Rehearsal What?

What if I told you I actually KNEW the next guest blogger from Real Life?!  I know, it's hard to believe. Joanna is a college bestie of mine, from back in my days at the University of Texas.  The interwebs reunited us, and I have her to thank for showing me the blogging ropes.   You MUST check out her blog, Raising Madison, and read all about her squish-tastic cute, little girl - oh and her life, too.   Joanna is one determined, amazing, woman.
Everyone should know and love her, too!

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In the months counting down until my wedding everyone joked about how I was going to be bridezilla. To say that I don’t handle stress well would be the understatement of the year. I am a drama queen & I know it. I have learned to embrace it and I even found a man willing to put up with love me for eternity.

I can’t be that bad, right?
The big day came and to everyone’s surprise I was NOT bridezilla. I was cool & calm. It didn’t matter that the ice sculpture had our married monogram wrong, that the DJ screwed up our first dance or that the bartender told people we were out of beer (which we were NOT).

But I’m not here to talk about how calm I was on the day of my wedding. I’m here to talk about THE breakdown of 2008… better known as “Our rehearsal night.”
The day started off like I imagine it does for most middle class, suburban couples. Clint went off to drink beer & golf with the men. I spent the day giggling with my girlfriends getting mani/pedis. I was surrounded by my best friends and things seem perfect…. Until they weren’t.

This would be a good time to share with you that by the time of our wedding we were on our THIRD wedding coordinator at the country club. I booked the country club in March and my wedding was in November. I found out Linda* was the third & final wedding coordinator exactly 2 weeks before my wedding. I was assured there would be no issues & a smooth transition.
Clint met me at the house to change & head to the country club. While on the way, I received a phone call at 5:15 p.m. from Linda, our wedding coordinator at the club, asking me where we were. I explained to her that the rehearsal was at 6:00 p.m. and we were on our way. Her response to me was that the rehearsal was at 5 p.m. and they were waiting for us. When I said we thought it was at 6:00 p.m. and asked if it was a problem the response I received was "well, it's Halloween and we'd really like to get home to our families, but we'll make it work."

You’ll make it work? Really? Will you? How about those tens of thousands of dollars we are paying you for this wedding… will that help you MAKE. IT. WORK. {insert expletives}?
We all eventually made it to the rehearsal where we greeted with the issue of the century, which I will summarize for you now.

The room for the ceremony was set up without the piano. I had requested that it be in there for the ceremony several months prior to the wedding. (Read: with wedding coordinator NUMBER ONE). I was quickly informed by Linda that the piano was just for show and was never used or tuned.
Yes, you read that correctly. The piano was there- just for show. The same piano that I was told could be used for both my wedding ceremony and for music during the cocktail hour.
Lovely.

She then went on to tell me there was absolutely no way she could move it into the ballroom for the ceremony. I figured now was a great time to mention that I not only requested the piano for the ceremony, I wanted it moved BACK into the other room with the cakes for the cocktail hour. Linda's response to me was they wouldn't be able to do that either. I told her that when I made these requests with Sam* (wedding coordinator #2), I was told there would be no problem. We even confirmed with Jose* on the day we met with Sam* and him.

Linda's curt response was, "If I had been your wedding coordinator, I would have told you that logistically it was a bad idea because you want us serving your guests, not moving a piano."
So there I stood, 24 hours before my wedding, being told that she would not have allowed the use of the piano and moving it wasn't feasible. I had planned my whole wedding ceremony and cocktail hour around that piano and had confirmed all these details the week prior.

To this day, the {lack of} customer service still blows me away. In my mind, there should have been one thing said to me, “we’ll make it work.” And that should have been the end of it.
Needless to say…. Bridezilla began rearing her ugly head.
After the issue with the piano, I stepped away and Linda walked up to my fiancé, Clint, and said that she went back to her office, looked up our rehearsal and it WAS at 6:00 p.m., not 5:00 p.m.
2 years later, I’m still waiting for my apology.

In the end, my wedding came together beautifully. Our guests ate, drank & danced the night away and I walked away married to my true love. I’ve watched many of my friends get married in the years since my wedding and my one bit of advice to them is that NONE OF IT MATTERS on the day of your wedding. The sky could be falling and it just would not matter.
By the next morning I was cool as a cucumber, all traces of bridezilla had melted away & I soaked in every moment of my wedding day.

 

*Names have been changed.