hehe :)

I honestly thought my dad was going to have a tearful breakdown.

When we cut the cake, I remember thinking that it looked exactly like the drawing the baker did.  It had 3 tiers each with their own color and flavor (yellow amaretto, green velvet, blue lemon). I'm pretty sure the blue layer may have confused a guest or two.  The groom's cake was a stack of donuts topped with an Orlando Magic logo (please excuse the fact that the logo is upside-down in the picture) and sculptures of Kiva & Toot done by my aunt Margie.  Lamar was soo excited. :)

Yum! All the goodies!

The rest of the night was spent dancing with friends and family and having a good time!

So that was our wedding day.  To be completely honest, the first month after I had a hard time feeling like it was the "best day ever" because I could only see all the things that went wrong.  The expected wedding day was SO different than the reality and that made it hard for me to be happy about it.  One night I googled 'wedding day gone wrong' and read story after story of wedding fails.  That helped me to see that ish happens... even on your wedding day.  Everyone has some horror story in the files of their wedding, but you have to focus on the whole day and not the bad details in order to see that it was the best day ever.  Now, four months later, I am consistently laughing at most of those bad details.  But I see the day as I should: the day Lamar and I promised forever. :)