Now I was ready to
see my future hubby in what our photographers Mike and Rachel call “First Look”. This is kind of crazy as I was going to
see the man I know and love and I suddenly felt nervous, super excited, and
almost like it was the first time we were seeing each other! I made my way out to him and they had
him facing away from me. When he
turned around, his facial expression was so loving and just priceless! We stood there for a few seconds just
taking each other in. He then
asked me to twirl around so he could see all of my dress. So cute! They had us make our way to a subdivision next to the church
for some pictures. It was actually
really fun. Yet, I realized that a
natural “model” I am not- LOL! I
did much better when they told me what to do and how to pose, versus asking me
to do whatever I wanted. Yet, we
have some wonderful pictures, so all turned out well.
Oh, and Brandon
was right, it did start to sprinkle- good call for having the reception chairs
and tables under the patio babe!
Thank the Lord our ceremony was inside, as there was no more rain after
that. :-)
We took some
pictures with the wedding party and our families and then before we knew it, it
was time for the guests to arrive and us to head to the brideroom and “cry
room” to wait for the ceremony to start.
(Yes, cry room- you read correctly. Our church had a room past the men’s room called the Cry Room
for parents to use during a service.)
Did I mention that I have a slight fear
of being the center of attention? (Never mind that I’m a teacher.)
In light of this fear, two events were forefront in my mind: walking down
the aisle and dancing our first dance. Once I got through those two
events, I would really be able to relax. :-)
The girls brought
out some Martineli’s and we relaxed a bit before the ceremony. Ok, so maybe I had some wine, too…
It was finally
time. Nina, our coordinator, lined
us all up. Kaylee and Alexa were
so cute- and they were ready to get this thing going! They knew just what they were doing. :-) I watched Belinda walk out, then Adrianne, then Jen, then the little girls. (And yes, they made it all the way down
the aisle.) I took a number of
deep breaths grabbed my mom’s hand and we were off. (Can I just say that our walk together down the aisle was
such a special thing for mom and I to experience!) I made sure to focus only on Brandon or our pastor Marc,
which really helped. The ceremony
was amazing and personal and Marc did all he could to help me relax.
One little funny
moment was when Brandon and I took our first communion together. My mouth was so dry and the piece of
bread that Brandon broke off was a just a tiny bit big. Yet I started chewing and soon realized
that I was not going to be able to swallow until I drank the juice. I just kept chewing…and chewing. Not to worry, I was able to swallow the bread with
the assistance of the juice- haha!
Before I knew it
Marc pronounced us husband and wife and we kissed! We turned to face our guests (who I really took a look at
for the first time) and I was ready to high-tail it out of the church (the
whole center of attention thing).
I don’t think I even waited for him to announce us “Mr. and Mrs. Brandon
and Amanda Dahl”, or for our music to begin (a great version of Somewhere Over
the Rainbow). I even remember my
mom reaching out to me and gently saying, “not so fast,” but I kept going. Haha! Sigh of relief!
We took a few more
pictures, packed up our things and headed for the Lucas’s for the
reception. Little side note here; the tables and chairs were not set up before the reception, like I mentioned
before. I was told later that
friends and family showed up a bit early and all pitched in to set the entire
thing up (and in record time, too)- so amazing! This just confirms how blessed we are to have the family and
friends that we do!
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