The Best Day of My Life

Summer Blog Challenge, Day 11: Best Day of Your Life

Photo by Jenn Hopkins Photography

I spent my whole life dreaming, wondering, waiting to see what my wedding day would turn out to be like. Seven and a half months later, the hubs and I are still wishing that day hadn’t gone by so fast. I can’t count how many times we’ve said “I wish we could get married every year! Every month! Every day!” By far, without a doubt, not even close, is there another day. Best day of our lives.

We got engaged last May, and were married in October. We originally planned for February, but after much talking, we decided to move it up. For reasons that even I didn’t know, I had been wanting to get married in October for a long time, but we didn’t want to wait until the following October. So the date was set, and it was perfect. I couldn’t stop thinking “How perfect of a wedding date is October 28? No day is better!” It was going to cut out 4 months of planning, but I knew I could do it.

I did all of the planning myself, with the help of awesome friends and family, and we pulled together an amazing day. I didn’t have a wedding planner and people called me crazy more than once, but I rarely found myself stressed due to the wedding and truly enjoyed every moment of it. The only thing I would go back and change is how fast the day went by. It came and went and before we knew it, it was over. I still cry when I think about the fact that we can never do it again. Not because I want to change anything, but because the emotions I experienced that day – the love from all of our family, and getting to marry the love of my life – it all added up to a day that I never wanted to end. It was just incredible.

Photo by Jenn Hopkins Photography

We got married at an old historic hotel on Jacksonville Beach in Florida. The courtyard outside hosted our ceremony, then we moved inside to the dining room for dinner, and back outside for dancing. The morning of the wedding, I woke up early without my alarm clock (this definitely does not come natural to me!). We had been up late the night before, trying to get the dinner area put together for our guests. There was an event earlier that night and we had to wait for them to clear and clean the area. Due to the event, which was Halloween-themed, our rehearsal was quite … eventful. Hanging ghosts and goblins were outside where our ceremony would be the next day and inside where our guests would eat dinner. Not exactly wedding-friendly. But we all had fun with it. They cleaned everything up before our big day, although they missed a couple things that my dad had to grab. No, I did not want the ghosts and goblins to make a flying entrance at our wedding!

The morning of, I did not talk to Marcos at all. We did not want to see or talk to each other until we walked down the aisle. Two of my bridesmaids stayed in my suite with me, and that morning we worked on a few last-minute decorations before we went to get breakfast. I couldn’t eat, hard as I tried. I think I had a spoonful of yogurt and a mimosa (thanks to the awesome guys upstairs who took care of us ). But I felt fine. I wasn’t tired and I just wasn’t hungry. Throughout the entire process of getting ready, I was cool as a cucumber. I was happy and excited, and I just couldn’t wait to walk down the aisle.

Then it hit me. Once my day-of coordinator came to tell me to “stand by and be ready,” I got really nervous. My bridesmaids and I started playing games to get my mind off of things. But my heart was racing. I went from calm, cool, collected excitement to a basket of nerves in .05 seconds flat. I have no idea why I was nervous. I wanted to marry him so bad. But the thought of walking down the aisle and looking the most amazing man in the eyes and telling him I wanted him forever was so overwhelming that I couldn’t even bear the thought. I was so lucky.

Photos by Jenn Hopkins Photography

After saying “I can’t do this!” over and over again, and my friends encouraging me “Yes, you can. You’ll be fine!”, I finally was walked down the aisle with my dad by my side. The whole way down, I stared at my soon-to-be-husband and cried. He was so handsome. He was just smiling at me, but I could see how nervous he was too. I blubbered through my vows and Marcos stumbled through his. But I wouldn’t change a thing. It was heartfelt and it was real. People told us that it was one of the most emotional weddings they had ever been to. You can hear our vows and watch a trailer video of our wedding at this link: Marcos and Sarah’s Preview Video.

There are too many amazing things for me to recount to really put my wedding day into words, so I won’t even try. All I know is, I am so incredibly grateful for the amazing video and photos I have of the day, and the unforgettable memories. I still can’t believe it really happened. Someone pinch me.

Photo by Jenn Hopkins Photography