A recent question in an only forum was asked: “Married people, what was the best part of your wedding day?”  Usually the day of a wedding is a whirlwind with so much to do in the weeks, days, and hours leading up to the ceremony.  Between doing research and shopping for venues and vendors, making decisions with your fiancee, getting your dress, hair, nails, food, music, transportation, invitations, and on and on, it can be a huge sigh of relief once you finally get to the big day.  So much so that everything goes by super quick and you forget to take notice of all the little things that you planned.  That said, it’s always nice to look back later after a few months or even years and evaluate that day and what your favorite part was.

What Was The Best Part Of Your Wedding Day?

On my wedding day, about three hours after the reception ended, my wife and I sat in the restaurant at the Hilton Hotel at the O’Hare airport in Chicago (we were staying there overnight because we had a flight to Puerto Rico the next morning).  We had been talking, catching up (one has surprisingly little time with one’s future spouse in the day or two leading up to a wedding) and there was a moment of silence. I was toying with my beer and out of nowhere I said ‘These are some of the greatest hours that a decent man could ever expect to have.’  She smiled at me and raised her wine glass and we clinked them together. And that was the happiest I’ve ever been so far.

My wife and I had a beautiful wedding, but those who have been through it understand the bride and groom don’t necessarily get to eat properly throughout the day and event. Such was the case for us.
So the best part of my wedding night was at the hotel. We were reading our guest’s comments on our engagement photo print, when we saw a care package my sister packed for us just for that night. In it was 2 generous helpings of every course from our dinner, immaculately packed, except she forgot silverware.  Prompting the most primal hunger either of us had ever felt in our lives, and knowing that calling the concierge could have taken 10+ minutes, and without a single word mind you, we immediately went to work: each ate a 16 oz prime rib steak, huge pile of pancit (Filipino noodle dish), garlic roasted salmon fillets, sides, salad and more BUCK NAKED and with our BARE HANDS.  Best. Meal. Ever.

I hadn’t seen my wife in her gown had no clue what it would look like. Best part I have is seeing the church doors open as I stood there, seeing her all dressed up for the first time.  Thought was “my wife (almost) is hot”.

My wife’s mother is the youngest of 13 kids who lived all around the country. They had all been invited to the wedding, but we definitely had realistic expectations that not all would come.  A week before our wedding, the 13’s father/my wife’s grandpa passed away. Certainly it was sad, but all 13 and their families came back to the state for the funeral. Then they all said “what the hell” and stuck around for the wedding.  It was the first time in years they were all at a party together. During dinner they stood up in a long line and sang the song their mother had written that lists all their names (which I can still sing to this day).  Instead of clinking glasses to get us to kiss at the reception, you had to do something awesome or funny before we’d kiss. They earned 13 kisses out of us for that song.

Other than the obvious finally being able to call him my husband..I had taken a separate car to a park we were doing pictures in. There was an event going on so we had to park a ways away. And add I walked through the crowd of strangers, I got so many compliments and well wishes I couldn’t stop smiling.  But then as I was passing the playground there was a mother pushing her daughter on the swings and she said, “look at the princess, Kaylee. Say hi to the princess!”  And at the top of her lungs Kaylee shouted, “HI PRINCESS!” It was amazing.

Seeing my normally reserved, near Spock-like (future) husband start to cry as I walked down the aisle. He had tears throughout the entire ceremony. After we were pronounced man and wife and walked down the aisle, we got a few moments alone to ourselves before we had to go meet everyone. He burst into tears and held me for a long time. It was the best moment of my life.

No friends and family around, just the 2 of us and the judge in a cute little resort town. No pressure of the wedding day, bridezillas, managing peoples’ behavior, etc. Just a nice exchange of vows and a relaxing weekend together.

During our reception, which ended up being a mega dance party (I had no idea my family loved to rock out like that), my wife and I took a moment and stood at the back of the room holding each other and just watched everyone having a blast. I mean, people were having fun! We just stood there and watched them enjoy themselves. It was great.

Right before I walked down the aisle with my dad, I whispered to him, “Please don’t let me fall.” He whispered back, “Never.” From that point forward, I knew that no matter what went wrong, it would all be right.