Having two weddings means having twice the opportunities for things to go wrong! My mindset with planning the weddings was to have everything as detailed as possible so everyone knew what they had to do when (I'm talking down to the last minute -thank you type A personality). I thought that having such detailed plans would mean that I'd be able to relax on the days of the weddings knowing I did everything I could to organize them; and that's exactly what I did!
Of course, nothing went off without a hitch and they just happen to be some of our favorite memories from our weddings.
Lets start from the beginning. My mother called me crying 3 days before she was to fly to Germany, to inform me that she had broken her foot and was in a cast, and a wheelchair. My first thought was that she wouldn't be able to fly, seeing as it usually causes swelling and I knew that wouldn't be good. She was a trooper and came, only needed to be wheeled around for the 2 weeks she was here, and, well, having to be photographed in a cast in one of the most photographed days of our lives. She also, unfortunately, was uncomfortable for most of the wedding activities and couldn't dance -but otherwise, we were all just happy she was there.
At the wedding in Germany, nearly nothing went wrong except for running a little behind (the hairdressers fault). Overall it went very smoothly, thanks to my meticulous planning -thank you OCD.
However, a few short hours after the wedding, taking a cab to the airport with some wedding guests, we jinxed ourselves by talking about how smoothly everything had gone and how easy it was because after our first flight, it all went down hill.
This story is one for the books, and trust me, I am not exaggerating it! We all met at the airport at 10 in the morning after the wedding (10 of us -2 more were joining us at our layover in Munich) and were eager to get to Canada. We got our first flight from Dresden to Munich and I played some musical chairs between my mom and husband to make sure my mom was okay. As we were landing, my husband said that we were short on time and in order to catch our connecting flight we would have to hurry. So I was trying my best to make sure my mom had assistance and we had a wheelchair as soon as we landed. We all gathered our carry on bags, wheelchair and guests and darted to customs to get through as fast as possible. When we got to customs I realized... I FORGOT MY PASSPORT ON THE PLANE. We handed my mom (in wheelchair) over to our friends, with our carry on bags and everything so we could manage to run through the airport to get there faster. Everyone went through customs and we darted to the service counter (30 minutes left to spare before our flight, now with other guests, left). We waited 10 minutes (it felt like an eternity) for the man at the counter to tell us that they found it, but they weren't sure if we would get it in time for our flight. So we had to wait (another 10 minutes) and finally he said that my passport was on the other side of customs, waiting at gate 32B. So, my husband had to get through customs, while I waited on the other side, get my passport and throw it over to me to go through customs. He went threw and I started pacing, with 10 minutes left before our flight, with our guests, and our luggage, including my wedding dress departed. After 8 minutes, someone came up to me and handed me my passport, wait what? My husband was on the other side looking for it?? -Meanwhile he had been running from gate 32B to 32A to 24B to 25A who all told him they didn't have it the next counter did.
After I got my passport I budged through the line up to get through customs. I ran, literally as fast as I could to gate 32B (remembering this is where he was supposed to be) and started yelling and waving my arms like a crazy person to inform my husband I had it and we needed to bolt to our gate 37A.
We ran there, handed them our passports and they asked where my boarding card was.. uhm, on the other plane where my passport was. Well, they printed me a new one, we got on the plane (our guests started clapping, my mom was crying), and before we were even buckled in, the plane took off. I am not making this up! (Funny enough, my husband added in his vows that he promised to carry my passport for all of our flights haha -he still does)
Phew, we thought that was the last of the mishaps, but we were wrong.
Generally, the few days leading up to the wedding went well.
When the day before our wedding came, we packed our things to head to the hotel, upon packing, we realized, we did not have our wedding rings -they were missing from our bag. I started to cry, from all the stress and now even more, and my husband (the savior) said he would go out and buy new ones while I had a day of getting pampered. So off we went, with no further contact as my phone wasn't working (I completely smashed mine 2 days before our first wedding and hadn't had time to get a new one.) I enjoyed my day with my bridesmaids and my wonderful husband went and bought new rings. In the evening we met with our family and wedding party at the venue for the rehearsal. When we arrived, my mom was so excited to inform us, she had found the rings in her luggage with some wedding decorations. Great! We had our rings back, we just lost more money and now wasted a day, plus had 4 wedding bands. Nevertheless we had an extra glass of champagne to settle our nerves and still have the extra wedding bands sitting in the jewelry box!
So back to our rehearsal, did I mention our officiant didn't show up? So my godmother ended up conducting our 'rehearsal' it was just the icing on top of our day! We relaxed afterwards at the rehearsal dinner with a few cocktails!
On our actual wedding day, everything went according to plan. We were a little behind schedule (of course) but no major problems.
One of the best memories I have of our wedding in Canada is the top tier flipping off our cake when we cut into it. Nothing like every single guest capturing the expression on our faces haha. My husband just picked the tier back up, plopped in on top and we still fed it to each other as if nothing had happened.
At the end of the night, we had hired limos to bring our guests back to the hotel and one at the very end to pick us up. Just after midnight some guests wanted to leave, only to have searched around the venue for an hour to find no limos. They never showed up, and we had paid in full weeks before the event.
Yes -not only did that mean our somewhat drunken guests had to arrange rides home for themselves, but my husband and I didn't have a ride back to our hotel! Thank goodness for my godmother who generously made a few trips and brought us to our hotel (although we fell asleep in her car before we got there).
As I said, these memories are some of our favorite and while they're not picture perfect, we laugh about them all the time. As I am a type A personality (with OCD for details) most people thought I would freak out at the slightest mishap -but I didn't, I rolled with the punches because I knew I did everything I could to avoid them (crazy detailed planning). So to all you type A brides out there, make as many detailed charts, lists and plans. Ignore the eye rolling or comments from people about your micromanaging and relax on your big day knowing you've done all you could have!!
Xo
