{...a breezy life} at briemarisa.com

My goodness! What a time is has been!

I am a married woman! And despite the fact it took me over a month to finally sit down and journal about it, our wedding was an amazing events peppered with only the types of things an event involving Pete and I could have! That includes almost burning the place down with a flaming football. Seriously. :-P

But, even having to put out a fire while wearing a thousand-dollar wedding gown could not damper the evening for us! Getting ready was all kind of a blur- I was nervous! It was a whirl of flowers, dresses, pictures, and little girls! And, speaking of all of our kids (we had ten in all in the wedding!!) they were all REALLY good and seemed to be so excited!

Before I knew it, we were all lined up at the top of the stairs. I knew Pete was at the alter waiting, and it was honestly such a surreal moment! After all of the angst of planning this insane event, a big part of me was like, "Yeah baby!! Let's DO this thing!". Then I was walking down the stairs on the arms of my parents, praying nobody would trip (although my dress got stepped on a few times- my fault for wearing a dress the size of a circus tent). But either way, I was safely delivered to Pete and our ceremony began! And we were so lucky- our daring, multi-cultural duo of Cantor Ellie Schaffer and Pete's uncle, Deacon Vincent Latini (Pete was the ring bearer in his wedding, how cute is that???) provided such a sweet, funny, meaningful ceremony! Before we knew it, it was time for Pete to step on the glass (MAZEL TOV!!!) and we were announced as husband and wife!!

Behold, the best moment of my life (thus far):


The reception was crazy! It started off a little hectic for Pete and I (on a professional note, we were highly disappointed with the service provided by our maitre'd assigned to our wedding. After how amazing our caterer had been throughout the entire planning process, it was hard to see it all fall apart when placed in the hands of the person who was supposed to be running the show. Feh.)but, we made our way through and everyone seemed to have an amazing time! The hora was insane!!! I guess when there's a major shortage in Jewish representation, the hora can go from celebratory circle dance to mosh pit! I think I saw my life flash before my eyes when I was up in that chair, gleefully being pumped up and down by some male guests! After that, everyone has a great time dancing the night away! The kids seemed to be having a blast! They were just running everywhere and dancing up a storm, they were so cute!! It really seemed like everyone was having a good time, which made us both very happy! All we really wanted (aside from getting married and getting good pictures) was to show our guests a good time. And so, unless everyone lied to avoid any potential bridal wrath, we met our goal!

Some of the high points for me:

* hearing everyone go "AWWWWWW" when Jen walked down the isle with her 2 year old son Thomas, way too cute in a little tux and black Chuck Taylors, who was standing in for his father, Eric, who is serving our country in Iraq

* Seeing Pete waiting for me at the alter

* When Cantor Ellie made sure to note that when Pete and I first met and were first attracted to each other, we were seeing other people!! Nice.

* Of course, our first kiss as husband and wife!

* Our first dance, which was kind of surreal, with everyone standing around looking at us!

* Seeing all of the kids having such a great time!

* Going to Connie Mac's in my dress after the wedding! :-)

* Finally giving Pete something he had been asking for forever (aside from watching me make out with another girl, sorry Pete)- singing a song just for him!



So, to leave you with one last little piece of our wedding, here is our BIG Show, something fun that the fun folks over at Kenneth Stillman Video edit and set to music and show to everyone at the reception!!! I hope you can all see how completely blessed Pete and I are, both in what we have in each other and what we have in our amazing family and friends. Everyone that I love was there for us, to support our love and support us in putting together such an insane event! I am very, very lucky!

Enjoy!