Ok, so here goes...
The girls and I were almost finished getting ready, and Kevin's house looked like a declared disaster area. Stuff all over the house: make up, art supplies, clothes, baby stuff, shoes, you name it! At about 6:05 I called to get us up and out; a few more minutes of hurried getting-it-together occurred, we hopped in the cars, and headed to Shakori.
It was at that point that I first noticed the sky. It was sunny when we got back from my hair appointment, but at some point in the interval it had clouded up. It was even looking a bit dangerous. I thought, man - I hope that holds off for a bit. But no such luck. The first rain drops spattered the windshield and the wind picked up. Nearby trees were whipping around and the rain started down in earnest as we turned into Shakori.
At that point I had no idea what to think. I wasn't sure if they'd moved everything under our tent (thank goodness we rented a 35'x 40' tent!) or if it was too soaked to be worth it, or what. Crash and I were in my car together, and we pulled around to the back field. Missy and Katrina were in their car behind us... We were out of communication and the thunder was rolling in. I parked, and Crash dashed out to secure her tents. Alone in the car, I watched it pour. And I stayed calm.
I just refused to let the rain bother me. For one thing, it was raining way too hard for it to last very long. I had a feeling it would move off. For another, there was just no point in getting all freaked out and bent out of shape. Maybe it was just going to be a wet party! Whatever - we'd still have fun. I figured I'd go over my vows, so I kicked my seat back, turned the stereo up, and waited out the rain.
After a bit, my brother came over and got in the car with me. A couple of people stopped by to say hi, but mostly we just sat and watched the storm. It was wild! But time was passing, and I didn't want to sit there all night. I decided that if by 7pm it hadn't stopped, I was just going to go for it. I passed that on to several folks, and sat back to wait. At five minutes to seven it hadn't calmed, so I drove my car up to the tent, did a loop around it looking for the entrance to the "aisle", and parked as close as I could to the appropriate corner. I left my skirt and the petticoats in the car, and wearing only the bloomers and bustle belt, I leaped out of the car into the tent - using a bunch of good friends with umbrellas to cover the gap!
Leaping into the tent was a very exhilarating experience. Everyone was screaming and cheering, cameras were going off like crazy, the lights had gone out so I couldn't really see anyone particularly. It was my big paparazzi moment! I was about to break into some Lady Gaga, I swear.
I was also not at all ready. I didn't have my shoes on, or my hat, I needed to adjust my clothes. The feather fans and rings were in a box in the trunk. The girls who were going to smudge the crowd didn't have their stuff. I didn't know where my bouquet had wandered off to. There was no way to get really organized. I got some help getting the stuff from my car and passed out fans to the ladies, keeping one for myself in lieu of the bouquet. I put my shoes on, then immediately soaked them by standing in inches-deep floods of water coming in under the tent. Still being photographed, with people calling out to me, I yelled "Where are those mens at?!" and an aisle opened up, leading to the other side of the tent.
No one was really sure what to do. Zoe, the flower girl, with Aimee and John, were closest to the gap in the crowd, but no one was really sure how to proceed. Looking around for a sign, I focused on Billy, who was valiantly playing "Shady Grove" right there beside me. I pointed and yelled, "Billy! Go!" and he lead the way. Zoe, the best ladies, and Adam followed, all with their partners and attendants. It was a little parade through the mass of folks crammed under the tent. We even had to go single-file at points!
Even the walk was fun; I got kisses, gave high-fives with the fan, winked and smiled at friends, and laughed the whole way to the alter. Kevin handed me off to Russell, and the ceremony began.
It was dark in the tent and tough to see; Gary had to lift his script up high to get it in the light. We were all crammed in on one wall of the tent, with the audience right up on us. The rain was still pouring down, so it was hard to hear. But we had a blast anyway! There was a lot of laughter and fun in the ceremony itself.
Gary started out by shouting "We've got PUNK and we've got STEAM!" to which everybody cheered heartily. We started with the loving cup ceremony, which was really sweet, with Orion getting a taste of the wine from the goblet Eddie gave us.
Next was the Apache wedding blessing, which starts out appropriately with: "And now you will feel no rain, for you shall be shelter to one another."
Our vows were self-written and special, with Grateful Dead lyrics combined at the end. A funny moment was when Russell had to look up his vows on his cell phone; mine were scribbled on a crumbled piece of notebook paper. During my vows, I was speaking about some of the shared experiences Russell and I have had, and my friend Buck called out "Don't forget PLAYA-LOVE!" and I added that to my vows. It was a good moment. We shared a couple of kisses (both caught on camera, thanks friends!) and the ceremony was done. We turned to a huge round of applause and attempted to receive everyone as the crowd fell upon the huge potluck feast laid out in the middle of the tent.
At the rehearsal, I stated that I didn't want the ceremony to be stilted, serious, or formal. I had asked that there be lots of fun, free-flowing speech, and laughter. Did I get what I asked for, or what?
And as the ceremony ended and the feast began, the rain started to let off and then died out entirely, just in time for the party!
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