When Your Perfect Day Isn’t: Receptions

Yesterday we started talking about perfect days that aren’t. I used my own wedding day as an example, telling you about the pre-wedding prep and ceremony. Now on to the reception!

When we got to our reception we were ushered into the bridal room where drinks and appetizers waited. We and our wedding party sat back and tried to relax while our guests enjoyed the cocktail hour. Unfortunately that didn’t happen. The DJ rushed in an announced that the CD we had given him with our first dance, parents dance, and other special songs had been broken. Fortunately he had other copies of most of the songs, except the song we’d picked for our parents to dance to and a few Celtic songs we’d wanted played. We spent the cocktail hour picking a new song.

Finally the big moment is here-we’re introduced as husband and wife! Everything was great as we began our first dance, until I felt a suddenly pain in my head and then it was jerked back violently. The photographer had slammed her camera into my head and in trying to back up gotten it caught in my veil and nearly ripped it off my head. Lovely way to remember my first dance with my husband, huh? Then the DJ suddenly invited everyone to dance with us for a minute before cutting off the song, even though we’d told him we wanted the entire song played and wanted to dance alone. When we did out father/daughter mother/son dances he cut those off too-and he completely ignored the “please play/please do not play” list we gave him.

Meanwhile the photographer had managed to anger a great deal of people. This started at the church when she literally pushed my 5 year old nephew out of the way. At the reception she constantly interrupted people to take pics, and couldn’t seem to let us enjoy a moment of our own reception. At one point she actually grabbed my by the arm and pulled me to where she wanted me. I could not believe how rude she was!

The cake cutting arrives. The cake looks nothing like what we asked for but it looked nice anyway. The photographer has us doing several poses. No one bothers to tell us when it’s okay to move and actually cut the cake, so our DJ gets annoyed, walks over, hacks a chunk out of our cake, and shoves it at us. Another moment ruined.

We planned our wedding day for almost 2 years. No, it wasn’t quite the day we’d hoped for,and we were upset for awhile, but then we realized it really didn’t matter. The wedding, for all we put into planning it and all the money we spend on it, isn’t very important at all. What’s important is the marriage.

Today is our first anniversary and I have never been happier. Our marriage is amazing. We are best friends, lovers, and partners. I may not have gotten the wedding of my dreams, but I did get the husband I’ve always dreamed of. So if things go wrong on your wedding day, look at each other and smile. The best is yet to come!