And...we're off!

Please excuse our "We just woke up" faces...

On the morning of Thursday, October 14, Adam and I hopped on a plane and flew to Orlando. In other parts of the world, our best man Bill and his girlfriend Kali were driving from their overnight stop of Savannah, Georgia to pick us up from the airport. Adam's mom, Susan; dad, Mickey; sister, Allison; and Allison's now-fiance, Josh; were also driving from Savannah en route to Orlando. In the weeks prior to our wedding, Universal switched the date from Saturday to Friday, which meant a whole heap of logistical rearranging. They graciously paid to switch Adam and I's flight to Thursday so we could fly in for our rehearsal. You see, normal weddings have rehearsals. And weddings with camera crews, sound guys and about 30 Universal staff members NEED rehearsals. Despite the logistical mess the date switch initially created, our whole entourage rallied. No one had booked flights but us at the time of the switch, so a few phone calls later, the crisis was averted. Nearly every member of the wedding party was able to drive in on Thursday so they could attend the rehearsal that afternoon. Such troopers!

I remember spending most of our flight to Orlando wondering what the hell I was in for. But I was so, so excited. Adam and I both were. That's the thing about us, we really do roll right along with whatever life throws at us. We were super ready for that weekend. We arrived in Orlando at 1 and met Bill, who then drove us to Universal and dropped us at our swanky hotel. As part of the prize package, we won two nights at one of their onsite hotels. It was GORGEOUS. It was super tropical and very Jurassic Park...before shit goes down.

We rolled our luggage in awe to the check-in counter and told them our names. A note had apparently been made with our reservation, because a second employee immediately popped out from behind the counter and put fabulous, sea shell necklaces on us and welcomed us as VIP guests. It. Was. Awesome.

Rocking the VIP necklace in our awesome room!

Our room was incredible, we had a window overlooking the fabulous pool. I just remember being so psyched that this was happening to me and so excited to get the weekend started. We spent a bit of time unpacking and chatting on the phone with members of our entourage who were en route. We also spent some time touching base with our guests who would not arrive until the next morning.

After we got settled, we freshened up, then walked down from our room to the water taxi that would take us over to the parks. All of Universal's onsite hotels are obviously right on the property, and provide some form of transportation back and forth to the parks. I never thought this was a big deal before, but it was kind of cool to not need a car or worry about parking and have your hotel just across the lake.

Waiting for the water taxi. You can see Doom's tower in
the distance, which is part of Islands of Adventure.

We hopped on the water taxi and enjoyed the ride as it took us over to Citywalk, the section of shops and restaurants between the regular Universal park and Islands of Adventure. Halloween Horror Nights is

held at the regular Universal park, so that is where we were headed. As we rode along, I was aware that at that very moment, Adam's parents and Allison and Josh were heading to the gate and my parents, Keith and Melanie were also headed to the gate. Oh, and Bill, of course! It was such a surreal feeling to think of all these people coming together at Universal Studios to be led to a soundstage where there was sure to be a badass haunted house that we would be getting married in!

One of the last shots of us before we got married!

We got off the water taxi and walked toward the gates. We saw Adam's family right away and greeted them. We were to wait at the public

relations office just outside of the gates for someone from the staff to come get us. Just a few minutes later, I saw my family walking toward us and got super excited. This was actually happening. I guess sometimes it doesn't feel like it's happening until all the pieces of the puzzle click into place. After greetings were exchanged all around, we entered the public relations office and made our presence known.



Next up: We rehearse and realize just how many staff members at Universal are helping us.

The last few days.

When I got back from North Carolina, Adam and I had until Thursday to finalize everything for our wedding weekend. We had a few more calls with Universal, finalizing the menu, cake flavors, timeline, decorations, music playlist, etc. We made our own music playlist by writing down a list of about 20 songs for the hour and a half reception. We had to send Universal a finalized list of our guests so they could greet them at the gates of the park and whisk them off to the soundstage we were married in. We packed, we sent FB messages to our guests with instructions, we sent FB messages to our wedding party with even more instructions, we finalized details for our ceremony and sent them to Matt. It was such a whirlwind. Adam was obviously working this entire time, so we were busy with normal life too. We had just taken our engagement photos with Cade...whew! Life was crazy! But so, so awesome.

I'm on a plane en route to my Halloween wedding! OMG!

We had a solid timeline of events for the weekend, so I'll let you in on that.

Thursday: We fly from Vermont to Florida in the morning, arrive at 1. Several wedding party members drive to Florida in an attempt to make it to the rehearsal. We rehearse at 4.

Friday: Adam and I acquire our marriage license first thing in the morning. Adam hangs with his boys during the afternoon. I go with my girls to a mall and get my makeup done at Sephora. All wedding party members expected to be at the gates of Universal at 3. Ceremony. Reception. Halloween Horror Nights.

Saturday: Everyone gets park passes for a fun day!


There are a ton of other things that happened during this timeline, and of course, everything did not go according to plan, which is what the recaps are for! Are you ready for them? Warning: this will be unlike anything you've experienced before.

Next up: Wedding recaps!

Opening lingerie with my dad and brother? Dream come true.

I was on cloud nine after my dress purchase. When I first tried on the dress, I was hesitant to buy it because all the stress and nervousness of the day was finally crashing down on me. Ask any member of my entourage, I stood in that dress for like 30 minutes before I said yes. But after I did, I felt awesome. I was flying to Florida in 5 days and getting married! Little did I know, things were about to get even crazier...

Me and Kristina...oh, and my pile of gifts!

My parents rushed me home for a surprise bachelorette party/lingerie shower. Well, by rushed I mean we hurriedly left the bridal shop and swung by Total Wine so my brother could fulfill his sake dream. My mom threw together a party in true Richardson style and it was awesome. I truly appreciated this because so many things were lost when we made the decision to do this. This included bachelor and bachelorette parties. But, also in Richardson style, my party was not like any other bachelorette party. My mom strung decorations on the fireplace and people brought me lingerie. My dad and Keith were there the entire time. We took shots of sake and drank martinis.

It was attended by my best friend and matron of honor, Kristina; my grandmother; and my brother's girlfriend, Melanie. I opened lots of great lingerie and Keith weighed in on whether or not it was good enough. Per my dad's suggestion, we played "sex charades" which involved drawing sex positions out of a hat and acting them out with your team member for the other team to guess. I was on a team with my dad. I have so many amazing memories from the entire wedding experience, and this party is one of the best. Oh hell, I'll let some photos do the writing...

Not sure why Keith is making that face.

Taking sake shots. To be honest, I hated it. It's warm! I don't
think I even got the whole thing down.

This hot little number came from Kristina.

This was from Melanie...

As well as these lovely handcuffs!

This lingerie and the one below were from Grams and Kelli.

This was a "Just Married" tank from my parents.

As well as this.

This was a gift my mom got for Adam, but I made her return it
because she totally misinterpreted the meaning. Silly mom!

This is me and dad scheming on how to best act out a
certain sex position.

And this is Melanie probably wondering what the hell
happened to her in life that made her end up here.

I don't have any photos of sex charades. Let's all give thanks for that! The party was super fun, and I can't thank my family enough for rallying and throwing it for me. Once again, the unconventional prevailed and it didn't matter where the party was or what we did, only that we were all together, celebrating. So many memories from that night come back to me all the time. Some dirty, some funny, some sentimental. Choking only half of the sake shot down and everyone razzing me. Each team acting out assorted sex positions such as "the scissor." My brother and I taking a shot together in the kitchen and him toasting to playing micro machines together. I was so worried throughout the entire process that Adam and I would be giving up too much, that we'd be losing too much. Looking back, that was so silly. Everything changed, yes. And some things were lost. But they're just things. Silly, silly things, like registries and parties and time. None of it mattered because we gained so, so much.

The next day, I hopped back on a plane and flew to Vermont for my last few days as a single girl. It ended up being an awesome weekend and the one thing I remember most is walking through security at the airport, glancing back at my family, knowing this was essentially the last time I'd see them before I got married.

Next up: The last post before the wicked wedding weekend recaps! All the little, and huge, stuff we finalized the last few days before we got married.

I got lucky!

I woke up Saturday morning, aka day two of dress shopping, aka THE LAST DAY of dress shopping, wondering what my future held. I was already running through all the formal dresses I currently owned, wondering if any of them would fit into our wedding should I not get lucky and find a dress. Looking back on that day now, it's kind of a blur. I don't actually remember all the shops we went to. In the morning, we went to a shop in Raleigh that had a super friendly staff and a huge selection of dresses. I remember I spent most of my time there arguing with my mom. She loved dresses with pleating on the upper half and I hated them. I did find a really pretty dress at that first shop. Unfortunately, no photography was allowed, so I don't have evidence. The dress was incredibly form-fitting; it was a mermaid style. It was strapless, with a slight sweetheart neckline. And it had a lot of bling all over it. I liked this dress a lot, but truth be told, it took the jaws of life to get me in and out of it. It was simply too tight. I would not have been able to sit, dance or hell, stand, for any length of time. I wanted it to fit, we all did, but it just wasn't happening. And while we learned that there might have been time for a seamstress to let it out, we still couldn't do that because I would not be back to retry it on. And there was no way I was taking the dress back to Vermont on the plane and then on another plane to Florida. I was buying that dress in North Carolina and leaving it there for my parents to drive to Florida in 5 days.

I do remember that morning was the most stressful of the weekend. It was hot out, for one, and I was cracking bit by bit. At one point we all almost killed each other when the GPS led us astray on the way to another bridal shop and we ended up in some subdivision in Raleigh. I was walking a fine line between delirious and just plain crazy. The thing is, I'm a just-go-with-it kind of girl. Everyone reading this should know that. I nearly immediately embraced the idea of throwing out every thought and idea of our wedding and embarking on the craziest wedding train ever. I roll with life, I really do. But I had to have the white dress. I had to. And it didn't so much matter what it looked like, I just wanted to feel like I was getting married when I wore it. So much of our wedding was unconventional, which, oddly enough was what we always wanted, but I knew that I needed the classic white dress to be the one traditional piece in this puzzle of crazy. I could not wait to walk down the aisle, to the funeral march, mind you, toward that haunted house, but I had to be doing it in a gorgeous white dress.

I loved the idea of this dress. I was desperate enough that
I might have worn it, even though it was too big in the top.

All of these thoughts were racing through my mind as I was literally circling the drain that afternoon. We pulled it together and decided to go back to David's Bridal, but a different location. It was a Saturday, so there was a wait time. We spent this time by going to a very sketch grocery store that my super frugal dad is in love with, picking up a large amount of dinner supplies. All of this seemed strange to me. At lunch, my mom was acting weird and now we were buying a lot of food...something was off. I might have paid more attention had I not been focused on finding a dress. We also spent most of the day listening to my brother demand we buy sake for him to drink that evening. We then spent a large amount of time searching for sake. Just before we entered David's Bridal, I remember my mom telling Keith he could only get sake if I found a dress at this appointment. He shot me a look like, "This has been fun, but you better get your damn game face on." Maybe it was this pressure that eventually turned my luck? Who knows?

I pulled maybe 5 dresses at this appointment. Some I had tried on the day before, and some were out of my price range. Hey, I was getting desperate. My original budget was $500. I assumed Adam and I were paying for the dress ourselves. Even if we weren't, I am not the kind of girl who could spend more on a dress I would only wear for a day. That's just not me. I pulled some dresses that ranged all the way to $1,000, figuring it was worth it. I only have a few photos for this post, so enjoy! Most of the dresses just didn't work, so I was in and out of them quickly. I could see my brother panicking as his sake dreams slipped away...

This is me thinking, "Can I make this work?"

The dress in the photo above was so pretty, I loved, loved the flowers. Full disclosure, Keith said it looked like someone vomited flowers all over the dress. Gotta love that, right? At this point, I reeked of desperation and I almost chose this dress even though it was clearly too big on the top. I thought I had no other choice though. You can see Keith's expression in the photo on the left. He's obviously not too impressed.

Then, something magical happened. My attendant ran off to the back room, was gone for several minutes, and then came back with maybe 3 dresses. These dresses were not on the floor. They were not chosen for the new magazine/catalog, so they were castoffs. The first 2 were not winners and I'll admit, I was starting to picture stuffing my bra so the flower dress would fit better. The very last dress I tried on was the one. This may sound crazy, but when I try dresses on, any formal dress, I can always tell when I put it on if it fits me really well, even before I look in the mirror. And I got this feeling with this dress. I immediately knew it fit me, which was a whole lot better than anything else I tried on, so I just hoped it looked good too.

Finally!

And it did. Since I already posted a photo from the actual wedding, then no harm in posting a photo of me in the dress beforehand, as the jig is up. I loved the sweetheart neckline, as it clearly made my boobs look fantastic. I also like how the dress was not glued to me, but still form-fitting. And even though the dress was more simple than I ever imagined wearing, it had some unique spunk that I really liked such as the band of crystals around my waist and the ruffles at the bottom of the dress. Plus, the bonus was that the crystals were all Swarovski! Bam! When I walked out, my parents commented on how well the dress fit me and a perfect stranger said the dress was made for me. Thank goodness! April finally got lucky! Keith was already googling what goes best with sake. My mom made me try on the dress with a veil, as you can see, despite the fact that I did not plan to wear one.

Look at how happy I am!

I love this dress. I truly, truly do. It was nothing like I ever imagined or saw in a magazine, yet it just worked. While my process for finding a dress was stressful and scary and unique, in the end, I thought it was kind of awesome. I didn't spend months of my engagement trying on assorted dresses and getting alterations and having dress regret. I had one shot and that was it. I was getting married in that dress. Oh, and just in case you were wondering, my wonderful parents wound up paying for the dress. And here's something else, given that the dress was not in the catalog, it's regular price of $800 was slashed down to $150! We came way under budget! My mom bought me a headband from the store as well, so after all was said and done, the entire purchase came to just over $200 I think. Bam!

Next up: The secret's out. April finds herself in the middle of a bachelorette party complete with sake, her father and brother and sex charades.

Saying yes to the dress.

Don't they look thrilled?

My biggest challenge throughout our three week planning palooza was finding a dress. As you've read in previous posts, I have given some thought to my dream dress, but nothing concrete. I had never been dress shopping and was planning to wait until sometime in 2011 to start the process. On the weekend prior to our wedding, my parents generously flew me down to North Carolina so I could not only find my dress, but fulfill my extremely important dream of going dress shopping with both of my parents and my brother.

Brides choose to shop for their dress with many different combinations of people. Some choose to go with only their mother, some choose to shop with their maid of honor and bridesmaids and some choose to shop with their entire social network, including grandmothers and co-workers. I think some brides even shop alone. I always wanted to shop with my mom, dad and brother. Our family is crazy close and this seemed like an event for only them. Plus, I knew they would provide the perfect trifecta of criticism. My mom always knows what looks good on me and makes me look best. My dad always knows what looks good on the rack (most of the time...see conch shell dress below.) And my brother, well, like me, his face never tells a lie. In theory, I planned to bring my matron of honor back for fittings, but given the circumstances, there were never any fittings.

See, that was the fun in it. Not only did I have to find a dress I loved, but it also had to fit like a glove because there would be no time for alterations or time to add a bustle. Let me just reiterate, I tried on dresses for the very first time exactly ONE WEEK prior to my wedding. You should have seen the looks on the faces of the bridal store employees. Plus, I originally wanted a dress with straps, but I found out quickly that like 1% of dresses have straps. Usually, a seamstress will just alter a dress to have straps. But I didn't have time for alterations! Talk about pressure!

Day one of dress shopping started terribly. We visited a bridal shop in Wilson (I think...) known for its great prices. Well, what it should be known for is its terrible customer service and extremely poor selection of smaller dresses. I quickly learned I needed a size 2, which would be difficult to find as most stores carry higher sizes so they can be altered down. This store had virtually no size 2 dresses. We left quickly. In fact, I don't even have any photos of dresses from that store. Such a travesty.

I won't bore you with the play-by-play, but day one was not a success. You can ask my family, I was somewhat of a dress bitch. I knew I needed to keep an open mind because of my circumstances, but there was no way in hell I was settling. I was going to feel freaking gorgeous and awesome at that haunted house and no one would stop me. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

Note: Several of these dresses were truly gorgeous and I think I may have felt more positive about them had I had time on my side to alter them. But if it didn't fit like it was made for me, then it got tossed.

I loved the top of this dress. The sweetheart neckline turned out
to be the best top for me, as my main dress requirement was
one that made my boobs look awesome. The bottom of the dress felt
too big though. It seemed to swallow me. I really wanted something
more form fitting.

Dad bet a million dollars this would be "the one." As you can see by
my face, I hated it. The top was horrific. It reminded me of some sort of seashell. The dress was too big.
I did love the back of the dress (see mirror), but alas, it just wouldn't work.

I really, really liked this dress. It had the banging neckline and it had straps!
I felt like the bottom wasn't too big, either. I didn't love the material and I felt the
dress may have been a little to plain, but I thought I could add a sash
or belt to the waist to spice it up. The killer for this dress was that
the top didn't fit well enough. Wah, wah. Why didn't I fit a boob job into my 3 week timeline?

I went back to my parent's house that night feeling a little nervous. What if I couldn't find something? I decided to stay optimistic though, which actually means I didn't have any other choice but to be hopeful. I mean, what's a girl to do when she's literally getting married in a week!?! I will take this opportunity to thank my entourage for putting up with this process. I'm sure my 21-year-old brother would have rather been anywhere else and I know everyone was just as nervous as I that I'd be walking up those haunted steps in jeans and a t-shirt. They put up with me though, and it paid off in the end. Thank you!

I went to sleep that night wishing and hoping I would get lucky the next day. Because that's what this really came down to. Luck. Not dress dreams or great prices or availability. Just luck. But, you know, I figured, if I was lucky enough to win a Halloween wedding, then surely I'd be lucky enough to find a damn dress.

Next up: Day two of dress shopping, aka, April gets lucky.

I now pronounce you.

Our contest package did not include an officiant, and it was left up to Adam and I to select this person, hire him/her (if necessary), structure the ceremony with him/her and obtain the marriage license for the officiant to sign. Having this responsibility was both good and bad. It was bad because we had less than three weeks to make it all happen and really no clue as to what the officiant laws in Florida were, but it was really good because selecting our own officiant and structuring/writing our own ceremony was what we always wanted.

Matt and I on my 25th birthday.

Now, most of you should know that Adam and I are not the most religious crayons in the box. We never intended to marry in a church or be married by a religious officiant. Marriage is an extremely serious promise to us, something we will honor and pursue forever, but not a religious promise. Different strokes for different folks...

Matt's ordination certificate
and letter of good standing.

Adam and I always dreamed of a friend marrying us. While we didn't want a religious officiant, we also didn't want to hire a random justice of the peace. In an effort to personalize every aspect of our wedding, we always hoped to be married by someone who knew both of us extremely well and knew us as a couple. Enter Matt. Adam met Matt his first day at UNC, as they lived next door to each other in the dorm. Matt was a freshman, Adam a junior transfer student. Now, I'm not going to sugarcoat this for you. After all, honesty is the best policy. Adam and Matt did not get along when they first met. In fact, I think those who were around during that time would say this is an understatement. It was certainly a bumpy road for them, but it all worked out in the end and Matt is now one of both Adam and I's best friends. I met Matt in a film class freshman year and I like to credit myself for bring Adam and Matt together.

When it came to trusting someone to not only unite Adam and I in wedding bliss, but also to handle the responsibility of conducting a ceremony, we knew Matt was perfect. Reminder, our ceremony was anything but ordinary and it required microphones and a camera crew and perfect timing and fantastic presentation.

With all that pressure, I can't even write how amazing he was. We gave him next to no direction and he took care of everything. I'll give you more details later when I recap the ceremony, but I'll just say that in the memory of the most amazing day of my life, having Matt marry us will forever be one of the greatest decisions we've ever made.

Oh, and what did our fabulous officiant wear on our super special day? He rocked a gray suit with a stunning purple tie.

Next up: a riveting story entitled "April as two days and one shot to say yes to the dress." Trust me, you want to read this one.

Helllloooooo...is anyone still out there?

[Looks far into the distance and searches for signs of life]

I'm not sure if anyone's still out there in the blogoverse, but I'm hoping you are. I know I've been extremely MIA over the past...five months. I'm sorry. Can I use the newlywed excuse? Do you forgive me? Please?

I want to do right by my blog, and true story, I love writing it. So, if I have any readers left, I'm going to pick up where I left off. I have a few more recaps from events leading up to my wacky wedding weekend (including a bachelorette party attended by both my father and brother...intrigued?), and then I can tell you the magical tale in all its detail. And now I'm rhyming. Good or bad? After I share our wedding story with you, complete with pictures, we can talk 2012. Remember the reception we're still having in 2012? Well, it needs to be planned and I need your help.

To entice you to stick with me and keep reading, I'll leave you with a teaser picture from our wedding.

Please don't steal our photos. As much as I'd love to be your desktop background,
the photos are special to us and we'd like to keep them our own. Thanks!