Porcupines Pick Their Person - the Surreal First Look!

*All photography is by Klose Photography

Our first look wasn’t something I spent too much time planning. I remember thinking it would be cool to look over the banister of the balcony and have Mr. P look-up. So, that’s what we did…

 And, yes I waved. I like waving.

I can honestly say I have little to no memory of what was going on in my head at that moment. It was something like, “oh, weird. This is our first look.”

“Oh, weird, I am legit about to get married”

"Oh, lookie at my dress!"

I love this photo because you can see everyone looking out from the window, and our Suri Cruise look alike flower girl (Mr. P's cousin) watching on

Then it was off for our glamour shots. 

Did your first look feel surreal?

• I become the BK Bride
• The pimple of death threatens to ruin our day 
• We exchange presents  
• We don't rehearse, but we laugh
• I puke, but the show must go on!
• We get ready to wed

Porcupines Pick Their Person- We Get Prepped to Wed!

*All photography copyright of Klose Photography, unless otherwise noted

First off, thanks for all the kind words about my plight the morning of our wedding. Luckily, I’m sort of used to gross stomach situations. I was that kid who always had a belly ache- and I guess, I still AM that kid. So, really, it sucked and I hated my life a bit, but I moved on and was able to have a wonderful wedding day.

When we got to the venue I wanted to jump into picture taking right away. One issue- there were no flowers! The flowers wouldn’t arrive for another hour (a slight timing snafu), and I spent most of that time freaking out that the florist wasn’t coming. But, thankfully, the flowers came and all was fine. While we waited for the flowers my awesomely punctual photographer got right to work.

Bridesmaid Kitty helping to zip me up

Curious flower girls

Many questions about my blue peacock shoes

*Photo courtesy of Bridesmaid Blondey

The girls waiting patiently, resting their very uncomfortable feet 

(Thanks for being champs with those heels!)

The guys have it so easy!

 Mr. P's grandma made these yamulkes by hand for all the groomsmen and immediate family
  

Finally, the flowers came, and it was time for a few more shots before the first look and formal pictures to begin.

 You don't even want to know how much we spent on umbrellas 

(and it didn't rain, but I had to get my umbrella shot!)

Were you a missing a vendor when you got to to your venue? 

• I become the BK Bride
• The pimple of death threatens to ruin our day 
• We exchange presents  
• We don't rehearse, but we laugh
• I puke, but the show must go on!

Porcupines Pick their Person- And, Puke

The day of my wedding started off similarly to how you may imagine the first day your stay in hell may begin. Or, maybe, just my first day in hell personally.

At 6:00 AM I jolted up with a horrible gurgling sensation in my stomach with the desire to puke up my intestines. I definitely did not feel hungover. I only had about 3 drinks the night before, and ate a normal amount of food. I didn’t even gorge myself like I normally do at party-type functions. It was a weird sensation.

“Nerves,” you say.

No, not nerves, just my overall sensitive stomach acting up like I feared it might. So I laid there thinking, “This is some type of bullshit karma.”

I call Mr, P. and beg him to go downstairs and get me some Pepto pills from the front desk. HE, however, WAS hungover, and hating his life. Remember his 3-AM bloody mouth situation? This is a normal way to start your wedding day, yes?

Smart alec called the front desk who sent someone up with pepto pills. The guy smirked and turned away after I gratefully snatched them from his hand. I WASN’T HUNGOVER! Sheesh.

I then texted my mom to see if she was awake, and asked her to get me some dry cereal from the breakfast buffet downstairs to hopefully absorb the acids bouncing around my belly.

She brought me some Rice Krispies and I laid in bed mumbling to myself, ate half a box of Rice Krispies, then stuck my hand down my throat and puked up dinner from the night before. Sorry, too graphic.

Anyway, my life is a sitcom, and after my little situation I was just wondering what would happen before the next commercial break. I let bridesmaid Blondey, who is a nurse, know about my predicament. She asked me what the antibiotic was called that the dermatologist had prescribed me. Sure enough, she let me know, that the major side effect of it was nausea, vomiting, and upset stomach! So, enough of that attempt to kill my pimple of death.

My hair lady came early, by the way. Which USUALLY I really appreciate. This time, however, I just wanted to die and be left to my own suffering.

Something about her coming to set-up sorta snapped me to attention. I took a shower, and felt a little bit better. I lounged in bed, then popped up, let people into the suite, laid down again and mumbled, sat in the suite looking glumly around, and something like 5 hours later started feeling better.

 

Some of the hair spread

 

Misery with my rice krispies under my arm

 Misery slowly subsiding 

Getting my face did

 Bridesmaid Little keeping me entertained 

I thank the sheer adrenaline that runs through your veins the day of your wedding for bringing me out of my stupor. After we got ready, my bridesmaids went back to their room to get ready. I packed up the crap laying all around the suite, and we were on our way to get me married!

 

Looking alive and ready to go-go in the lobby
(No, that's not my wedding ensemble, I changed at the venue)

Did you feel less than spectacular the day of your wedding?

*all pictures are by friends and family

• I become the BK Bride
• The pimple of death threatens to ruin our day 
• We exchange presents  
• We don't rehearse, but we laugh

Porcupines Pick Their Person- Rehearsal minus the Rehearse

The rehearsal dinner was a great time, and I think it really set the mood for how fun our wedding would be.

My in-laws threw the dinner at the Pressroom Restaurant, which was a neat coincidence considering I work in publishing and love books. Also, my dad is a printer. (Obviously, my in-laws didn’t seek out a restaurant that coincided with our professions so it was kind of funny that it worked out that way.)

The dinner was done in a laid-back style, a way for everyone to just mingle and enjoy the evening. There were no assigned seats and no seated dinner. The food was served all throughout the night, a dinner of heavy appetizers and finger foods: cheese and veggie spreads, pizzas, hummus, wings, nachos, quesadillas, and other types of heavy hors d'oeuvres. Everything was really delicious.

Yum!

Everyone was assigned the task of writing headlines about me and Mr. P to go along with the whole publishing/press theme.

 Some original headlines in the mix! ;)

Fun letter decorations

 Parents ready for the big day

Our new baby nephew was a tired little guy

The bridal party

After lots of chatting and pictures, we gave our bridal party their gifts. For the bridesmaids, a Coach travel jewelry box with a bracelet to wear on the wedding day. And, for the guys, personalized pocket watches. Our parents got the traditional picture frame with a little spin. We got a "Then" and "Now" frame to fill side-by-side with our baby pictures and eventually a wedding shot.

 

 Bridesmaids' gift

 

Mr. P's cousins: our flower girls and ring bearer got “bags of stuff” full of books and trinkets. We also got the flower girls beaded bracelets with a little charm inscribed with their initial. For our ring bearer a football piggy bank.

Ready to get the show on the road!

As the night wrapped up the girls headed back to the hotel for a drink at the hotel bar and then spent some time keeping me company in my room.

Bridesmaids piled in my bed

The guys went off for a sort of “bachelor party Part 2” for Mr. P. There's nothing like your soon-to-be-husband showing up at your door with a bloody mouth at 3 AM. He had no idea he was bleeding by the way, and apparently had just bit down hard on his lip. I stuffed his mouth full of tissue and sent him on his way (across the hall) to his room, all the while with him shouting, "I'M NOT SUPPOSED TO SEE YOU!"

I think this napkin a friend snapped a pic of at the hotel bar sums up the night perfectly.

(Even though I still kinda don't get what the joke behind it was).

But, the fun had just begun!

Did your rehearsal dinner set the tone for your wedding?

*all pictures are from friends and family

• I become the BK Bride
• The pimple of death threatens to ruin our day 
• We exchange presents 

Porcupines Pick their Person- And get some Presents

I know you are all thinking: seriously, with this pimple nonsense already!? Just put some cover-up on it and move along. Well, okay, I shall. I got to work with my trusty cover-up stick. It was time to put aside the hilarious dramatic dermatologist warning and enjoy the weekend.

What better way to get your mind off a grotesque pimple than presents? Mr. P and I pondered way too long over when to exchange wedding day gifts. We weren't going to have photos taken of us while getting ready, so we finally decided to just swap pre-rehearsal.

Mr. P's gift was an easy decision.

 Yes, bye bye tax refund, hello iPad

Mr. P. had long been begging for an iPad, and it has been glued to his hand ever since- especially with baseball season and his MLB TV-thing-a-ma-bob package that lets him always watch his precious Orioles. Also, it definitely came in handy in Hawaii for researching restaurants, listening to Pandora, and watching movies/playing games on the plane.

Mr. P., as usual, put a lot of thought into my gift.

He got me charms to add to a plain Tiffany bracelet I've had for quite some time. The "F" for our last name, a Tiffany blue skating charm for our first year anniversary date in Rockefeller Center, and the Aloha for our honeymoon in Hawaii!

With that it was time to get fancified and go off to our rehearsal dinner. We didn't have an actual rehearsal due to timing issues at our venue (and it honestly wasn't even necessary) so it was time to eat, drink, and relax!

Did you and your significant other exchange wedding gifts?

*all photos are personal photos

• I become the BK Bride
• The pimple of death threatens to ruin our day

Porcupines Pick Their Person- But, Not their Pimple

Alright, this is all pretty vulgar of me, but to stay true to the story I can't really sugar coat this pimple situation. I think during a lot of the planning of a wedding we all forgot that, even though it's a special day, it's truly just a DAY. A day like any other. Some days are good, some days are bad. Some days you have a really good hair day, and some days you have a really grotesque pimple that surpasses the depths of humanity. But, before all that...

The day before the rehearsal dinner was pretty easy. I dropped off the hotel bags with my MIL; fixed up our program & menu chalkboards while mumbling to myself, erasing and re-writing the same things 10 times; and had a relaxing dinner at my in-law’s house.

However, while all this was going on, the most hideous, horrifying pimple was beginning to form under my nose. I am not exaggerating in the least bit when I say this sucker was bent on ruining my life (okay, maybe that’s a slight exaggeration). It was the painful cystic type, and as I was trying to kill it with every single product possible I began to think that I really needed a cortisone shot to bring down the swelling. Easy enough, right?

The catch was that I had two days until our wedding and one day until the rehearsal dinner. How the heck would I get an appointment on such short notice? Luckily, the Friday morning of the rehearsal dinner (oh, remember we had no power too), my FIL was able to get me a last minute early morning appointment at their family dermatologist. I thought my problem was solved. It had only just begun!

My MIL offered to drive me to the appointment, and as we pulled up she let me know- as if this was normal and happened any old day - that the dermatologist office WAS IN A VETERINARIAN'S OFFICE. This might have been the funniest part, but it wasn’t...

I get into the appointment, and upon first glance at the monstrosity under my nose, the dermatologist tells me it is “seriously infected.”

Super. 

He then goes on to explain that he can’t give me a cortisone shot, because the damn pimple is in the “danger zone.” If shot with cortisone the bacteria in it could shoot up my face, into my brain, and kill me. Yes, he actually said KILL ME. Like, die. The day before my wedding!

Um, awesome. 

You seriously can’t make this shit up! I just sat there laughing inside. The dermatologist wrote me a prescription for an antibiotic to kill the infection (and hopefully bring down the swelling) and a topical cream. After getting it filled and popping a pill, we were back to my in-law’s house to pack up the stuff to take to our venue. It took three cars!

All the "STUFF"

 Our venue the day before. It was so weird to know the next day it would be set for our wedding!

After the big drop-off, we all went to the hotel down the road to check-in.  We relaxed before getting ready for the rehearsal dinner- mostly I was just panicking about my zit, and Mr. P and I decided it would be a perfect time to exchange our wedding gifts to each other.

How did the day before your wedding go?

Porcupines Pick Their Person- Let the recaps commence!

This is it! Are you ready for some prickly recaps? Apologies in advance for the cornball title of my recap series, but I just really love alliteration. Also, I'm pretty sure that isn't technically alliteration. Can you tell my brain is slowly shrinking in direct proportion to the amount of reality TV I watch?

We headed down to Pennsylvania from New York the Wednesday before the weekend of our wedding. To say I was a little deranged during the drive down is an understatement. We had luckily brought a lot of wedding stuff down to Pennsylvania during our trip to get our marriage license. Thank goodness we did, because otherwise we honestly wouldn’t have been able to fit everything into the car. Even with the majority of our stuff already in PA, the car was still packed with favors, escort cards, and obviously...my dress. 

My dress took up the entire backseat, and I unfortunately have no pictures of our packed baby-child Honda Civic because I was too worried that we would get into a ridiculous car crash that would trash all our wedding stuff, leaving me – most tragically - dress-less the day of the wedding. (But, not dead. I’m only partially-morbid).

I was also oddly afraid to leave the car unattended. It took a lot of convincing from Mr. P that it was okay/necessary to get out of the car at a rest stop to grab some dinner. It was there that Mr. P snapped this gem.

Yes, that's my hair in it's natural state of "fit of insanity," and I am wearing the B-K lounge crown (10 points if you know who coined that name for Burger King)

And, yes, a few days before my wedding I happily ingested Burger King french fries. How’s that for a bridal diet? I nervously engulfed my grilled chicken sandwich (because it was grilled the fries don’t count…RIGHT!?) so Mr. P. and I could get back to our precious cargo. Guess what... people in New Jersey rest stop parking lots don't want to steal your 2003 Honda Civic that is so jam-packed it looks like someone lives in it.

Upon arrival to my in-laws house I first noticed the emerging existence of THE PIMPLE OF DEATH. Oh, yes, there will be pimple stories in my recaps- aren’t you excited? Also, we were informed by my MIL that on the Friday morning of the rehearsal dinner (the morning we were heading out to the hotel with all the wedding knick knacks to drop off to the venue) there would be NO POWER in the house. Apparently, due to some trees crashing into power lines, or something, the tree people who want to ruin my wedding weekend were going to be doing some tree trimming. So, yes, the morning before my wedding I would not have the ability to do things like blow dry my hair or take a shower with the lights on.

Spoiler alert: Everything worked out. But, it got sitcom stupid first. I expected nothing less.

Did the days leading up to your wedding make you crazy? Anything funny happen before your big day?