The Wedding Was Back On!

This photo was taken by Themed Shots

The morning of the rehearsal, I woke up to gorgeous blue skies...and about 20 messages from different wedding guests. They all said the same thing:

"We are trying so hard to get to your wedding, but the NOLA airport is closed and inbound flights are all cancelled, so in case we don't make it, just know that we love you and will be there in spirit"

WHAT?! Why!? I step out onto my balcony...and realize why. Everything is covered in snow. Even my balcony is frozen over. It's only about an inch or two, but in a city where that doesn't happen, it's practically the end of the world.

This photos was taken by Stephanie

There's a knock on the door...it's Stephanie, one of my bridesmaids. She brought whiskey...in a bag. With her were Erika, and Kayla, two more bridesmaids who saw the snow and knew I would be in a state of panic. So we pretended to be fancy while we divert the incoming messages and tried to stay calm.

Adam's phone chimes to alert of us an email. It's our venue, Preservation Hall, asking us to call at our earliest convenience. Within moments we are on the phone with them.

They also woke up to the blue skies and snow-covered the ground.

Preservation Hall is a beautiful, historical venue. It has deep roots in New Orleans history and culture...but no heating... and potentially no running water either... and the outsourced bar staff called them to cancel, due to road closures. So Preservation Hall deemed this a "Force Du Jour" and was calling to cancel our rehearsal, our contract, and potentially- our wedding.

I took a moment by myself out on the balcony with the whiskey and the snow.

Debbie, our Preservation Hall contact, had given us two options- have the wedding two days later (Saturday) or at a completely different venue that was better equipped for the circumstances.

Adam and I called in the bridal troops. Thankfully, everyone who was essential to the wedding was already there. (There is something to be said about being a bridezilla and requesting that everyone in the wedding party be in town at least 24-48 hours before the event, I guess.) We conferred. Only one of my bridesmaids could stay. Everyone else would try, but it would be an extreme burden. So having the wedding two days later was out. We looked up the alternative locations that were offered. We'd never been to them and they really didn't seem as special or magical. I'm embarrassed to admit, that I started to cry every time I thought about not getting married at Preservation Hall due to something as stupid as cold weather.

We called Debbie at Preservation Hall and begged.

"We are prepared for it to be cold, and we don't need the champagne toast. We're even willing to shorten and alter our second line course, it's just very important to us to get married at Preservation Hall."

And so, we waited.

In the meantime, we continued to field questions about the welcome reception, rehearsal and rehearsal dinner, as well as attempt to make a game plan for how we would get our remaining decorations to the venues, should the answer be yes.

Just when I had decided it was pointless to get dressed at all, and that we should probably cancel the rehearsal dinner, Debbie called. She had contacted the band and the pianist and her assistant. "We can do it, if you really want to. It will be chilly, and it will be a skeleton crew, but if that's OK with you, we will accommodate your wedding tomorrow"

SO THE WEDDING WAS BACK ON! (cue more tears. This time, of releif)

With a new found sense of hope, excitement, and urgency, I put on clothes and we executed Operation Drop-off. We dropped my second line dress at Preservation Hall, while another group dropped off the rest of the decorations and my third dress at Napoleon House. The walk was eerily silent for a stroll down Bourbon. The entire city had shut down because of this freeze. It was beautiful and chilling.

This photo was taken by Stephanie

This photo was taken by Stephanie

But there was something so peaceful about it. The snow sparkled and the chill made me acutely aware that this was a very special day. I was nervous about not having a rehearsal, but I knew that everything was going to be OK. It was a rather freeing feeling.

After dropping off the wardrobe pieces and remaining decorations, we headed back to the guesthouse to get ready for the welcome reception. On this emotional roller-coaster of a day, this is what that looked like:

For as many people who messaged saying they wouldn't make it, we were surprised and pleased with the turnout at the reception. I felt even more hopeful that it was going to be OK. The people who were there, were there to celebrate with us. No matter what that looked like. Heck, we could have married in the middle of the street outside of the hotel and I think that would have been just as wonderful. And that's the thing with marrying your best friend. It wasn't about having everything be perfect and I was never alone in any of this stress. For every unsure message, every frigid step, he was right there by my side, sharing the load, instilling in me the confidence that it will all be alright and that no matter what, by the end of it, we would be married- and that's what really important.

This photo was taken by Themed Shots