Holy cow, I should honestly have Olivia co-write this blog post (I might do that, just to hear her perspective.. haha!) but the night before our wedding was seriously insane. When you think you have your wedding planned down a T, it'll probably start raining and the temperatures will drop to the 20s so what do you get? Freezing rain and closed highways. BEAR WITH ME!
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Friday was crazy. We were getting stuff put together, Tracey had gone and picked up the flowers, people were baking, others were setting up the inside of the tent and the inside of the house, and someone else was making sure that everyone was fed. I've seen the farm all kinds of crazy, especially during the summer when there are a million family members there, but this was a different kind of crazy! There was stuff all over the ground, we were changing picture frames (AKA Jake breaking all the frames as he changed the pictures), people were asking me what I thought about this and this, we were changing the organization of the inside of the tent (including not using 2 of the pop-up tents Ralph had bought), and pretty much we were doing everything we could possibly think of before Aaron got home.
When it was time to go to the airport, I decided last minute that I wanted to go. I had been thinking about it for a little bit and I was like... I'm going to meet my new brother for the first time in the temple?! Weird. And I'm so glad I went, because missionary homecomings are just about the funnest things. The whole family got together to welcome Aaron home and seeing him hug Tracey was so fun. I probably teared up a little bit, too. . . just not quite as much as Grandpa Blackwelder. :)
I hugged Aaron and it felt like I already knew him from reading his weekly emails! He had the funniest accent ever, too. We walked to go find his bags and we were all just huddled together and it was so fun. When I said goodbye to Jake to go find Madeline (who had passed by when Aaron was coming out!), I said, "See you tomorrow... when we get married!" That was probably the best part.
After Madeline and I left the airport (without her luggage, because NOTHING can ever go as planned!), we headed out to the farm to go change for the dinner my Mom had planned. I forgot that I was supposed to feed the animals that night, so when we got back, I drove directly up to the farm instead of the guesthouse but Dennis was already there taking care of the animals. He did need help changing the water and changing the chicken feed though, so by the time I got back to the guesthouse to change into a dress I hadn't even tried on yet, Mason told me, "You smell like sweat! What have you been doing?" Hahaha. I'm sure my Mom was pleased with that comment.
Also when I walked into the guesthouse I finally saw Olivia and Rachel for the first time which was awesome, because they had been at the farm for a couple hours at that point. Everyone looked so cute and dressed up and there I was, apparently smelling like sweat and my hair in a ponytail with muck boots on...
I quickly tried to change but my garments kept showing through my white dress! We had sent a couple of us to go to the restaurant so they wouldn't throw out our reservation. My mom and Kelly were much more worried about what I looked like than I was... I ended up wearing a scarf so you could see my garments showing through my shoulders, and tights so you couldn't see them on my legs... oh, the blessings of the temple! (just kidding! haha)
That night was good. The pizza Olivia and I shared was not great, but the company was! It was fun to have all the girls together (and Mason). This was probably the first time that whole day that it felt like everything was coming together. We had all been teetering over the schedule for the last couple of days as well as the upcoming day and it turns out when you just let it happen, it works!
When we left the restaurant, I had to drive some girls back to the airport to go get their luggage (Paige and Madeline's luggage showed up late!) and that was fun. We all talked about our love lives (mine being the best, obviously... hahahaha, kidding) and about things we needed to catch up on from the last couple of months with each other. Olivia, Courtney, and Rachel had gone back to the farmhouse to decorate the welcome table (ah thank you guys) and probably just rest and not be with so many noisy people. And then another crew went to the mall with my mom and Kelly to find Jaidyn a new Bridesmaid dress. Honestly... crazy night. I was tired already.
We got back to the guesthouse at the farm and everyone that was staying at the hotel with me needed to start packing up. Meanwhile, Jake had been texting me about what we were doing and when we were planning leaving. He and his family were already at the hotel in Columbus and he told me we should probably head out because the roads were getting bad. I didn't want to be a bridezilla, but I was hurrying everyone along. Olivia and I kept going back and forth from the farm to salt the sidewalks so nobody would fall. It was already getting icy.. we should've known!
By the time we left, it was MIDNIGHT!!! I was getting married in 10 hours!!!!!!
We got on the first main road (which is literally when you turn right out of the farm's driveway) and it was already icy. We were in a full minivan which we were hoping would make it pretty heavy and sturdy, but there's not too much you can do about ice... On the way to the highway, all we could see were cars who had gone off the side of the road or other cars struggling to get up hills or sliding down other hills. I didn't realize what we were in for, and I fell asleep.... for about 45 minutes. Poor Olivia was sitting in the middle seat and didn't even have a proper place to rest her head.
Sidenote: Columbus is only 2 hours away MAXIMUM. So we should've gotten there around 2 am. Well, at 1:30 am we pulled into a gas station apparently to fill not only up on gas, but hot fries and water. . . jokingly we said we had nutrition just in case we got stranded.
About an hour later, I was still unable to fall asleep from the gas station stop, and I noticed that the highway had come to a standstill. We put the car in park, and I thought... ok, we'll move in about 30 minutes or so.... TRY 4 HOURS! Who gets stranded on highway 71 in the middle of Ohio, 10 miles away from their hotel, right before their wedding? We were searching for answers everywhere as to why we were stopped. I called the traffic control people at about 4 am and I said, "I'm getting married in 6 hours. Please tell me why we aren't moving and we're expected to move." They said, "There's closures everywhere, ma'am, sorry." AGH!!! An hour later, I called and said, "I'm getting married in 5 HOURS!!! Please give me an answer!!!" And she said that they were waiting for a tow truck, but that there were 2 accidents ahead of us. At about 5:30 am, the cars started moving and we slowly treaded along... literally 10 miles from our destination.
In the car, we had thought of all the things we would have to do if we couldn't drive the rest of the way to the temple. We had decided that we would have Jake come in the Suburban to the median, I'd walk over with my temple clothing and wedding dress and leave the rest of my party in the car and go get married. Luckily traffic started moving and we didn't have to do that, but it was a close call!!
Olivia and I laid down at 6 am and fell asleep... with my lovely alarm going off at 7:30. We were pretty miserable getting out ot bed. Olivia showered to wake herself up (and also in attempt to steam my dress...) and then she got ready and then did my hair and my mom did my makeup. When I had gone to wake my mom up, she asked if I could just give her 10 more minutes..... hahahaha.
It was finally the wedding day!!! Luckily Rachel was there to give me highlighter and concealer for the bags under my eyes. ;)
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