We went to a lot of bridal fairs while planning the wedding. We hired the videographer and they did a wonderful job...despite my pickiness. To the song of "Sunrise, Sunset" I choreographed the beginning of the video with pictures of John and Kristina growing up. It was played in the church just before the wedding.

A harpist was hired to play all the Disney classics for the prelude of the wedding since Kristina is a Disney collector. The vocalists sang "A Whole New World"...and it was a lovely day...but the final days leading up to the wedding were to say the least, hectic!!!

First of all, we weren't sure if John was going to make it home from Somalia on time for the wedding. He left shortly before Christmas, and no one knew just how long he would be gone. Their story made the front page of the local newspaper. Kristina put a yellow ribbon around the front yard tree while he was gone.

There are often little glitches with weddings. Kristina's Grandma Lucy was in charge of the food planning. At one point she started to prepare stuffed chickens for approximately 200 guests. Then decided otherwise. We had a sit down catered Lasagna dinner instead and a whole lot of chickens in the freezer.

The seamstress we hired was going to make all the dresses for the bridesmaids as well, but she got the wrong color teal material. We ended up telling her to just to make the bridal gown and hired someone else for the other dresses. As it turned out, at each fitting the bridal gown wasn't turning out right. It was either in pieces, the appliques were on wrong or the beading wasn't quite right. Then the train was too heavy and the shoulders of the dress dug into Kristina's shoulders when she tried it on. The seamstress said she needed a special slip or maybe this or that, and on and on as she tried to fix the dress. The day before the wedding Kristina went for her final fitting. To say it was disastrous, would be an understatement!!! Kristina finally left in tears while I held the seamstress hostage in her home (by parking in back of her car so she couldn't leave) and demanded that she fix the dress the right way, as promised!!! The seamstress threatened to call the police. Finally, we just got the money back and headed down to a bridal store where she bought a beautiful wedding gown that matched her crown-like wedding veil perfectly. It needed only slight alterations by the other seamstress who was making the bridesmaids dresses.

Jennifer, Kristina's cousin and the matron of honor, flew in from Maryland a week before the wedding. After the rehearsal dinner we went to pick up her dress from the seamstress. It didn't fit! . We stayed at the seamstresses house until the wee hours of the morning. Then when she did a final pressing of the dress she made a burn mark on it with the iron. The next morning, the day of the wedding, we ended up going to the Mall to buy Jennifer a dress. It was raining that morning and with a laughing panic we told the sales lady she needed a dress suitable for a maid of honor for a wedding in a couple of hours.

The wedding was planned to be a perfect wedding....John entered when the harpist played "Someday My Prince Will Come". The candles were lit by the John's mom and myself to the song "Candle on the Water". Kristina's (fairy) godmother came and the Bride walked down the isle with her father to the traditional organ bridal march.

Mr. & Mrs.

When they exited the church, a small cozy chapel, all the guests released helium balloons the colors of pink, teal and white into the air. What a sight that was! The reception was planned to be a perfect one too...well that was before a little problem with the D.J. canceling a week before the wedding and us needing to find someone to replace him. And, in spite of the fact that everything was written down in agenda format, the D.J. messed up on the grand entrance song...called the bride Jennifer and had everyone do the stupid chicken dance!

John's mom, Bonnie, made beautiful wedding bride and groom dolls which were on display next to the crafty book invitation I had made. The favors were plastic hearts filled with candy kisses. John cut the cake with his sword and they smashed it in each other's face. John's brother Jeremy spoke the words "And now I have a sister" in the toast. The first dance was a song from "Robin Hood" and to everyone's surprise I had the D.J. play a special "Winnie the Pooh" song immediately after the father/daughter dance. He announced that her dad used to call her "Pooh" when she was little, which got a big laugh.
SEE THE STREAMING VIDEO OF IT HERE

Then Joey and Lorena who were the ring boy and flower girl danced to "The Little Mermaid" song.