My 10 Favorite Wedding Moments

Today, June 14th 2013, is my TEN year wedding anniversary!

I keep arguing with myself as to whether 10 years really is a long period of time. In one way, it feels as if it’s flown by! In other ways, WOW! A LOT has happened since that day.

I thought it would be fun to share my top 10 wedding moments with you.

I apologize in advance… (both for the LENGTH of this post, and the following)“back in the day”, digital photography was not a “thing”, so I had to scan in all my pictures for this post. The bonus? It was the swift kick in the butt I needed to encourage me to put my negatives on CD. I’ll be dropping them off at Costco tomorrow.

*Ahem*…allow us to proceed. I tried to “rank” my 10 favorite moments, but had a hard time committing (pun not intended), so they’re in roughly the right order, ending with my silly favorite moment. Most of them are not your typical “wedding day favorite moments”. Hope you enjoy!

#10: Dancing

I know, some of you are appalled that this was only #10, barely making the list. I enjoy dancing, but am in no way, shape, or form…GOOD! And my husband? Well, we joke because our “first dance” should’ve been referred to as the “last dance”, ‘cuz I’m not getting any more dancing outta him not that we’re hitched and he doesn’t have to “put on a show” anymore!

BUT…I did have a blast dancing with all my friends and family! My amazing friends humored me by dancing to all the typical, cliche wedding songs. Yup…the best of the best including Celebrate, Best of My Love, Respect, YMCA, Ice Ice Baby, C’Mon ‘N Ride it (The Train)….with a dance train all around the tables and EVERYTHING! And don’t forget…Shout! The rule was – everyone had to be lower than the bride.

#9: The Food

Here’s the first of many that don’t normally make the “top” list for weddings. =) Kudos to my parents for making this aspect memorable. It was certainly not cheap. ={ The buffet table is pictured above beside the pool.

Dinner was catered by Sun Dried Tomato in Laguna Beach. We had 210 people attend our reception, each of whom meant a great deal to me! I wanted to show them how important their presence in my life meant by providing them with a nice meal. And you know all the guests are hungry by the time they make it to the reception! Needless to say, Sun Dried Tomato came through! I’m hoping Ryan and I can make it out to Laguna to reminisce on an upcoming trip to LA. YUM! Notice below…hardly any food left on the table behind my gorgeous bridesmaids. It was cleared too quickly to make any of the photos. We downed our dinners! Hopefully the guests appreciated the extra effort.

#8: Grandma in Attendance

87 years young she is in this photo! My Grandma played a significant spiritual role in my life and prayed along with my parents and many others that I would meet a man of God.

She even tried to hook me up with a lifeguard she led to Christ! Oh Grandma!

She had to travel at least an hour in the car to make it to my wedding and no doubt paid for it with pain in her joints for a few days. But it meant the world to me. About a month ago, I attended her memorial service. I will forever cherish her presence at my wedding.

#7. Music Memories:

Smooth Operator, The Muppets Theme Song & Adam Sandler’s Grow Old With You

Music Memory #1: Smooth Operator

Music can make a lasting impression, can’t it? Ryan I joked that we didn’t have “a song” and had a difficult time choosing a song for our first dance. Well, music land was playing an evil trick on us the night of our wedding. As we climbed into the limo to head to the reception, our chauffeur decided that Smooth Operator should serenade us on our way. Seriously?! Does it get much cornier and obnoxious than that?

THEN…as we sat down to eat dinner at the reception, what song do we hear over the loud speaker? You guessed it – none other than Smooth Operator! (How did that get on our playlist?!) We considered firing our DJ on the spot, but instead had a small giggle at our now inside joke.

Oh yes ladies and gents…the joke continues. On our limo ride TO the hotel that night, our ears were cursed yet again with the tunes of Smooth Operator.

What fickle music gods cursed us on this day that upon arriving to the hotel lobby, we should be greeted by the subtle tones of Smooth Operator, the elevator music version. As if the limo driver getting lost on the way to the hotel didn’t kill the mood enough! Come on!!

I don’t think I’ve heard this song 4 times in my LIFE, let alone 4 times in one NIGHT! Every time we hear Smooth Operator now, a giggle is shared between the hubs and I.

Music Memory #2: The Muppets Theme Song

I enjoy hearing bride & groom’s music choices at weddings. I think it can be very telling. Our bridal party had the pleasure of entering the scene to The Muppets Theme song. I will never forget the excitement of being introduced as Mr. and Mrs. Ryan Nicholas. My husband held up my hand pointing to my wedding ring. His forever, and he couldn’t have been happier. What a precious moment. (I’m sure my inner chuckle at using this song for our entrance has nothing to do with Ryan’s similarity to Statler & Waldorf…don’t forget my sarcastic nature here folks!! AND…if you’re true Muppets fans, you’ll get this.)

Music Memory #3: Grow Old With You

As we began cutting into the wedding cake, Adam Sandler’s Grow Old With You began playing. A favorite actor and fitting movie for the occasion, again, Ryan and I shared a laugh at such a pertinent tune.

Okay…sorry I kinda cheated with that one and squeezed 3 moments into one, but I had a hard time narrowing it down people! Onto the next…

#6: My strap popped off!!

Humor ALWAYS alleviates potentially stressful situations. A genius dress design turned out to be the cause of many giggles and thankfully no major wardrobe malfunctions.

To allow the option of my dress to either be strapless or not, the straps on my dress were attached with snaps. I liked the look of the straps and chose to wear them…until they began popping off with every hug. And there are lots of hugs on your wedding day lemme tell ya! =)

The strap would pop, I’d laugh, snap it back on and continue on my merry little way. It got funnier and funnier as the night progressed UNTIL it popped off as I gave my dad a hug following his toast!! Still hilarious, and now hilarious for my entire guest list!

The photographer caught my reaction above.

#5: The Garter

Yet another inside joke (can you tell what our marriage is based on?).

This one requires a bit of backstory. My husband is lacking in fashion sense, he’s not ashamed to admit it. While we were dating, he’d wear this horrible, pitiful looking purple and white plaid flannel! I finally mustered up the courage to ask him where he got it and why he thinks it’s okay to wear it, to which he replied, “Someone left it on the floor of their dorm when they moved out, I inherited it.” Eww! Men!

Apparently he finally got the hint after me rolling my eyes upon first sight of seeing him wearing it each time and he devised a clever “good riddance” scheme. For Christmas, he wrapped up the flannel along with a lighter, giving me permission to burn that bad boy!

Unbeknownst to him, I cut off a strip of the wretched thing before burning it. I think it was nearly a year and a half before our wedding day (long before we were even engaged!). I kept it stashed until just the right time. My roommate sewed it into a garter for me to wear. Needless to say, Ryan was flabbergasted when he laid eyes on it! Pardon the show of leg, but…

here’s a better look at the garter…my maid of honor helping me get the garter “into position”.

#4: Mr. and Mrs. Ryan & Becky Roach

My maiden name was Roach. It wasn’t as bad as you’d think. The jokes got old real quick and my reaction would be, “Really? Is that the best you got?” With that said, I was certainly not saddened to gain a new last name.

Contrary to the name typed on our new address labels printed and affixed to the bubbles handed out to our guests as they bid us farewell, my husband did NOT in fact choose to take on my last name. Can you believe that my mom, myself, and my bridesmaids all tied on 210 labels to 210 bottles of bubbles and NONE of us realized the typo on the tag: Mr. and Mrs. Ryan & Becky Roach (instead of Nicholas obviously). What a hilarious discovery as we prepared to say goodbye!

And if I may sneak another “moment” here as I share #4 with you. I always thought it was so sweet to have the “get away” car decorated as the bride and groom left the reception, but not exactly something you request, am I right? That’d be tacky.

So you can imagine my inner excitement as we happened upon the limo:

I BELIEVE it was our best man’s wife that was the devious delight behind this heart warming surprise. Thanks friend!

#3: Best Brother Ever! Swimming, rototilling? He’ll do anything!

To say my mom and I enjoy party planning would be an understatement. We like to go all out. So you can imagine how excited we were to plan my wedding, my mother’s one and only daughter’s WEDDING of all parties! Anyway, we planned a lot of fun details, including floating flower arrangements for the pool on site at the reception.

Well, we didn’t anticipate placing said arrangements into the pool, only to have them all float into one corner of the pool, congregating like girls at a 7th grade school dance. We’re problem solvers. We’ll just attach fishing line with weights underneath so they stay put, so we thought.

Enter amazing brother. Apparently this was MUCH easier said than done. He was out there in his bathing suit swimming down underneath these floral arrangements doing his darndest to get them to stay put. He’d tie weights, they wouldn’t be heavy enough so he’d have to go back and add more. *sigh* What a bro! Anything for his big sis.

Aren’t they lovely though?

We don’t have pictures of the other reason as to why he’s amazing, so I googled the pic above to help provide you with a visual aid. Our reception was at a private residence and, did I mention we had 210 people in attendance?! So we anticipated parking being an issue. We hired a valet service, but still…where to park all the cars. We chatted with all the neighbors to be sure they didn’t mind us taking up the entire street. There was one house that had a large grassy area out in front where probably at least 15 cars could easily park.

Only problem? There was about a 2 foot crevice running along the length of the grassy area. Easy fix with a rototiller, right? And the owners said, Sure! By all means!

2 days before the wedding, my brother and I are out there in 95 degree heat with a rented rototiller for 2 hours working on the crevice! Of course I wore gloves and took off my wedding ring, right? Bwahaha! Blood blister! Oh yeah! It disappeared before wedding day thankfully. =)

Thanks bro! Love you to pieces.

#2: My Dad’s Toast

Yup, I’m daddy’s little girl. So when it came time for his toast, I knew I’d be a basket case. However, his words were priceless.

He had always joked about how he was going to lock me in the attic until I was 30 so I couldn’t date, because obviously no guy was going to be good enough for me. Thankfully he knew better, ‘cuz I would’ve rebelled, royally!

When it came time for me to attend college, wouldn’t you know I chose a hecka expensive private school. My poor parents! But they didn’t bat an eyelash and put me through all 4 years. Here’s what pushed me over the edge in dad’s toast.

He said that when I chose to attend Biola University, he knew that God was going to do something miraculous in my life. He didn’t know what it was going to be, he just knew something amazing would happen during my time at Biola.

“And here you are, Ryan.” were his words. Ryan, my husband, was that amazing thing that would happen at Biola. Don’t get me wrong, many, MANY other amazing things happened, but had I not attended Biola, I guarantee I never would’ve met Ryan. =) Dad’s approval. How amazing to know that your parents see what a perfect fit you are to your spouse! Wow. So blessed.

AND DRUMROLL PLEASE….

MY #1 MOMENT OF MY WEDDING DAY…

#1: Licorice Kiss

Silly, but then our relationship revolves around sarcasm, so it seemed fitting. Once the ceremony was over, we went into a room so the guests could leave and we could take pictures. I tend to be hypoglycemic and needed something to eat!! All my bridesmaids, my mom, etc. had been super careful to make sure I ate plenty that day. So a piece of licorice was presented and the cliché “Lady & the Tramp” moment took place. I loved that I didn’t have to feel guilty or silly about acting on my hopelessly in love feeling. And I was now Mrs. Ryan Nicholas!!

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To recap, and close with thanking some very important folks in making this day AMAZING…

My 10 Favorite Wedding Moments

#10 Dancing

#9 The Food

#8 Grandma in Attendance

#7 Music Memories: Smooth Operator, The Muppets Theme Song & Adam Sandler’s Grow Old With You

#6 My strap popped off!!

#5 The Garter

#4 Mr. and Mrs. Ryan & Becky Roach

#3 Best Brother Ever!

#2 My Dad’s Toast

#1 Licorice Kiss

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My mom and I often discuss how I wouldn’t change anything about my wedding day, even after 10 years! Too many people were involved to thank, but I do need to thank my parents, and Ryan’s parents. Thank you for an AMAZING wedding memory, to this day!

Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Dan & Rondalyn Roach!

& Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Whitney & Sallie Nicholas

Here’s to many years more…stay tuned for the next 10 days for 10 things I’ve learned during my 10 years of marriage. =)