happy accidents
Posted by Mackenzie on Sunday, August 26, 2007
I think it's too bad that people wish for perfect weddings. While my wedding was perfect in all the ways that mattered to me, it wasn't without its mishaps. For these, I'm grateful.
My husband and I were married in a small loft in Manhattan. Since both the ceremony and the reception were held in the same space, we had to have everything we needed inside that space before the ceremony began. This meant (among other things) keeping the tables just out of sight on the balcony, and hiding the jukebox off in a corner behind some curtains until after the ceremony was over. This all worked out very well, except for one brief moment right before I walked down the aisle. All the guests were patiently waiting for me, (I was a bit held up) and all of a sudden over the sound system comes ACDC's "You Shook Me All Night Long". I can only imagine what people must have thought in those short moments. "Is she really going to walk down the aisle knocking us out with her American thighs"? Turns out, the jukebox had magically and randomly sprung to life, treating everyone to a rockin' yet totally inappropriate serenade. My friend Marty ended up making a lunge for the power cord and killed the sound before the band got thru any major power cords, but still. It was funny. Granted, at the time I had no notion of this little mishap whatsoever. I walked down the aisle without a clue. It wasn't until after the wedding was over that Dell told me about it and how everyone had giggled. We both laughed about it then, and we still laugh about it now. Every time I hear that song, I think of my wedding. Perfect, smerfect. Imperfect weddings have character.
Anyone else out there have any happy wedding mishap stories?
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17 comments:
I went in for my hair consult about a month before my wedding. The stylist was very sweet, I brought a picture of a loose, curly updo, with me and she said that it would be perfect with my hair. She curled some strands and said she didn't even need to do it all then, it would be great. I was a little confused, but she seemed very confident and nice, so I left. On my wedding day my hair turned out horrible, I kept asking for it a bit looser, and to have more curls hanging down, but what I ended up with was all my hair slicked straight back into a bun!! The stylist kept comparing it to the picture the whole time, and when I complained she said it was hard, and she thought my hair was too long maybe. I still had to pay, then I left in tears.When I got home, I tore out my hair and locked myself in the bathroom. While I was crying and insisting I would do my own hair, my maid of honor called places intil she finally found another salon who agreed to do my hair. After 15 minutes in the different salon I had the perfect updo, exactly how I wanted, and I couldn't have been happier.
I posted my story at http://terrificthings.blogspot.com/2007/08/happy-wedding-mishap.html.
Great question!!!
My wedding is two weeks away and while everyone keeps telling me things will be perfect, I know they won't and I'm fine with it. I know that whatever happens will make for good stories.
Your happy accident is perfection! I LOVE it! You could not have orchestrated a better mix-up than this! I, too, am having a ceremony & reception in the same location and so everything must be hidden and setup after the fact. I'll be sure to have an extra monitor on the iTunes now for sure... :-)
I planned my wedding from 3000 miles away - so I didn't have too many chances to change my mind on things. The one thing I absolutely, positively wanted and needed was a beautiful beidermeier bouquet. I found a photo and sent it to my florist who swore up and down that she could make it - exactly as it was in the photo. Also, I wanted it hand-tied... so I could still see the stems of the beautiful flowers.
Wedding day rolls around and my florist walks into the room I'm waiting in...disaster. I didn't even know how to react - so I didn't, I just said thanks. It was nothing like the photo and to top it off, it was in some sort of satin bag that covered a plastic stem holder.
I was totally disappointed, but I have to say that the minute the ceremony started and I saw my husband-to-be, I stopped obsessing over the sad bouquet. It may not have been a happy accident, but it had a happy ending, because I realized all I really *needed* was my best friend to be waiting for me at the end of that aisle.
**ps - for some reason, the sad bouquet is in almost every photo I took that day, and I guess it is a little reminder to me to remember the things that were truly important my wedding day.
Our wedding was incredibly casual - a little more so than I planned. We didn't have a coordinator and by the wedding day, I was too overwhelmed to worry about the little details.
During our ceremony, we were supposed to have a Japanese sake ceremony to honor my heritage. Part way into the ceremony, I noticed the sake and cups never made it to the table set aside for them. I leaned over to tell one of ministers marrying us (the other being my mom) to roll with it and just skip over that part, which she did flawlessly.
Then, my mom starts her part and then stops, and goes, "Weren't we supposed to have the sake ceremony?" I told her it was like the theatre and you just have to keep moving if someone misses their line. She was so confused, but finally moved on. Luckily, there was much laughter during our ceremony, and this just added to it.
It all ended up beautifully, and we did the sake ceremony during the reception - luckily! The sake ceremony was so confusing that we all talked and tried to figure it out. It came off as anything but sacred. A Shinto priest would have been mortified.
Hahaha.
As a joke, I suggested to my fiance that I walk down the aisle to the string version of You Shook Me All Night Long, so I totally love this.
Good for you for not letting a little mistake ruin your day. :)
We were married in a tiny old church in the VT countryside and the reception was across the road on the grounds of a B&B. Instead of a band or a dj we just made a mix to play with an iPod. As we walked from the church to the reception we heard BB King's The Thrill is Gone blasting over the speakers. Needless to say this wasn't part of the mix we had so carefully planned, but we definitely had a good laugh over it.
Way too many to count. It's funny though, because those are the moments we talk about and remember the most.
My wedding is in less than two months and I'm getting nightmares about everything from dress mishaps to seating plans. ;) As the boyfriend say no matter what screws up, we're still getting married so no worries.
As an ED/Coordinator... I have the honor of attending many weddings and all of the brides go into it assuming that the day will be flawless... which nearly NEVER happens... somewhere between the cake cutting and the last dance you get to see many of the brides start to understand that this is just the first of many times in their marriage that they are going to have to learn to roll with the punches- I like to think of it as an initiation...
This is a great story...I wish more of these and less "zilla" stories would make there way around. I have worked many weddings and they all have moments and hiccups...that is what makes them so special. Thanks for sharing.
I found your blog through your interview on Blue Orchid...
I think that is a graet story!
oopsy - typo..
I had choreographed a perfectly timed entrance to the church with several rehearsals. On the actual day however, the ring bearer, a 2-year old "baby" who was at the head of the procession, got so excited by the loud ringing of the church bells that he wrestled out of his daddy's hold and immediately started walking very fast down the aisle (before the Bridal March started playing). All my bridesmaids panicked and followed in pace with the ring bearer. They were more than halfway down the aisle when the Bridal March actually started playing. In the end, it was more perfect than I had originally planned for because with all the bridesmaids way ahead, everyone had a picture perfect clear view of my proud dad walking me down the aisle.
Oh my god, I have tears after reading this... hilarious!
We had a perfect winter wedding this past Feb. with with a few mishaps that my husband and I now laugh about. The week before our wedding, I stopped by our venue to go over the final details with the clubs event planner. As I got to the front entrance, I noticed a bunch of people standing outside shouting things...
Apparently the clubs catering was in a fight with the some union workers it had just fired and I was told it was no big deal that they wouldn't be there the day of our wedding. A little worried about the "shouting" that was going on, I decided to to walk by the next to see if things cleared up and to my horror the situation was worse, not only were there loud union workers picketing but they were joined by a HUGE inflatable rat! as any New Yorker knows, when the union workers protest or picket, they always bring out the ENORMOUS rat and park it right in front with the picketers. As you can imagine, this was a nightmare, I was so upset. I didn't know how I was going to explain to our guests on our wedding day, why there was a giant rat at in front of our venue. Our New Yorkers guests might giggle but my fiance's family and friends were coming all the way from Italy, how was I going to explain the rat? "oh that's an American wedding tradition etc...no way I was doom. But my family laughed and my fiance were great, they found all of this amusing (probably to keep me calm) and all of our friends found out and said "no biggie, we should all have our picture taken with the rat, how New York is that?" Needless to say, on the eve of our wedding the club settled with the union workers, and there was no shouting and no giant rat in sight.
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