Jackie and Jared's Wedding

It's been a long and busy weekend and finally time to gear up for another week. Here is how it all played out. It's long so get comfy.


It all started with rehearsal on Friday night. It was to start at 8pm and I was instructed to be there at 7:30pm. We got there at 7:30 and no one was there. They got married in the Special Events Center in Downtown Dallas which is on the 6th floor of the building. The elevator wasn't working. It would let you in but not allow you to go to any floor. The stairway was also locked. Eventually the cleaning ladies came down and they let us up. When we walked in to the ballroom the lady in charge (i.e. cranky lady) was there and I could tell immediately that she didn't want us in and was wondering how we got in. She told me they weren't open yet and I told her the cleaning ladies let us in.


The place was gorgeous. It was a ballroom and the wedding and reception were held in the same place. So there were tables on the left and right with an aisle down the middle that led to an archway for Jackie and Jared to stand under. Every table had a massive flower arrangement on it which were so pretty. Jackie, her mom and I think 2 or 3 other florists did all the arrangements that day.


We saw the flower girl baskets and decided to get some practice in with Justine before the rehearsal started. All was going well. Then we turned around and saw tons of people at the back of the room. This made Justine get a bit hyper and she started running. There was a runner for the bride lined with waist high columns topped with tall glass vases filled with colored marbles, water and orchids. As Justine ran across the aisle she slipped on the runner which caused her to fall and brush by a column. Oh boy was I glad Waylan happened to be standing next to it and kept it from falling. That would have been terrible! So Justine had to have a little talking to which of course made her upset. Hence a scene.


So for the rehearsal. Pastor Mark (yes, Mark Forrest for all you MRBC-ers) did the wedding. BUT, he had a funeral to do Friday night and couldn't make the rehearsal. So he emailed my dad the order of the ceremony. Dad sent it to me and I prettied it up and made lots of copies. So the lady in charge (did I say cranky?) took the list and she is the one who "drove". Waylan stood in for Mark and others there stood in for several wedding party people who weren't able to come to rehearsal. We went through it a couple of times and it was all good. Afterwards dinner was at Hooters. Yes, I said Hooters. That's Jared for you. We didn't go. It was late, I'm not a fan of Hooters and Justine needed to get to bed. I asked Jackie what time she wanted us there on Saturday just to be sure. I thought it was noon but she said 9am. Ouch. I had a to-do list for Saturday morning but that went out the window. So we go to the car and go in circles trying to get out of the parking garage. It was somewhat of a National Lampoons moment.


Saturday morning...I can't get my butt out of bed (what's new?). So we got there about 10:30 instead of 9:00. The wedding is at 6pm, pictures are at 4pm and 8 of us girls are in a hotel room getting our makeup done by a make up artist. I got there and had to make 3 trips to get all my junk inside. You would have thought I was moving in. I had Justine, my dress, Justine's dress, a bag(luggage) of all kinds of hair stuff, my boots for the wedding (yes, cowboy boots), hose, socks, make up (just in case), another bag for Justine with coloring books, crayons, dvd player and movies and her computer game that plugs into the tv, Justine's backpack with her princess pillow and blanket so she could take a nap (what was I thinking?!), and a lunch box with Dr. Peppers and Koolaid. So 3 trips later I was already tired. Justine started playing with Denae who is another flower girl and in the 3rd grade and I plopped myself down on the bed next to Jackie and waited my turn for make up. All the girls started drinking Mimosa's but I passed.


About an hour and half later it was my turn. As I was getting my make up done I was chatting with the make up lady and we discovered that we knew a slew of the same people. Such a small world!! We grew up one street apart from each other. We went to the same middle school but different high schools. She is only one year younger than me. I only knew a handful of people from her highschool but it turns out that not only was that her crowd in school but she still hangs out with them. One of them lives about 5 minutes from me! Then we got on the subject of fostering and adopting. She mentioned her friend who fosters and says her name is Brandi. Baby Zaira's foster mom is Brandi and it turns out to be the same Brandi! Such crazy stuff. So I got my make up finished (first round anyway) including but not limited to fake eyelashes. I've never worn eyelashes before and it felt like my eye lids where 1/2 closed for a while.


By now it's lunch time and we have no lunch. The other girls are eating left over wings from Hooters. So I grab $20 and my cell phone and head out into downtown Dallas on foot and alone. There were homeless people! Scary! I started walking down Main Street and called my mom. I told her where I was and stayed on the phone until I found a place to get food. I told her if I got mugged to call the police and send them to Main Street. I found a pizza place and got Justine and I each a slice of pizza and some drinks then headed back to the hotel where we were getting ready. Mind you my make up has been all done up and I'm wearing fake eyelashes. I'm sure hoping I don't get mistaken for someone "at work". But I was in lounge pants and a tshirt so I'm sure I wasn't.


After Justine and I ate I decided it was time to get our dresses on. Now we have umpteen women and one mirror. All doing our hair, getting dressed etc. It was a bit crazy but we managed. One of the girls couldn't suck in enough to get her dressed zipped and popped the latch in the back. She had a few freak out moments; had to make a visit to the bathroom then another to hall before she could calm down enough to try again with several helping hands. Another one of the girls was having similar problems it it took a couple of us to get her in her dress. I curled both Justine and Denae's hair (twice). We weren't sure if either would hold curls but they did. I brought hose and socks but Jackie brought neither so she wore my socks (she had boots on too) and I wore my hose.


We are all getting our second and final round of make up about this time. Now it's time for the drama to kick up a notch. Jackie is getting her hair done (the hair lady joined us in the already crowded room) and Jackie happened to ask her mom where her veil was. She told Jackie she gave it to her. Jackie said she hadn't seen it since it was purchased. This was the start of some serious drama, not so nice conversation and not so happy people. Jackie flipped out and her mom took the brunt. I called my mom who was now at my house and told her to go get my veil from my wedding. I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be Jackie's cup of tea but better than nothing. So mom gets my veil only to discover that it's yellow, crushed and very unworthy of ever being worn again. So we call my brother's girlfriend who has been married before and much more recent than me and she brings her veil to the wedding. So no veil for the pictures but at least the wedding will be covered. Jackie's mom goes with a different plan to go purchase another one. So she called Jared's mom who happened to be across the street from David's Bridal and she bought another one. While she is on her way to bring it to us Jackie's mom (Brenda) leaves and is in the lobby sobbing and is even more upset that she is going to miss her daughter get dressed for her wedding because she now feels unwanted. I didn't know that she was downstairs crying until her best friend came and pulled me in the hall. She told me she doesn't like to see her best friend hurting and she will go off on Jackie if she has to. Just fabulous! I know she would have done it and it wouldn't have been pretty. I told her to chill out, keep Brenda from leaving and I would talk to Jackie. So I go back in to tell Jackie that her mom is crying downstairs and wants to leave. Jackie said she was waiting on her to come back in and she had plans to apologize. So I run downstairs and get Brenda to come back up and made sure she hurried because Jackie was already starting to get dressed. The new veil arrives shortly after and there is peace in the world again.


I think at this point it was about 4:30 or so and pictures were supposed to be at 4pm. Our plan is to get pictures made then go back across the street to the hotel until it's time for the wedding. We are finally all ready and go to the lobby of the hotel to get a few shots. Jared's mom needs to go the restroom and her son (Justine's age), Justine and Danae all follow her. When I get to Justine she is going potty "all by herself!". Don't forget she is in a WHITE, floor length flower girl dress. I get into her stall to help her so she doesn't get her dress in the toilet but I was a little late. Luckily it was just the petticoat and it was just a little bit wet. We can manage. So we go back to finally get some pictures done in the lobby and Justine isn't interested. She is pulling her usual stunts of turning her back to the camera or running off. So I'm desperately trying to get her to obey then she pulls off the flower that is pinned to her dress. And it's now broken. So I'm trying to get it put back together while the entire bridal party (the girls anyway) are waiting on me so we can take the pictures and get to the wedding location. The photographer is telling me to forget about it just as I fixed it so we moved on. I think Justine ended up doing okay but the pictures will let us know.

So we make it outside and start our trek down the street. The photographer is calling the other photographer to tell him we are coming down the street and to make sure Jared is nowhere in sight. All of a sudden she shews us all under an overhang because Jared is apparently within view. When the coast was clear we made our way there and took the rest of our pictures.

All this time baby Graysin is back at the hotel with the hair lady who was gracious enough to take care of her. So much time ended up passing that we never made it back to the hotel room. I talked to Mark for a little bit and found out that the had to get in the face of the cranky lady and let her know just who was in charge of the ceremony. She apparantly got the message and backed off. Then we were quarantined to the office at the wedding location by the cranky lady. I'm still dealing with the stinking flower on Justine's dress that will NOT stay put. The cranky lady had safety pins (she was good for something) and so I fixed it once and for all. I should mention I had already gone through the flower ordeal at the hotel room with Denae's dress. Pastor Mark came in and asked for the marriage license. It's back in the room. So Jackie called the hair lady who brought numerous things including the license and Graysin over to the hotel. Graysin begins to cry and is not a happy baby. What this led to eventually was her not being able to participate in the wedding as was planned. Now it was time to collect rings. Brenda pulls me out of the office to tell me that there is no ring for Jackie. It was apparently sized wrong and Jared didn't have it. Brenda tells me to break the news to Jackie and get her engagement ring from her to use as the wedding ring during the ceremony. How in the world I became the wedding mediator I have no idea. So I tell Jackie, she has an "oh great" moment and hands over her ring. I'm just glad she actually had it on!

Finally it was wedding time. There were 7 bridesmaids and I stood next to the maid of honor so I was second to last to go in. That made it easier to keep my eye on Justine because we were both at the end together. I was so worried that she wasn't going to do what she was supposed to after seeing a room full of people. But she DID! Yea Justine! She smiled the entire time, sprinkled her rose petals on the floor and did perfect. During rthe ceremony she sat down and was picking up her flower petals off the floor. She told me at one point she was going to go pick them ALL up but I was able to keep her in her place the entire ceremony. The only hiccup during the ceremony was the unity candle. First of all that was when Jackie's mom was supposed to bring up Graysin. But she was still out in the hall crying with the hair lady. Then the unity candle had one hefty flame! I think Mark even took a step back. And the song never played. But other than that the ceremony was fine and very pretty.

After the ceremony we all went downstairs to take some pictures outside. We had a police officer block off the street and we took lots of pictures of us walking down the street with arms locked and showing our cowboy boots. I must say it was cool. The stopped traffic didn't even get mad. They were honking, giving thumbs up and shouting congrats out the window. Mark took his picture then had to leave to go to Paul's surprise party. He was busy this weekend.

So now for the reception. Justine had fallen asleep on Waylan while the bridal party was downstairs taking pics. We put some chairs together and let her lay down. She eventually woke up and did lots of dancing. The reception went good until one of the guys decided he couldn't hold his liquor. He threw something at a 63" flat panel tv in a back room and cracked the screen. This just made the cranky lady even crankier and Jackie was not so happy over the incident either. And my dad was not so happy either as he was the one who signed the contract to take care of any damages. If I'm not mistaken that guy spent the night in jail. So once that settled they made the toasts, cut the cake and did some more dancing. I discovered that I still have my line dancing skills from back in the day. That was fun I must say. Justine danced with my cousin Payton for the longest and I think Payton enjoyed it more than Justine. It was so fun to watch them. Payton was a flower girl in my wedding along with my sister. My other cousin Burke (Payton's younger brother) is 17 now. He was 3 when I got married. He and I danced at my wedding the same way Payton and Justine danced at Jackie's wedding. Great moments!

Cranky lady kicked everyone out at 11pm and we went home pretty quickly. Justine fell asleep as soon as we started the car pretty much. We made it home, waited on my mom and step dad to get home then we all hit the sack.

And that's the wedding story as I remember it. It took me FOREVER to type this and I'm sure FOREVER for you to read it.

The End.