tales of a young mamma: Wedding recap

Oh boy where to start. FIrst off I had an amazing week with my friends from Sweden that came for the week- I'll talk more later on all the fun things we did.

All week I kept expecting to feel nervous- but it never really hit me. The first time I felt nervous was when I was standing at the bottom of the stairs waiting for the ceremony to start- that's when I felt like it was 100 degrees in there. But once the music started my nerves went away.

The tears began when my father and I were getting ready to walk in- I looked up at him and he was tearing up- which I think I have seen him do once in my 24 yrs- which got me started- but it was just a few tears and I was done by the time I got down the isle.

The 2nd time I cried was at the reception during the father/daughter dance. We danced to What a wonderful world-and again, I look up at him and he has tears. I didn't look much at the 'crowd' during the dance- but the ones I could see where crying/tearing up as well. I should mention- if I haven't before- that I haven't seen my father in 3 years, so that is probably a big reason why we both got so emotional. He flew all the way from Italy to be there for me- which meant so much.

The 3rd time I cried was when they played my grandparents song and dedicated it to them. They have been married for 67 years and love to dance- but this time my grandmother was barely able to do anything but stand (she was diagnosed a few weeks ago with brain tumors and breast cancer) and it was very emotional to see them dance, especially knowing it could be the last time they dance.

The wedding was simple and beautiful- my friend sang a song in Swedish accompanied by a friend and his father on the guitar. Even people that couldn't understand the words were tearing up. Drews grandfather- a minister- married us, so that was special.

The reception was absolutely perfect also- I'm not Big on flowers- so we just had twinkle lights throughout the room and over 150 candles spread out over the tables- so when the lights were down it was super cozy. The food- well the food was spectacular. My father is sort of a big deal in the cooking world- and travels all over the world cooking. Two of my brothers have followed in his footsteps and the 3rd is on his way- all the food was prepared by the 4 of them and my dad's friend(also a chef) in the fine dining restaurant where my oldest brother works. We wanted hor dourve type foods as that is our favorite- so we had stuffed mushrooms, pita/chips and spinach artichoke dip, many different fancy cheeses/crackers, an amazing fruit display that was carved by a lady my mom works with, swedish meatballs and mashed potatoes- these were of course the biggest hit since it's not every day you get swedish meatballs made by a 100% Swede, swedish chocolate balls made by my friends from Sweden, 3 tiered cake and cupcakes w/ different flavors and icing, chicken wings because they are my dads fav and the day before he decided we needed them, veggies w/ several diff. home made dressings, mini quiche..im positive there was more but at the moment im drawing a blank! It was seriously amazing and I'm so lucky to have FOUR outstanding chefs in my family.

We had a huge turn out- I think there ended up being 230- which is a huge number since we sent out I think 130 invitations. When Drew and I left reception at 1 there were still probably 60ish people left. Everyone was dancing and having SO much fun!

We stayed at a beautiful hotel with a HUGE jet tub and a shower that could have fit 5 people in it which we def. took advantage of the next morning. My friends from Sweden had been to the hotel room and set up champagne for us but I literally passed out (from exaustion- only had 2 glasses of champagne all night) so we didn't get to enjoy that--but I did bring it home with us.