I feel like I'm supposed to write about this, but I don't know how

So. The wedding is over. The honeymoon is over (heh). The presents are all opened, if not put away, but the thank you note process has only just begun. I feel like I'm coming out of some fugue state, honestly, like I've been living some other life for the past two weeks. Part of that, I think, is that I didn't work for two weeks (OMG AWESOME) and ALSO we were in paradise, I'm pretty sure, for a week, where all we had to do was remember to eat. And eat we did! You know who makes good Mexican food? Mexico. True story. ASHLEY. I tried Huevos Rancheros and I died for real. I had no idea Mexican breakfast was so magical. When I took the first bite, I was like, "I can't wait to tell Ashley I tried Mexican breakfast." It's true. You can ask Joe. Anyway.

I want to say so much about our wedding but I don't even know where to start. If I started listing all of my favorite moments, I'd never stop writing. The celebration actually started the Wednesday before the wedding, when I left work that afternoon with a SO LONG, SUCKERS and headed home for a blissful two week reprieve. Half of the Collective got in on Thursday, and there were shenanigans, but I'm not going to talk about them now because I might be talking about them later. ANYWAY.

It sort of all feels like it was a million years ago, but it's only been about a week and a half. I spent all day getting ready for the wedding, but I wasn't stressed at all. Joe's coworkers told him that I was going to have at least one freakout before the wedding because, well, they don't know me at all. At one point, Joe offered to do something for me and I was all, "Yes!" and he was all, "Well, I wouldn't want you to have a freakout," and I was like, "So all I have to do to get you to do stuff I don't want to do is say I might freak out?" and he was like, "Um, no," and I was like, "Too late I didn't hear that part!" and that is a true story. But yeah, I was pretty calm all day. Without the aid of alcohol, I might add, aside from the small glass of champagne I drank with lunch.

Joe and I saw each other before the ceremony, since we did First Look pictures right away (while we looked as good as possible, heh) and wedding party pictures afterward. Then we all hung out in the back of the church together before the ceremony started, which was great, it was like we were waiting for guests to arrive for a party. Which...I guess we kind of were. I think I'm still processing the actual wedding ceremony, it was such a blur. I remember all the important stuff, of course, like the vows and the readings and the MUSIC* but I also remember the not-so-important things, like how damn hot it was in there and how much my damn feet hurt and OH MY GOD who knew bouquets of flowers could be so damn heavy?

I'm really struggling with how to write about all of this, you guys. I think I'm too close** or it's too soon or something...I don't know, but I'm having trouble not just being all, "OMG IT WAS SO FUN," because OMG IT WAS SO FUN. Except for the part where my dad made everyone cry, but that didn't last very long. Heh. We served trashy bar food for the "meal," which was really just appetizers, and I ate a plateful of jalapeno poppers and am not ashamed. Our cupcake display was...oh, you guys. Just...just here:



The people responsible for this magnificence, KT and Sam Jackson, have a bakery called Bombshell Bakeshop and, you know? They deserve their own post so I'll save all my gushing for later. Well, most of my gushing. I'm still sad that I only ate one cupcake that night, but it was the Choclatron, which looks like a Hostess cupcake and tastes ten times better. Sadly, there were none of those leftover.

Also! I think the mustaches were a hit:




As well as some of the games. I know Twister was put to good use:



As was the Scrabble game on our table, although unfortunately I don't have pictures of all the dirty words my friends spelled out on the board.

Best of all, I think, was the Hogwarts game that was sitting, of course, on The Collective table.



I think Heather! Anne! might be in love and one of my favorite moments was when someone (gee, I wonder who) brought Hogwarts out on the dance floor and everyone danced in a circle around it. I can't find a picture of this but I'm almost sure it happened. Granted, this was about the time that they closed the bar but that I remembered there was an entire bottle of wine on our table, and so obviously I grabbed it, took a swig directly from it, and proceeded to pass it around the dance floor. CLASSY.

The whole day was just so great, you guys, I get warm fuzzies whenever I think about it. There's only one thing that I would have changed. My grandma was unfortunately not able to make it, and she was most definitely missed. During the ceremony, I pretty easily held back any tears about to break through until the pastor mentioned my grandma, something none of us knew he was going to do, and I had to do, like, Lamaze breathing so I wouldn't start sobbing in front of everyone because DUDE.

I think my favorite part of the day, at least the reception, was just standing back at times and watching all of my favorite people have fun. And I'm so glad so many people took so many pictures (and that things like Flickr and Facebook exist), because it gave me a chance to see all the fun that I missed while I was having other fun.

Also, if your self-esteem is even close to the low side, I highly recommend having a wedding. It's like a rule that people have to say nice things to and about you ALL DAY LONG. Like, people told me I was pretty and funny the whole day, it was awesome. And it was really great for my ego. Or really bad for my ego. Probably the last one.

*which included music from Star Wars, Love Actually, Ben Folds, Jurassic Park, and Indiana Jones OBVIOUSLY
**Any takers for a guest post? Anyone? Hello?