My Wedding Experience: The Wedding!

This is a blog post series, be sure to read Part 1 & Part 2!

Remember that feeling every year, the night before the first day of school?  How there’s excitement of something new and sleeping is hard because you’re excited to see your friends and see what that new year will bring?  Take that feeling and multiply it by maybe 1000.  There were so many nerves and excitement going on that my maid of honor and one of my bridesmaids stayed in the room with me the night before and we were still awake at midnight so we had a countdown to the wedding day, just like New Years Eve.  Right after our mini celebration, we turned out the lights and I tried hard to get to sleep.  It felt like it took forever!  At that point I wasn’t even thinking about the actual wedding.  All I could dream about was my groom standing at the end of the aisle and getting to him.  I eventually did get to sleep. Dreaming all night of rain and rivers and water.  Ironic after what I woke to the next morning.

Just as the light started brightening my room, my eyes popped open and there was no way I was getting back to sleep.  I heard a drizzling of rain and got up to go look out the window.  I was staying in the bungalow on the farm, and right across the way from where I stood was our tree.  That tree that we fell in love with our first visit to the farm.  And all around it was rain and clouds.  Not a hard rain either.  Just that annoying drizzle of a rain that if it would just lighten a little you could go outside, but it’s too much when it’s happening.  We had to make the call for the wedding to be outside by the tree or inside the barn by 9 am.  We all looked at our phones on multiple radars only to see on each one, Hurricane Matthew’s first strand of storms easing further and further into North Carolina.  For a moment I got off to myself and just let it all out with a really good cry.  What else can you do?  The most important thing about that day was not that tree I loved so much.  But walking away as the wife of the man at the end of the aisle, that I love so dearly.  So I gathered myself together and faced the day head on.  

Between my parents getting us a sapling and our officiant being amazing and changing up our ceremony, we still incorporated the tree theme.  I worked all morning on setting up our decor in the barn and trying to rework everything now that it was all in one space rather than two separate places.  Then finally came the time where my maid of honor found me and said “Ok Megan, it’s time for you to shower and then get hair and makeup done”.  Those butterflies that sometimes overwhelm you, took over.  This was completely abnormal for me because I’m always the one doing hair.  But, once I sat down in the chair, it really started all sinking in.

To all my past brides, I know now what was going through your mind.  And to all my future brides, know that those moments you are getting your hair and makeup done are the moments it truly starts feeling real.  All other parts of the day it’s like this fog.  “I’m getting married later today?” but you don’t fully feel it yet.  You sit down in that chair and suddenly it changes to “I’m getting married in a couple hours!!!”  The surreal feeling that everything you’ve spent the past year on, is about to all happen hits and the amount of emotions going on in your mind is huge.  For me, I became really quiet and everything was all in my head.  It was more calming that way, especially since the day wasn’t going according to plan.  It helped to tune out everything and get into the realization that everything I had done for the past year was about to happen.  

We chose not to have a first look.  Every couple is different and for some a first look is so special.  For us, we wanted to savor every moment of walking down the aisle and him seeing me the first time that day at that time.  My favorite part of a wedding has always been the groom’s reaction.  You can tell everything about the relationship when you look at how sweet he looks staring at his bride.  But wow, did my groom have a special reaction.  We all know our guys and if they are more aps to showing their emotions or holding them in and savoring them for alone time.  My groom cried the entire ceremony!  And it was the sweetest thing that I had ever experienced.

It made all those emotions I felt all day just melt away and the joy of being there with him in a barn with a hurricane blowing through was everything.  We had so many people not show up.  There was maybe fifty people max.  But after all the things that didn’t go the way we envisioned it, we couldn’t get upset at the fact we didn’t have many guests. Once everything was over, we got in his car and drove away in a state of sheer bliss realizing we were officially husband and wife.  It’s this euphoric feeling that you spent so much time planning such a huge life event and the purpose of the event is finally official and life has completely changed.  My best advice for the day of your wedding?  Savor every precious moment and don’t feel like everything has to go EXACTLY as is was planned.  Sometimes things happen that make it look like it may not be for the best, but it turns out to be the very best thing you could have hoped for!

I will be back next week to talk all about how life is after being married!

Officiant: Perry Hardison// Venue: Summerfield Farms

XoXo
Megan
**Megan S is an MYD Beauty Resident Stylist in our Raleigh, NC studio. She is available for hair cuts, hair color, hair extensions, hair styling lessons, as well as waxing by appointment. To schedule a session with Megan S (or any of our MYD Beauty Team experts) please contact us HERE and leave a note requesting her in your comments! Megan S, as is all our MYD Beauty Team, is available for travel to destinations outside our Raleigh, NC studio for special events and weddings worldwide.**