Nick-Mans Wedding

Yesterday was my little brothers wedding (yes on Mother's Day, the bride always said she would get married on her grandparents anniversary). The wedding ceremony was planned for outside at this gorgeous park, but thankfully they had a back up plan for bad weather. The back-up was one of those large tents with the sides that would sit up against the room for the reception and the large glass doors would open into the tent.

So Saturday for the rehearsal the weather was amazing here in central Ohio. Sunday morning though we wake up to rain and kind of chilly weather. Not a problem right? That's what the back-up plan was for. So us girls spend the morning having our hair an makeup done and we head off to the ceremony site. The plan was to for the guys to arrive at 12 for pictures and the girls at 1. We were running about 5 minutes late so I called my hubbie (groomsman) to tell him to let the photographer know and he tells me she's not here yet!

Me: WHAT?????
Me: The photographer hasn't shown up yet????
Dave: Nope, Alicia's (bride) parents are taking care of it but they haven't come back to tell us what's going on.
Me: OK, well we will be there soon

So we get there and take Alicia to the restroom and her mom comes in and say "We have a problem!" Now I am thinking they can't get a hold of the photographer and there wont be any pictures, but no that was not it at all. Alicia's mom goes on to tell us that the big tent with the sides they ordered was not deleived, instead a smaller one with no sides was. Since it was raining the only option was to set up the reception room for the ceremony and once that was done they would set it up for the reception.

If this would have been my wedding, someone would have needed to give me some kind of drug to keep me calm because I would have lost my freaking mind! Both Nick and Alicia handle all of this really well and the worst hasn't come yet.

About 5 minutes later I am standing in the main room with my sister and the groomsmen when we here this really loud siren go and we all look at each other with the same (No Freaking way, it can't be) look on our faces. It was a Tornado siren! I am dead serious a freaking TORNADO SIREN, and it wasn't a test. Being that the wedding was at a city park the employees forced us all into the kitchen and bathrooms. At first we were all OK with this because there weren't very many of us and we didn't know what was going on.

Until yesterday I never thought having the Internet on a cell phone was important, but man did that come in handy. We very quickly were able to find out that the Tornado was in the northern section of out county and it was heading north (away from us). Naturally we all started to head back out but we were quickly ushered back in and told that in no way were we allowed to leave the designated rooms until the warning was over for out county regardless of where it really was because they were reasonable for all of us. So for the next 45 minutes to an hour we were stuck in those rooms. Of course during this time the guest started to arrive and we taken in to the safe rooms to wait it out with the rest of us.

Once the warning was over, Alicia's father had to make an announcement to everyone that because of the Tornado the ceremony room was not set up and they would finish it as quickly as possible.

I'm really not sure how much longer we had to wait or when the ceremony finally started but it was not on time. The ceremony was very nice. My husband and I were in the bridal party and got to walk down the isle together and it's a good thing because emotional me started crying as soon as I saw my little brother standing up there. Emma and Ian were also in the wedding as the Ring Bearer and Flower Girl and they both walked down the isle. After the rehearsal I was convinced Ian would go so I told Emma that if he didn't she should just go without him. Somewhere in her mind she took this as don't wait at all just go, so off she went cute as can be dropping her petals and Ian folled behind her stepping on them (on purpose). About half way down Ian decided he wanted to walk beside his sissy but she was not for that and blocked him every time he tried to move up. Yes Emma loves to be the center of attention!

Next up was the bride and man did the tears start coming then. I think I would have been OK had I not looked at my brother who had tears running down his face. Even now writing this I want to cry, it was so sweet. I was able to calm myself down fairly quickly and then it was time for the exchange of rings and that brought the tears back. When I was 5, Stpeh 2, and Nick 9 months our fatehr passed away and Nick decided that he wanted to use our Fathers wedding band as his so there are Steph and I balling our eyes out. I did make it through the rest of the ceremony without any more tears. :))

After the ceremony we had some chaos between trying to get the pictures taken, which had to be done in the only room so the employees could only set the reception up to a point until we finished the pictures (oh yes the photographer showed up during the tornado)and since she was late we had to do all of them. I should tell you all this, the employees were amazing and worked very fast to get things done for us.

Finally it was time to eat! The food was amazing, one of the groomsman's father owns a Barbecue restaurant and he catered the reception for Nick and Alicia. We had barbecue chicken, beef brisket, mased potatoes, corn casserole, green beans, some kind of rice, and cheesy onion casserole. I know the meal is a little unconventional but that is the bride and groom and it was free for them.

While everyone was finished there dinners the bestman KJ (my 12 year old brother) and one of Alicia's sisters gave the toast. Alicia's sister gave a very traditional type of toast that made us cry and laugh. Then KJ made his, our sister helped him write in the night before, and it went like this:

Hi I'm KJ Nicks little brother
and I just want to congratulate Nick and Alicia,
and I'm so glad to have Alicia's as a sister
because 9 just weren't enough!

(KJ is mine, Nick's, and Steph's half brother and yes he has 9 sister, oops 10 now)

OK so there is is Nick-Mans wedding day. Sorry it was so long but I wanted to get everything so I wont forget it in the years to come. Even though things didn't go according to plan it still ended up being a very special day and I am so happy to have another sister in my life and I wish Nick and Alicia only the best life can offer!