The wedding was dang near perfect.
The preparation and set up was tough. I got yelled at a lot leading up to the wedding. On set up day I would be doing the 3 things Honey Buns told me to do, and then she wanted to know why I wasn't doing the 4th thing that she hadn't told me to do yet (or that I selectively didn't hear her tell me to do).
My wife is a classic "over-work the details" type of woman when a big event is going on - unless we are talking about cost. As a man, when I ask how much something is going to cost, I would prefer "$368.73" but I will take "$350-380" or "Mid 3s". I thought I had all the flowers paid for weeks ago - but that was just the flowers we bought up here and hauled to Va. She tells me last week that we still have a portion of the fresh flowers down there to buy. I asked her how much those would be and she said "about 200". When we got down there she tells me it will be a "little over 300". When I called the florist to pay, I asked how much it would be and he said it was $368.73. I looked at her and she said, "Oh yeah, I forgot about the two extra bundles of eucalyptus I added on." I told her, "Well, we have to make sure the koalas in attendance are fed and we don't want anyone walking away thinking that it was a nice wedding, but it needed more eucalyptus." I thought it was funny. She didn't.
Besides the usual duties of a FOB, I had a 5 minute speaking part during the ceremony, so I was in speaking/performance mode. I was calm and smiling during the walk down the aisle. I was focused solely on the pastor and I took the advice of a good friend who said to just keep saying to myself, "Grandchildren. Grandchildren. Grandchildren." It worked. I maintained my emotions and the ceremony went by without one glitch - very meaningful and beautiful.
What got me emotionally was the father-daughter dance. Do not, I repeat, do not use "My Little Girl" by Tim McGraw. The lyrics are a slayer of fathers with toxic masculinity who do not want to cry in public. When they announced the dance, I felt a swell of emotion inside of me - and I knew I was in trouble. I told my dau before the music began that I didn't think I was going to make it without crying. 10 seconds in I am sobbing on her shoulder. Embarrassing. She loved it though, so I took one for the team there.
When the wedding was over, I had my calm, sweet Honey Buns back and we could just enjoy the pictures and memories of a wonderful day.
I hope yours goes as well, if you have one coming up - minus the pre-event stress, yelling, etc. Lol