Everyone keeps asking how the wedding was and I am not exactly sure what to say - maybe it was not the wedding of some young girl's dreams with huge ceremony and pomp, but it was exactly what I wanted. My dress came out perfect - thank you, Ruth! - the material was soft and warm and the style, as many people commented, 'fit my personality perfectly'. We were able to get Marcel a suit the day after we got back to the States and it was back within 4 days fitting perfectly - not easy to do on a man that is a 30x36 pant! Rebecca (my sister and bridemaid) had some horror stories about getting a dress made in the Philippines but a couple 'tweaks' when she got back home got it fitting well and the color matched the flowers great. There was some fear that the irises would not work for the bouquets (irises were my dad's favorite flower and I really wanted them, but they are usually a summer flower) but when my mom brought them to the church on Thursday morning, they looked great. Exactly the mix of blue and purple that I had asked for.
The day of the wedding was cold, but the weather was clear, which was good considering that we had some crazy weather before and after the ceremony. Marcel's parents and my grandparents were able to make it without too much trouble (just cold weather and a lost bag) and that rounded out the guest list of 12 people :)
It is funny, but I don't really remember much of the ceremony itself. The women got ready downstairs, the men upstairs. I guess Marcel's dad had to teach everyone how to tie a tie again because no one really wears one. I had had a quick make-up lesson from a friend who does Mary-Kay and Dorothy helped with my eye make-up. She thought it was interesting that she would be the one with the most make-up experience - just shows how much make-up the rest of us wear. The ceremony was short, nothing complicated, but again, this is what we wanted. I had actually said to Marcel at one point I would be happy with 'do you? - yes.' 'do you? - yes' 'okay, give her a smooch.' Not that the ceremony was that simple, but not too far off :)
As we started taking some pictures with the photographer, someone mentioned that now we could change our facebook status - because you know nothing is really offical until it is in facebook! But we figured it would have to wait until we got back from our weekend 'honeymoon' because we would not have Internet until then. Then my older brother wips out his phone/Internet and says 'why wait?' So, about 15 minutes after we were announced as man and wife, we were offical on facebook.
Instead of a reception after with hundreds of people, we just invited the 12 people at the wedding out to a really nice restaurant in the area. The Sheraton Suites in Akron is a hotel, but has a great dinning room right on the river. The people are surrounded by windows looking out on a small waterfall and whitewater area that looked great under the lights and icicles. The food and company was great and it was a good time to be together - who knows the next time it may happen - between our two families, I think we cover 4 of the 7 continents.
Well, these are some of my memories of the day :) Maybe Marcel will post this thoughts sometime. For all you facebook people, check out more pictures on my profile.
