7:00AM. My first thoughts: I’m getting married today.

I get up – there’s no point trying to sleep anymore now that I’m awake. I walk through the house that I will call my home for the last time and can’t help but get a little nostalgic. I will of course always be welcome, but it won’t be my home anymore. For a homebody, it’s a big step.

My mom is up by now and she greets me with a big bear hug that makes me tear up a little. She offers to cook me breakfast but I don’t really have an appetite anymore. My aunt and uncle from out of town stayed with us for the night, and my uncle offers to take everyone out to eat for breakfast, but I decline – I have so many things running through my head!

There was a lot of small last minute things I needed to do – whoops! I forgot to pick out Dollar Dance songs for the DJ, so I spent fifteen minutes or so listening to different songs before finally settling and texting them to the DJ. I had also forgotten to print out schedules and questions for the shoe game (will talk about that later during the reception ). I was literally running around the house, slightly crazed, making sure that I hadn’t forgotten anything!

But then, I had everything done and was just waiting on my sister. The plan was for all the bridesmaids to meet at church at 10:00AM to do our hair and makeup. My sister went to eat with the rest of my family, so I just waited for her, nervous that this was going to push our time off for the rest of the day.

We make it to church at about 10:30 and carry all our fans and bags into the bridal room. The room has fans, but no air conditioning, so we brought our own to keep it cool. I walked through the sanctuary and the foyer to make sure everything was set up how it had been a couple nights ago and I take a deep breath. This is happening!

My sister, the saint that she is, did my hair and my makeup. Everywhere I looked, it was going to be over $100 just to do my hair, and that was before makeup! I just couldn’t justify spending that much and Rachel did an amazing job. It still looked like me, but was nicer than I ever wear it! She also did another bridesmaid’s hair, so she didn’t have a lot of time to do her own hair and makeup. I felt bad, but she still looked amazing!

Andrew and the groomsmen arrived at noon (must have been nice! ;P) as did the photographer. She was cracking up, telling me that they couldn’t figure out how to fold the pocket squares! ;P I didn’t even notice until after we got our pictures back that they still folded them wrong. Haha, but if that was the biggest thing that went wrong I was happy!

I wanted to do some of the formal pictures before hand, that way the first time Andrew would see me was when I walked down the aisle. She started with Andrew and his family and then moved to my side. My girls and my mother helped me into my dress. I was a bit too nervous as the last couple times I tried it on it was uncomfortably tight. I was nervous that I would pull an Elizabeth Swann and pass out – but I could breathe and we were good!

When I walked inside the sanctuary, the first person I saw was my eldest brother, Ryan, with this huge, fake mustache on. I burst into laughter and marched over to him and grabbed his mustache, trying to take it off. Except… it wouldn’t come off! He was swatting my hands away, assuring me that, yes indeed, the ‘stache is real. Then I turned to see Steven, who had dressed as a homeless man just the night before, sporting the same (albeit less full and bushy) mustache.

“Oh, my gosh.”

I could not stop laughing. They looked absolutely ridiculous! Every time I looked at them, I couldn’t help but laugh. I didn’t find this out until later either, but they had both brought their razors in case I got really mad and wanted them to shave it off. But I thought it was so funny. They looked just like my dad! So much mustache. It helped calm my nerves though, as I waited afterwards in the bridal room as guests started to arrive, thinking about their mustaches.

I am so excited to be sharing my special day with you guys! This is the second post in a series about my wedding. Read about my rehearsal dinner and my ceremony next!