Stressful Wedding Weekend Recap

[mcfelix]

So... I am sure a fair amount of you saw my panicked post on Friday about leaving my bridesmaid dress at home for my brother's wedding, so I will detail all the events of the weekend for your reading pleasure. Warning - this will be LONG.

We leave Friday morning for the airport. Our first time flying with two kids (7 week old DD and 2 year old DS) so I had a fair amount of anxiety about getting through security. Everything went fine though, and we got on the plane easily. DS freaked out a little bit before the plane took off, saying he wanted to get off the plane now! But he calmed down, watching videos on the iPad the whole flight (Thanks to the person that posted about being able to download Amazon Prime videos - that was so awesome. I can't remember who that was). I nursed DD at takeoff and she slept on my in the baby bjorn the whole flight. I was admiring my manicure, thinking how well it will goes with my dress when it hits me - my fucking dress is in my closet!! I immediately feel nauseous. No wifi on the flight, so I am a sitting duck until we land. 

We land, and there is no gate for us, so we sit there for 40 minutes. I turned my phone on and search on the Nordstrom website to see if the dress is available in a store anywhere near us and of course it's not. I text my boss's wife (they live a mile away) to ask if she is in the area because I have a huge favor to ask. She says she is, so I explain the dress, and asked if she can go to my house and then fedex my dress. I have it sent to the bride's parents house, addressed to her sister, since that it where we are getting ready. Within 25 minutes, she texts me back with a photo of the package at fedex and says it should arrive by 9:30 am. Phew!

We finally get off the plane, get our rental car, and have to head to Men's Wearhouse. The tux that we picked up at home for DS (ringbearer) was too big when we went to pick it up Wednesday night. They told me to pick it up Thursday but I called to see if I could get it a day early because I knew things would be hectic the night before we left. Thank goodness I did go on Wednesday because they said the earliest they could get a different size in was Friday - so I had them send the smaller size tux to a store in Chicago. Anyway, we find the store, the new tux fits better and we head to the hotel. We were short on time so we left a little later than anticipated to head to the rehearsal but figured we would still be fine since we had 1.5 hours to drive just under 20 miles. Well apparently Chicago traffic is especially awful on marathon weekend, because it took us 2.5 hours and we missed the entire rehearsal. (It was at Holy Name Cathedral for you Chicagoans). DS has never been in a church so I asked my mom if we could still go to the church to have him practice and she said it was open because the next rehearsal had started. We took DS and DH practiced having him walk down the side aisle so we wouldn't disturb the other couple's rehearsal. Head to dinner and the rest of the night is fine.

Next morning, I get up ass early and take DD over to the bride's parents' house to get ready. She was an angel and everyone wanted to hold her, which was great for me. I am having some anxiety hoping the dress arrives, but of course the bride has no idea about this. Well the phone rings and apparently Fedex can't find their house (it's on a private drive). Thank goodness I put the sister's name on it and not mine, because Fedex must have google to find their house phone number to call and get directions because I didn't give their house phone number to the person who shipped my dress, since I don't even know it. Fedex driver gets there, my dress is fine, and all is good again. The bride asks who was at the door, and her mom said oh just a delivery guy. Bride asks what was delivered and her sister says oh nothing important. Bride asks why everyone is being so cryptic but drops it, thank goodness.

We make it to the church and are in the bridal room. I remember that I wasn't at the rehearsal, so I ask what I need to know. Of course I am the first bridesmaid to go down the aisle, so they are giving me instructions about meeting the groomsman, and bowing at the altar. Whatever, no biggie. So we line up and the wedding planner is nowhere to be found. The flower girl and ring bearer are supposed to go first, but I didn't know when to tell them to go. Planner shows up and she's like yes they can go! DS freezes. I said - can you walk with Flowergirl? NO! Please DS? NO! The flowergirl goes ahead and starts walking. I say - DS can you walk down the aisle like FG? He finally starts walking! Then he stops halfway down and is just looking around. Planner tells me just to go. Then DS sees me and holds out his hand to me, and when I get to him, we hold hands and walk the rest of the way together. SO cute and I can't wait to see pictures! Another potential crisis averted.

We have to sit in chairs on the altar, and it's Catholic wedding. The first reader goes to the podium and I realize - oh shit. Bride and Grooms asked me months ago if I would do a reading. Am I still doing a reading? Did they change it to someone else since I missed the rehearsal? I whisper to the BM next to me and she said she thinks I am still doing it. I look at the podium to see if there is a sheet a paper with the reading and of course nothing is there. Shit. All of the maids are whispering to each other to get down the line to the maid of honor to see if she knows anything. Nope. Eventually the deacon (officiant) looks at me and I get up and whisper to him that I don't have anything. He motions to his binder and walks with me over to the podium and puts his binder up there. I read it cold (I had no idea what my reading was going to be) and it goes fine, I don't stumble at all. Phew. 

Ceremony is over, off to take family pics in the courtyard before we head to the reception. DS is completely uncooperative with photos, but I was expecting that would happen. We leave for the reception site (Botanic Gardens) but I am driving with DH and the kids instead of riding in the trolley with the rest of the bridal party. We find parking and meet up with the bridal party again. Apparently the MOH had been calling my phone to let me know where to meet them, and they were all worried I wouldn't know where they were. The photographer starts telling us where to go and I realize I don't have my bouquet. My mom was holding it while we were walking to the cars. I get my phone out of my bad and text her, and she says my bouquet is in their car. Which is at the hotel. And they are in the shuttle on the way to the reception. So I feel like a complete asshole because we had to take all the pictures without me having flowers. 

Cocktail hour starts and is in a gorgeous setting. I am holding DD and DH is running after DS. Fine. Then the reception starts. Turns out they are having a head table, so I am not sitting with DH and DS. We put DD in the stroller near their table. She is napping through introductions, and then as the Father of the Bride starts his speech, she starts crying. DH gets her and takes her out because he knows toasts are my favorite part of the wedding so he doesn't want me to miss them. Family is trying to help with the kids, but it is getting the point where DD is just fussy because it's that time of the evening. I finally take her and nurse her and then put her in the stroller and walk her around the gardens in the dark to put her to sleep. Awesome!

She only stays asleep for 30 minutes. My aunt comes over and says she will take her, and I said I was worried she'd be fussy. My aunt says I will bring her back if I need to. So she gives her a bottle and DD falls asleep on her wrapped in a blanket. I move tables and sit with DH. At this point DS, has fallen asleep on him. We dance to one song (our wedding song came on) with DH holding a sleeping DS. We decide to try and move him to the stroller to sleep. He wakes up and doesn't fall back to sleep, but is sitting there tired. We are sitting at the table and I am like, this sucks. We can't really do anything (like dance or drink much) so let's just leave. We head to the car and of course DS completely wakes up and starts whining for pouches. We drive until we found a store with pouches, then head to the hotel and go to bed. 

Next morning there is a brunch at the hotel. We wake up and head downstairs. On the way into the elevator, DS trips and drops his pacifier down the elevator shaft. I am like you must be fucking kidding me?!? No chance we can get on a plane without that. So after the brunch, I google to find nearby places to stop and there is a Target close. We drive there and there is no Target at the address google gave me!!! Luckily we find a grocery store and I buy 4 pacifiers and a bunch of pouches for the plane.

We are at the airport, ready to get in the security line and the agent says I need a tag on the stroller. We go to 4 different people (who all say they can't help me) and finally get to the right counter and the woman says that we can't gate check a stroller that weighs more than 20 lbs. Keep in mind we gate checked it on the way out. They make us weigh it, of course it is 28.5 lbs, and say we have to check it. At this point I burst into tears. Not quiet tears slowly streaming down my face, but full on bawling, ugly crying. Stroller gets checked and we are on our way, carrying DD in her infant seat and DH holding DD, and of course we also have 3 bags between us that we have to carry. Big fuck you to O'Hare and their stroller policy that is not on the airline website. 

We finally make it home and I am SO damn happy to be home. The next day I go to download the pics from my camera, and apparently my memory card must have been slightly dislodged because at one point during brunch, my camera says "No Card" so I took the memory card out and reinserted it. So almost ALL the pictures I took did not save. I was the only person taking pictures while we were getting ready the morning of the wedding!! The photographers only arrived to take a few shots of the bride getting dressed. 

And that is the story of the most stressful weekend of my life. Many tears were shed by me. It was a beautiful wedding and there were some fun parts, but it was rough. 

If you made it this far, thanks for reading the novella I just wrote!

[mcfelix]

[dancingirl21]

What a stressful weekend! I'm glad for you that it's over. You looked stunning!

[aspentosh]

Holy shit, dude. I need a drink just reading about that. But you looked gorgeous!

[Velar Fricative]

You look beautiful!

All I could think reading your post was, "She has a 7-week-old. I was bra-less and in yoga pants at 7 weeks pp," sooooooo...job well done! But I am so sorry you had an endless number of obstacles in your way!

[brooklyn]

Oh man, I feel like I need a drink after that! I'm glad you survived. You look gorgeous!

[anna7602]

Oh my goodness, lady! I got second-hand anxiety reading through all of that. But you are a trooper!

I would never in a million years expect any relative of mine with a 2yo and a 7-week-old to attend my wedding, much less participate in it, so you are amazing.

And I've been traveling with kids for years and never knew there was a weight rule for gate-checking strollers.

[Deleted]

You look amazing.
What a crazy weekend. When I first started reading, I thought I understood your initial panic - my H spilled blue ink all over my daughters dress before a wedding we attended out of town.
But then you had problem 2,3,4,5 and more. Crazy!!!

[glitzy07]

Woah. Dude. You rock for surviving that!

[Deleted]

Oct 14, 2015 21:10:42 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

I've been traveling with kids for years and never knew there was a weight rule for gate-checking strollers.

Yeah this
You can gate check your stroller. Those people were being cows

[Pilsy]

Forget it all - you look like a celebrity. Damn.

[humpforfree]

Dude.

[carolinagirl831]

Omg I'm breaking out in a sweat just reading that. Weddings and traveling are stressful enough without any of that!!

[carolinagirl831]

But on the upside, you looked gorgeous!!

[cincodemayo]

Oh my goodness. I feel like you really handled that with a lot of grace, kudos!! I'm glad you're back home!

[mcfelix]

Oct 14, 2015 21:12:51 GMT -5 @hannymaren said:

Oct 14, 2015 21:10:42 GMT -5 anna7602 said:

I've been traveling with kids for years and never knew there was a weight rule for gate-checking strollers.

Yeah this
You can gate check your stroller. Those people were being cows

They said it was an O'Hare airport policy. Fuck them so many times.

[jenn248]

You looked gorgeous! I am impressed you managed to keep it together up until the stroller/gate check issue, because I am pretty sure I would have lost it long before then

[ladygrey]

OMG, you poor thing. Glad you survived (and you look beautiful, btw).

[water*drop]

I was anxious just reading that. I'm sorry it was so stressful, but you looked awesome!!!

[bcarp30]

So what stroller do you have that didn't meet the weight limit?!! Aren't almost all strollers outside of an umbrella stroller over 20 lbs?!

You all look amazing, but what a crazy weekend! Even then, I can't believe you were able to do all that with a toddler and an infant. You're a superwoman!!

[SallySparrow]

Oh. My. God. I need an Ativan just reading all that.

But you looked beautiful and your kids are adorable!

[zeewifeandmama]

Omg what a cluster- but holy balls you looked AMAZING!!! Major props to you guys for getting through allll that!

[justjen]

I think I'm hyperventilating. I cannot believe you did all that with a 7 week old. And you look ahhhhmazing.

I was the Amazon Prime person! I feel like I helped, lol

[aprilsails]

Holy heck that was brutal. I hope you get some R&R this week.

Can I just say that you look stunning in that dress? I had my DD a couple of days after you and i can't imagine going through all of that right now. You're a good Sister.

[anaps28]

You look amazing and seriously are a rockstar.

[waterchurch]

I'm almost sorry I asked, making you relive that. Holy shit!
I missed my brother's wedding rehearsal because of traffic too.
You look fantastic! I'm glad it's over.

[miamigirl]

Oh wow!! How stressful... I can't even imagine.

You look awesome in that dress!

[mcfelix]

Oct 14, 2015 21:33:41 GMT -5 jenn248 said:

You looked gorgeous! I am impressed you managed to keep it together up until the stroller/gate check issue, because I am pretty sure I would have lost it long before then

Hahaha I most definitely did not keep it together until then! That was just my only public breakdown

[mcfelix]

Oct 14, 2015 21:42:51 GMT -5 bcarp30 said:

So what stroller do you have that didn't meet the weight limit?!! Aren't almost all strollers outside of an umbrella stroller over 20 lbs?!

You all look amazing, but what a crazy weekend! Even then, I can't believe you were able to do all that with a toddler and an infant. You're a superwoman!!

We had an uppa baby vista and yeah, I can't imagine there are many regular strollers less than 20 lbs. ridiculous.

[mcfelix]

swizz - that's a Cora's Cuties headband DD is wearing

Thank you justjen! It was awesome that I could download Daniel Tiger from Amazon (and a bunch of other shows, but DT is his current favorite)

@natariru - I don't think the bride and groom really thought about the fact that they were seating me away from my family. Only me and the mom of the flower girl had kids, out of the 12 people in the bridal party.