at last...

at last (etta james) was the song that was playing when i walked down the isle...

--sidenote: when the ceremony began, all the bridesmaids and groomsmen went upstairs to do their walking in, and i stayed down stairs with one of the photographers, well as it turns out... someone forgot to come get me about half way through the bridesmaids (who walked down the isle to "the way you look tonight") , so "at last" started playing, and i was nowhere to be seen. (me, just hanging out downstairs, chatting it up with the photographer) here's how it went down in the ceremony though:

andrew to bruce (preacher): do you see her?
bruce: no, is she coming?
andrew: i hope so.
then, wooooooshhh they both see me RUNNING down the entrance to the ballroom! phew! i was kinda disappointed that we didnt have enough time to fix my train, which is gorgeous all spread out... but the song had been playing awkwardly long, daddy and i had to just get outselves down that isle.

so, here we are:

here is when i see drew:

and drew sees me, it was really crowded up front (because we had over 100 people show up that did not rsvp, so the ceremony had seating for 275, and over 100 people were standing, everything was squished! i'm pretty sure our poor photographer had to military crawl and do some crazy yoga style standing with the camera out just to get this picture:

phew, made it down the isle without tears!!! now, this next part is one of the all time sweetest and most memorable moments of the whole entire wedding.

**** once we were down at the front, bruce did his thing, and then it was time for daddy to "give me away" -- you should know, my dad is not a man of many words, so when he does say something its ususally 1)profound 2)funny 3)correct or 4) completely made up and done so in such a way that you are amazed that something could sound so outrageous. haha! anyway, after daddy said that "he and mama gave permission" or however that goes, he leaned over and gave me a little kiss on the cheek...

then he gave andrew a little hug and said just loud enough that only a few of us could hear " take her hand, hold on tight, and never let go" **** needless to say, andrew and i both had to kinda catch ourselves from losing it at that point, but no worries.... we laughed through the entire rest of the ceremony. story coming soon! what daddy said at that moment was perfect, he had just the right words! drew and i both treasure that!