Drama at the Vatican: A True Wedding Story

So there we were, in midst of planning a conventional New York wedding, when our plans came to a sudden halt. We knew planning a wedding would be difficult, but the situations we kept encountering were outright ridiculous. The drama and chaos became overwhelming. Luckily we ended up taking matters into our own hands and decided to get married overseas.

My husband and I, both raised Catholic, managed to get married at St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. A company in the Republic of San Marino set everything up for us. One of their representatives met us shortly after we landed in Rome at the U.S. Embassy. This is where we did all of our legal paperwork in order to be sure that this wedding would be recognized in the states.

We had a handful of friends that lived overseas at the time. They ended up flying into Rome for the festivities. We didn't ask anyone from the states to attend because we didn't think traveling overseas was a fair request. We ended up having a reception party for our family and close friends when we arrived back home.

The friends that ended up coming to the wedding made the experience a blast! We all met at a piazza the night before our wedding to have dinner and drinks. I guess you could have called this our rehearsal dinner. We were up very late to say the least. My maid of honor and her boyfriend at the time ended up staying at our hotel because ours was closest to Vatican City. Their hotel was about an hour away with Rome traffic.

Unfortunately, neither of them had a change of clothes. Her boyfriend ended up wearing the same clothes that he had on the night before to our wedding. He had a bright orange shirt with a pair of jeans on. My maid of honor ended up wearing the gag gift I gave her the night before at the rehearsal dinner. It was a flamboyant shirt that had "Crazy Girl" printed on it. It was the only clean shirt she had to put on, so I completely understood. I know it sounds a bit extreme, but it truly reflected our personalities. I loved having my crazy girl by my side!

The morning of our wedding day was crazy. My hair stylist and make-up artist ended up doing a horrific job on me. I looked as pale as a ghost, and my hair looked anything but glamorous. Hiring them was a huge waste of time! After they left, I ended up having to start from scratch and do my hair and make-up all over again. I didn't even have enough time to finish, I ended up having to put the rest of my make-up on in the cab! I was already feeling insecure about my appearance because of my pre-wedding weight gain, now this? I thought that if at least if my hair and make-up was cute that I would be okay. Boy was I sadly mistaken.

It was time to head off to Vatican City! Our cab showed up late and the driver got lost. He took the wrong turn and couldn't seem to find the way back. The second cab that was supposed to pick up my maid of honor never showed up! When I finally made it to the entrance of St. Peter's I just stood there like a complete basket case. I didn't think she was going to show up. Not only was I sweating but I ended up starting to cry. In turn, I made my horrible make-up job look even worse. There's nothing like a bride walking down the aisle with her make-up melting off.

Extremely out of breath, my maid of honor and her boyfriend finally made it to the Basilica. Come to find out, they decided to run over a mile to St. Peter's. They figured it would be faster than calling another cab. This sounds like something from a Dan Brown novel, doesn't it? I ended up walking down the aisle thirty-five minutes late! I was lucky that the priest waited for me. Later he told me that he thought I was just being a diva, trying to make my husband-to-be wait. If the priest only knew the truth about me and my drama-magnet friends. Nothing runs smoothly for us!

Weddings at St. Peter's take place at the choir chapel. After the bride walks down the aisle, they close the chapel with a gate and put curtains up for privacy. Throughout the duration of the ceremony, I could see the curtains moving back and forth. It was very distracting to say the least. The tourists were constantly trying to peak through. We also had three strangers show up as guests to our ceremony. They did nothing but talk throughout the entire mass. I still, to this day, don't know who they were and why they were there.

The gates re-opened and thousands of tourists approached us. Everyone was taking pictures and congratulating us. They made us feel like a celebrity couple! After our photographer was done taking pictures of us, our group went to a really nice Italian restaurant in Vatican City. We had an amazing family-style dinner and just laughed about our delightfully off-kilter day.

After the wedding, we stayed a few more days in Rome to vacation with our friends. At that point, we ventured out of Rome for our honeymoon. We rented a car and drove all over Italy. We spent time in Siena, Florence, Vinci, Pisa, Rio Maggiore, Genoa, Milan and we ended up flying out of Venice! Did I mention that we made it just in time for fashion week in Milan? Needless to say, the whole experience was spectacular!