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so, i am one of those people. the people that squeeze the toothpaste tube from the middle, with no regard for how messy it looks. yeah...THOSE people. you are probably wincing right now. is that supposed to say something about me? is it supposed to mean that i am messy and unorganized? is it supposed to mean that i don’t take care of my personal possessions? am i self-absorbed and hasty and irrational? or...does it mean that people are more important than things to me? that i seize the day (and, apparently, my toothpaste tube)? am i desiring the very best out of each moment? or does it just mean that i don’t take time to think about how i squeeze toothpaste out of a tube? (just for the record, when it gets low, i start rolling. i do like to get my money’s worth!)the squeeze-religiously-from-the-bottom-ers don’t bother me. i respect their ways. i give them props for efficiency and the appearance of organization. nick is one of these people. i am amazed at how we coexist so peacefully in our tiny little closet of a bathroom. i walked into the bathroom this morning, ready to banish my newly acquired coffee breath. there was my toothpaste tube, sitting happily in the ceramic cup, cuddling up next to nick’s toothpaste tube. (i have different toothpaste because of those dang mouth ulcers.) only, something was different. my toothpaste had been neatly pushed to the top of the tube and the bottom was folded up. i stood on my white fluffy bath mat and giggled.
so, um...well, this is just weird. how do you write about one of the most significant events of your life? i've put it off for a solid two and a half weeks now because i've been at a loss.
it was amazing. breathtaking. awesome. incredibly special. whirlwindish. lovely.
it just came and went in a weekend. our wedding. the joining of our lives together FOREVER. and life kept going...!
little funny things have happened over the last week that i have wanted to blog about.
"you'll never guess what happened...," i've wanted to say, followed by some quirky story about a woman in the target parking lot, something my dog did, or my latest thoughts on cruise ship disasters. but alas, i have had to put those aside. because i must address THE WEDDING.
so here we go:
wow, i have never felt that much craziness surrounding me in one tiny weekend. phones ringing, who needs to be where, is this okay, what do you want/need, where is so & so... it's such a strange feeling to know that something HUGE is going down, and you are in the center of it.
now, i am known for my dramatic flair. and i will admit, i do tend to exaggerate on occasion. okay, mostly all the time. but i am not stretching the truth when i talk about how tremendous a wedding is. on one hand you have the technical aspect: months of planning falling into place. on the other hand, just think about what is actually occuring: you are saying, "YES! FOREVER!" to one person. this...(pause for dramatic effect)...is a GIGANTIC thing.
i was amazed at myself. with all of the chaos and excitement, i felt centered, peaceful, content, and just radiently happy. for months i had pictured myself as this harried, stressed out bride. but it didn't happen. i felt like a beautiful, nonanxious presence!
some highlights:
(by the way, the top picture is of the moment in the ceremony when we were announced as "mr. and mrs. nicholas faris," and the picture below it is of part of our program.)
* the bridesmaids luncheon that some memphis women threw for us was one of the highlights of my weekend! all six bridesmaids (the four from auburn days are pictured here) plus some family and friends-like-family were in attendance. great girly food with a time of sharing that humbled and inspired me. i love taking time to tell people how much they mean to you. this was one of those times, and it will always be a most special memory.
* the rehearsal dinner was unforgettable! more family and friends, more great food (and i mean GREAT), and i will give a shout-out to reta and angela faris on the centerpieces: well done! they were gorgeous! we had great fun sharing our families for the first time. (this picture is of the remaining memphian bridesmaids as well as one of my bouquet friends...)
* my mom compiled this meaningful collection for me... something old: a pearl ring that she had given me when i turned 13, something new: my wedding dress, something borrowed: a handkerchief that belonged to nick's great-great-great grandmother (wrapped around my bouquet), something blue: (this part is a little hazy to me--mom, you may have to explain this better in a comment!) 14 strands of fabric from my mother's (steel blue/green) skirt were bound together in biblical symbolism and pinned to the inside of my dress.
* the bouquet: this was one of my favorite parts of our ceremony. i collected my bouquet (of gerber daisies in shades of peach) from an assortment of dear friends as i walked down the aisle. my mother tied a big satin bow around them when i got to the end. i am so glad i got to include this group of people that have had such an influence in my life and remain so special to me. as i walked down the aisle towards nick, it was like the many compartments of my life were completely intersecting in that one moment as i received flowers from atlanta friends, auburn friends, mentors, memphis "family"...it was the only moment in the ceremony in which i was in danger of crying my eyes out!
* i will note that the most talked about item of the ceremony has been the song i walked down the aisle to. i tend to be fairly quirky and untraditional, so of course the song was going to have to follow suit. it was: "fix you," by coldplay. (compliments of: my ipod.) if you know the song: it started playing in the end of our slideshow, the groomsmen all walked out from the front when the piano started, the bridesmaids walked in from the back when the acoustic guitar started, and my father and i made our grand entrance when the drums kicked in with the electric guitars. ha. (of course the song ended pefectly at the end as my mom finished tying the bow and joined us as we stood before nick.)
* if you know my family, then you know the significance of this picture. my father is usually in a motor-powered wheelchair when he is out in public, due to the post-polio syndrome that weakens his body. for my wedding, however, my dad opted to boldly walk me down the aisle. this in itself was a deeply special moment to me.
* the other part of the wedding that guests have commented on is the food. yummy. wish i'd eaten more of it. we had a desert reception with bride's cake (pictured here), chocolate groom's cake, the most cheesecake you have ever seen in your life with all kinds of toppings, a candy station with to-go boxes (all the candy was brown and green, of course!), delicious rich petit-fours with our monogram on them, and a cute little coffee bar with all the fixins (special "jesse & nick" labels were attached to each cup!). the room was lit by candlight, and ginger ale sprarkled in moonshine jugs sitting on the tables. i can gush about it, by the way, because none of it is to my credit! it was all the complete mastermind of my wedding planner genius friends and kind-of big sisters: lori humber and amy turman. they are fabulous!
* just thought i'd add this cool picture of us leaving. something that happened on accident but turned out great was that i forgot to decide what guests would "throw" at us when we left. whoops! i ended up liking it though--no mess and lots of applause! we left in a black shiny audi sportscar with lots of fun gadgets inside. so there you have it. the official wedding-in-a-rather-large-nutshell update! it was a great weekend. special and memorable. and we've finally gotten to our favorite part: being married! it's great! i'll relay our first adventures of marriage (aka: the honeymoon) pretty soon. until then, i will leave you with this news story and this picture: 
so, in the last month...i’ve gotten a month closer to getting married! there are actually, about SIXTY-SEVEN HOURS left, to be more precise. whoa. as you can imagine, life is pretty crazy this week. so i give you: stream-of-consciousness blogging...several of close companions and consequently, bridesmaids/matrons, have become fellow bloggers recently. cheers to you, dear friends! i encourage you to take a visit to read the thoughts of kristy crawford, ashley mills, and leslie guinn. wedding week is such a roller coaster! uuuuup! i am SO excited that this person that i am so in love with is ACTUALLY going to spend the rest of his life with me! (or my life with him...we have made a pact that i get to die first. it is kind of a joke, but mostly not.) doooowwwwnnnn! arrrrrrg...there are so many things to do and not enough time to do them! i will never do just ONE person’s laundry again! oh no! i never took time to fully appreciate doing just one person’s laundry. oh, i am such an idiot for letting that slip by! i can never get it back! what will i do? my life is overrrrrr! luckily, things are on the uuuuups today. maybe we can just stay up on cloud nine. there are a lot less potholes up here than the streets of memphis. i’m trying to think of things i could share from the past month. i can’t even remember. seriously. i only have 67 hours left to write “jesse maddox.” it’s a bit sad actually. i really like my signature. it’s hard to read, like famous peoples. you can’t really make out the letters, except for the “j,” “m,” and “x.” i haven’t gotten my new signature quite right yet. and it’s going to be legible. which disappoints me. but it will be more difficult for my future children to forge on their report cards than my previous scribble. jesse maddox. jesse maddox. jesse maddox. i can’t let this “last” slip without being savored like the laundry thing did. here is something funny: i just upgraded to a new cell phone, which is coming in the mail this week. it is a motorola RAZR. and it is magenta. that’s right. it’s pink. me. with a pink phone. i think it is hilarious! i didn’t get it to BE hilarious, but i just think it is quite funny to think of me, jesse maddox (jesse maddox jesse maddox jesse maddox), as one of “those” pink RAZR girls. would you have pegged me as one? i am a lot girlier than you might think. maybe. am i a bad pet owner if i don’t know who in the heck is taking care of my dog next week while i’m on my honeymoon? how neglectful. i offer a public apology to you, owens, for being so preoccupied that your treat jar has been empty for 2 weeks and the words “go lay down” are all you expect out of me. well, to plagiarize from my friend kristy, this post was a bit of a doozy. (why do i think of “fraggle rock” when i hear the word “doozy?”) i am posting on my blog at 2am, 2 days before my wedding. am i CRAZY?
