We had one of those weddings that gets written up in the wedding disaster book, but, as those of you who were there know, we all had a fantastic time. So take heart any of you that may be thinking about wedding planning and remember: build lots of redundancy into the wedding schedule.
The story starts on Friday night, where, due to a variety of comic mix-ups, Michael and I were running late for the rehearsal dinner (we dined first, and then rehearsed). On the way south on Studemont, driving under I-10, I looked up and saw under the green light a extended-cab pickup full of unsecured crap -- which, as I later realized was making it take the left slooooooowly.
I knew I wasn't going to be able to stop in time. And I wasn't. I T-boned him.
Michael and I were unhurt, but the car suffered severe damage. As it turned out, the insurance company is totalling the car, and I'm buying the new Saturn sedan to replace it. He had some frame damage and a blown tire, plus he and his crew had to pick up a bunch of his construction junk from the street.
Generously, because I had witnesses that said the other guy was in the intersection on the green, the cops didn't write me a ticket. He claimed he entered on yellow. That must have been one orange yellow, is all I can say.
Chuck rescued us from the scene and took us to the rehearsal dinner, where a rumor that Michael and I had fled to Las Vegas had started. We got through the dinner and the rehearsal OK, and everything went fine until we were getting to the B&B where we were holding the wedding.
Greg (my Bachelor of Honor) was driving me around and as we pulled into the driveway, we saw the photographer doing his best impression of the Munch painting "The Scream". It turned out that his assistant had left the bag with the cameras in Kingwood (about 30 miles away). Fortunately, we'd scheduled to have everyone there for photos very early, so we didn't lose that much time while his assistant fetched them.
The next disaster was that the people from the rental place who were scheduled to set up the site never showed. Fortunately, we had the waitstaff from Par Excellence, the University of Houston hotel school, there early as well, and they stepped up like troopers to fill in the gap. (The rental place is refunding our money).
My mother-in-law-to-be also forgot the heirloom garter, but fortunately our own Barb rescued me and ran out to Arne's to chase one down.
While I don't recommend totalling your car immediately before your wedding, I must say that it gave me perspective on all of the troubles that followed. I had several people tell me on the day that I was the calmest bride they'd ever seen. I personally think that it was because I had run out of adrenalin.
Despite all of the behind-the-scenes chaos, the wedding went wonderfully and we had a great time! And in the end, that's the only important thing.