Speaking of funny, I wanted to pair some of my favorite B-roll photos from the wedding with the mishaps from the day (NOT including Kenny shoving cake in my face in spite of my instructing him not to - ha!). Cheers!
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I'm starting out with the funniest story, because it truly was an unfortunate series of events. I actually had NO IDEA that any of this had happened until after Kenny and I got back from our honeymoon, and thank goodness! Here's the backstory: We had full reign of the church the week of the wedding; we had a key and knew the security codes and everything else we'd need so that we could have access for rehearsals, decorating, and anything else we needed to do. After the ceremony was over and we were done at the church, our organist and a representative from the church stayed to make sure that everyone got out, get all of the lights turned off, and lock up and arm the security system. The side door of the church is the "main" door, and the only one that unlocks using a key, and that's also where the pin pad for the security system is located. The front door that is used to access the sanctuary only locks/unlocks from the inside, not by key. Next to the security system at the side door, there's a landline phone that the security company will call if the system gets triggered. If the system was triggered accidentally, you're supposed to answer the phone and tell them a password so they know whether or not to notify the police. If no one answers the phone, or if they don't know the password, the cops are called. So you see where I'm going with this...
Flash forward to the reception, here's the lowdown I got from my mom: One of our photographers had left one of her camera bags in the church and didn't realize it until during the reception. She ran across the street to the church and went in through the front door to grab it - TRIGGERING THE ALARM! We hadn't told them about the security code or anything because we didn't think they'd need to use it, so the phone rang, no one answered, and the cops were notified. Apparently it started saying "INTRUDER! THE POLICE ARE ON THEIR WAY!" Hahaha OH. NO. Clearly someone had remembered to set the alarm, but failed to lock the front door.
They ran back across the street to the reception to try and find someone - ANYONE - who could help them turn the alarm off. They told my mom what had happened and she just kind of shrugged and said "I'm sorry, I don't know what I can do about it." (MOM!!!!) They grabbed my aunt who was serving as my unpaid wedding coordination intern (bless her) and she took them back over to the church. She told them to run in and grab the bag, and if the cops came while they were there they'd put their hands up and explain what had happened. (Put their hands up?! I laughed so hard when my mom told me that.) Anyways, the cops came, my aunt and the photographers explained the situation, and everything was well again, all without anyone from the reception besides my mom and my aunt having any idea about what had happened. After the wedding, the church had to change the locks. They didn't specifically SAY that that was the reason that they had to, but I'm not convinced that that wasn't why...
These were basically our faces when my mom told us this story:
2. The cops were called to the reception
Yep, you read that right; the cops were called not once but TWICE to the wedding. Since our reception venue is located in the heart of downtown (and bordering a large residential neighborhood), it has to abide by the town's noise ordinance (no disruptive noise or music after 10:00pm). We held dancing outside on the back patio of the house, and the manager of the venue had informed us in advance that the lady who lives nearest to the house has a history of calling in noise complaints whenever they host private events with outdoor music.
Practically as soon as the music and dancing started, I saw the manager rush across the patio to talk to the DJ. The music went down a notch, and we found out afterwards that the lady had IN FACT called the cops as soon as the music started. Since the venue is right downtown and in a public area, the cops can't enforce the noise ordinance until after 10:00. They called the venue to notify them that the complaint had been called in and basically let them handle it however they saw fit. The manager basically told the DJ to turn the music down just a teeny bit so that they couldn't say that they didn't do anything about it, and we went on about our fun. Thank goodness the cops are used to her antics and didn't feel the need to come to the venue, that would've been a scene!
3. The preacher went off-script
Leading up to the wedding, Kenny and I had three (mandatory) meetings with our pastor/officiant to cover pre-marital counseling, as well as discuss the details of our wedding ceremony. To our surprise, Kenny and I ended up getting very specific with the details of our ceremony. We did some slicing and dicing between the "traditional" UMC marriage rites and the "contemporary" version, along with modifying some verbiage to make the ceremony perfect for our relationship and the values that we want our marriage to embody. The preacher was very supportive of our wishes, and made sure that he had everything down to perform our ceremony exactly the way we wanted it.
Well, until the ceremony, that is. The preacher skipped and/or forgot things, added things that we had never talked about, and changed some verbiage that we had specifically discussed as being important to us. He even went off on a tangent about how he was recovering from bronchitis after an international flight. What?? In the end, it was all okay because we had planned the ceremony to be as concise as possible, and I didn't expect anyone to remember all the details of it anyway (although my friends DEFINITELY won't forget the bronchitis thing, hahaha).
4. Rude couple upstaged our entrance
This was just weird! Since our reception was held in a bed and breakfast, there ended up being a handful of non-wedding guests staying there that night. The management is extremely professional and thorough, so I'm sure that they warned their non-wedding patrons that there would be a private event happening during their stay, so they can't have been caught off guard.
Anyways, after the ceremony, Kenny and I were taking photos in the front yard of the venue (a historic house, so you can imagine the layout). After a while, my mom came out and told us that everyone was waiting for us to come in. We walked up onto the porch and as soon as we were about to come in through the door, this random twenty-something couple pushed right past us and came in ahead of us!
All of our guests were gathered around the foyer waiting to welcome us to the reception, but instead they got Mr. and Mrs. Impatient, ha! Everyone thought it was so weird, my mom couldn't even keep from saying "Well THAT was awkward..." Everyone was staring at them (what else would they do? They were expecting Kenny and me!) and several people just laughed.
It all happened in a split second, but it was so awkward! I can't imagine being in their shoes during that situation and upstaging the bride and groom. Like hello, can't you see I'm in a wedding dress here?? I didn't even know where they came from; I hadn't seen them at all when were in the yard and on the porch taking photos. I can understand if they were annoyed that the house was occupied by a private event during their stay, but I can't justify what they did when they could've waited 10 seconds for us to make our entrance first rather than butting right in front of us... No manners!
5. Table numbers got rearranged
Once all of our RSVP's were in, my mom INSISTED on being in charge of organizing the seating chart for dinner. She came up with all of the seating combinations, and arranged and numbered all of the tables. The morning of the wedding was hectic (obviously) and somehow she ended up mixing up the table numbers on a few of the tables. (She insists that the venue staff mixed them up, but I have a hard time envisioning her releasing her crucial seating assignment director duties.) When the guests arrived and people started finding their seats, people quickly started realizing that there were more people assigned to certain tables than there were chairs, or people seated in strange combinations. Luckily they were smart enough to get it worked out, but it's a good thing that my seating assignment director worked for free. 😂
6. My brother and dad went MIA
Logistically, this was the biggest "disaster" that occurred during the wedding. My brother and dad ended up having to give a family member a ride home, but no one told me that they had left until they'd been gone for longer than expected, and then they took FOREVER to get back. We were planning on doing the cake cutting after dinner and then jumping into dancing, but we ended up waiting around for them to get back to cut the cake, having no idea where the heck they were, and then just deciding to start the dancing early. If I had known they left, I would've just begun the dancing and saved like 30 minutes of wondering when they'd be getting back! Them being gone threw off the timing for the rest of the night, but it all worked out.
That's my bro!
7. No first dances
As a result of my brother and dad leaving unbeknownst to me, we got the music started late and without doing first dances first. Since we had to wrap the music up by 10:00 to abide by the noise ordinance, we couldn't carry dancing late into the night like we would've wanted to. By the time my brother and dad got back, we didn't feel like stopping everyone's fun to do first dances (because let's be real, no one really enjoys standing around for 10 minutes while the bride and groom dance). My bridesmaids did talk Kenny and I into doing our first dance (to Can't Help Falling in Love), which we had already planned on cutting short, so it ended up working out well. My dad was SUPER nervous for our dance together, so there were no hard feelings when I told him that I didn't think we were going to do the dances. I think he was really relieved, actually.
8. Guests went rogue
We had guests drinking in the parking lot! Guests going upstairs to "nap!" Guests hiding in the bar! Guests pulling the ole Irish goodbye and leaving people wondering where the heck they went! I guess if you put that many people together for five plus hours with unlimited alcohol, you can't really attempt to control them, ha. 😂
With that, that's everything that went wrong at our wedding! Everything that I know, of that is... I'm sure there are other things that went down that I never heard about, but at this point I don't even wanna know, so if you know anything, just don't tell me... 😉
xoxx, Laura
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