Tuesday, March 7, 2017

The Wedding Day

We woke up bright and early Friday morning for Nicole's big day!! It was decided that we'd fix our hair then go out for breakfast and do a little shopping. The family came over before we left and we all cleaned up the house and got everything in order. Since she was getting married late in the evening, there was no big rush to get to the church right away.
Fixing Nicole's hair for the first time that day.
Well, Grampa. It's just me and you now. Nicole didn't change her mind.
I woke up in an awful mood - I didn't want anyone near me or talking to me. This shopping trip really helped things out.
Breakfast

Sis. Collins sent this to my mom while we were at breakfast the morning of the wedding. This was the verse of the day!! I had to finally concede that maybe this marriage was the will of God. :D

You know those classic pictures you see where the mom is zipping up the girl's dress or the bride and her BFF are both looking into a mirror all lovingly and emotional? This is me and Nicole's attempt at that.

Of course as all this is happening, I'm sending the pictures to our church people in Mexico - everyone but Mario, Hayde, and Abner because I selfishly wanted to give them the live and in person breakdown of all 533 pictures.
We got ready over at the church school. When we were done and it was time for pictures, we carefully carried Nicole's dress through the parking lot and over to the church.

And....ta da! The beautiful bride!!!

The photographer and Johnny were waiting in the sanctuary for Nicole to come in for the "first look" pictures.
I love this picture! So mysterious and full of anticipation!
In the meantime, the family and bridal party hung out in the vestibule and fellowship hall waiting for our turn to be called in for pictures.



I was so honored to have been able to match with little Miss Mayci, the flower girl, and her baby doll!
Aren't we cute??
Me and the mother of the bride

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures...

Dorisa, me, John, Nicole, Cherie, and Stephanie
Derek, Andrew, John, Nicole, Mitch, and Jared
The Wakefield and Collins family
I love this picture :)

The whole family and bridal party

After we finished taking pictures, guests started to arrive. It was a pretty exciting time and I was saying hi to people, enjoying myself, chatting it up...when all of a sudden I look around and noooo one else in the bridal party is in the sanctuary and I am all alone.
Me and Amanda
I skedaddled myself out of there to look for my fellow bridesmaids...
...and I found them in a side room chowing down on pan dulce!


Umm, hi guys. Did you not miss me?
Right before it was time for the ceremony to start, I saw Nicole's veil was getting stuck to her dress so I started fixing it. It was then that we both actually started to cry and the REAL stare-lovingly-into-each-others-eyes-and-cry picture was captured. 
We both started fanning ourselves like crazy. "WHOOOOO! Get that under control!" Especially Nicole since her face turns all red and splotchy when she cries. LOL.
Don't cry. Don't cry. Not yet.

Finally the ceremony started and Jack took his place beside Pastor Collins.

All of us bridesmaids walked down the aisle with no incident....
Then it was Nicole's turn! 
Insert ugly cry face: 

Yeah...pretty much from here on out, it was pure crying. Like, I actually thought I was going to have to take a moment and walk out the door behind the platform to get control of myself. Then I thought of how distracting that would be and just started breathing through my mouth instead.

Woo! He looks pretty excited!


My dad did a VALIANT job helping officiate the ceremony. He cried almost the entire time, but one thing I admire about my dad is that he can maintain a steady voice through his tears. That's a good quality to have.

Man, oh man. It was tough. It's not that I never see my dad cry. Anyone that knows my dad knows that he cries at the drop of a hat! I guess just seeing him cry I was thinking, "Oooooh...I feeeeeeeeel your paaaaaaiiin!"
Thank goodness for absorbent hankies.
"You're all I need, my love, my Valentine...."
Elder Pickleseimer and the ministry praying for the newlyweds
Bro. Kelly sang "When God Unfolds the Rose"
You may kiss the bride!
AND BOY, DID HE EVER. 
FOUR TIMES. 
In this fashion:



Mr. and Mrs. John Collins!
After the ceremony, the bride and groom and their dads, the maid of honor and best man went to Bro. Collin's office to sign the marriage certificate. 
Lots of hugs and congratulations
Whew! We made it! THEY ARE MARRIED!!!!


First Bro. Collins signed it...
Then Andrew, the best man..
Then me, the maid of honor.
Later on when I was going through Dad's phone getting his pictures, I ran across this one. It cracked me up! I said, "Dad, that's what you were doing when we were signing the marriage certificate?" And he said, "Noooo...that was another day!" And sure enough, his tie is different so he is telling the truth. But it made me laugh anyways!

After we signed the marriage certificate and John and Nicole kissed a whole bunch more, we made our way over to the gym for the reception.



Mexican pan dulce (sweet bread)

The lovely bridesmaids
Bethany, Nicole, and Bethany
Gwamma and Gwampa
Stephanie and her beautiful creation!
Gotta get a closer look at that...


 The groomsmen passed around their shoes to be filled with money by the guests...

The garter toss...

So cute!

The bouquet toss...

The bride and groom escaped soon thereafter and off they went to their honeymoon!

Congratulations, Nicole and Johnny! I love you both so very much
;)

~Bethany~

5 comments:

Unknown said...

Aww... Such special memories. I'm loving getting to read your recollections of it. It was a beautiful day! Can't wait for Round 2 next month!

Mary Frances said...

Awwwwww SO PRETTY!!! Looks like it was a GREAT DAY!!! I loved all those paper flowers, those are STUNNING!!! And Steph's cake is FANTASTIC!!! Congrats Johnny and Nicole!!!

Mary Frances said...

So who caught the garter and bouquet and what'd you get in your emotional shopping day?! LOL

The Wakefields: Missionaries to Mexico said...

Cherie - I can't wait either!!!!

Mary - Dorisa caught the bouquet and a guy from Elder Kelly's church caught the garter. Can't remember his name.

Bethany

Unknown said...

What an amazing day, it truly was beautiful!! And I so agree with Cherie so many memories made, y'all have extra fun for me on round 2!!

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