Fruitcake Wedding: Showtime!

After the craziness of the morning of our wedding, it had somehow become afternoon.  And "afternoon" meant "ohmygodthisweddingishappening...soon."

I had been prettified, my shadow Niecey had been prettified, all of my favorite girls were on hand (except Mama Fruitcake.  She was manically shampooing the carpet in her bedroom.  At home.  45 minutes away).  And when Mrs. A pulled into the parking lot at the Lodge, everything had been finished.  Everything.

Giving Mrs. M a huge hug for taking care of all of the details

After the frantic morning, we had about an hour left before I had to sequester myself in my room away from earlybird guests and, more importantly, Mr. Fruitcake. I got a chance to really look around and see the transformation.  We had chosen the Lodge for a lot of reasons, but it had taken a lot of work to take it from a hunting lodge on a lake to a spot perfect for our wedding. But the hours of work that my friends and family put into our wedding made it perfect.

Have I mentioned that our wedding was....um...colorful?  And by colorful, I mean crazy explosions of bright summer colors?  The thought of having a monochromatic wedding was my idea of hell, and our wedding was anything but white lace and roses.  We were more of a hot pink, neon yellow and flaming orange kind of couple.

Have you picked up on the pinwheel theme yet?

Suddenly, my girls were on me like flies, herding me into my "suite" because Mr. Fruitcake had arrived on scene.  The "suite" was actually the room that we had used to stash all of the decorations that we had taken down. Which resulted in one of my favorite pictures from our wedding.  You have to know me and Mr. Fruitcake, and know how much of an outdoorsman Mr. Fruitcake is, to truly get the irony of the picture, but it makes me laugh every time I see it:

 Yes, my wedding dress is hanging from a deer head.  With a tractor supply company hat.  And rose petals.

Mama Fruitcake finally shows up, and it's suddenly time to get into my dress!  My dress, my dress, which I love, love, love. 

Of course, Mama Fruitcake, Mrs. A, Mrs. M, Miss E, Miss S, and Sis Fruitcake all start crying.  Which causes the classic Fruitcake gesture:

 

Meanwhile, Mr. Fruitcake is being subjected to the photographers and last minute preparations:

And then, there's a knock on the door from Torrie, our coordinator, and it's time to get this show on the road!!

My dad met me at the door, and literally had to keep me from falling down.  The nerves were getting the best of me. Don't get me wrong, I was ecstatic to be marrying Mr. Fruitcake, but suddenly, the idea of eloping held a lot more appeal!

We had made the decision, way back when we first started planning our wedding, that we both had too many close friends to avoid hurting someone's feelings by choosing a wedding party.  If we had chosen everyone that is truly important and close to us, we would have had 20+ people on each side.  So.....we got rid of the whole idea of a wedding party.  Sort of.  We asked his then 7-year old niece (Niecey) and 8-year-old nephew (D-man) to be our maid of honor and best man.  And my 2-year old niece (Fruitcake Jr.) and 2 year-old godson (A-man) were our ring bearer and flower girls.  We also let Niecey and D-man pick the song that they would come down the aisle to. 

The Little Mermaid's Kiss the Girl it was.

 

Seriously, the sweetest kids ever.

The opening strands of Disney started playing, and D-man and A-man started their long walk to the altar.

 

I was watching from around the corner, and could hear our guests awe-ing over A-man's cuteness and inability to pass a single pinwheel without wanting to spin it.  It took more than three quarters of the song for these two to make it to the end of the aisle.

Then it was time for my girls.

Niecey, normally a hellion who never slows down, was suddenly shy!  And Fruitcake Jr.  couldn't wait to be in the spotlight, but didn't quite have long enough legs to make it down the stairs alone. Fruitcake Jr. was pulling Niecey down the aisle!

And then it was time.

I had chosen, thanks to Mrs. A, a far more contemporary grand entrance song than I had originally planned--I had kind of pictured myself walking to Pachabel's Canon in D or something similarly "wedding-y."

But the more our wedding took on a life of its own, it just didn't fit.  And when I heard the song that I chose for the first time, it fit perfectly.

• That's When I Love You by Aslyn

 

More Aslyn music on iLike

We didn't use the particular version, but I can't find a clip of the version that we used online.  The words are the same, but it's a more mellow version.

Daddy Fruitcake and I started our walk, and I remember thinking that I wasn't sure that it was possible to be any happier than I was at that exact moment.

I didn't get to see this picture until long after the wedding was actually over, but it immediately became my favorite, because the camera caught what I had not been able to see----Mr. Fruitcake's expression the first time he saw me as I walked down the aisle:

The next thing I know, Daddy Fruitcake is putting Mr. Fruitcake's hand in mine, and the ceremony is under way!