Recap: "Wedding Bliss and a First Kiss"

Bringing Up Bates "Wedding Bliss and a First Kiss"

• As Michael packs up her stuff at home, the girls beg her to reconsider moving out. “The Bates name is diminishing!” says Tori.
• “Y’all make it sound like it’s the end of the world,” says Michael. “It is!” replies Carlin.
• With only 30 hours to go before the wedding, dozens of family members and friends—including the Duggars—work together to decorate Wallace Memorial Baptist Church.
• Michael and the bridal party head to a local nail salon, while Brandon and his groomsmen stop by Prestige tuxedo to pick up their fancy attire. (Click here to see a list of the wedding party.)
• When the topic of the getaway car comes up, Brandon says he has taken precautions to prevent the decorating from getting out of hand, although Lawson, Nathan, and Trace Bates promise they won’t do anything too destructive. “No pepper down the air condition vents,” says Nathan. “No sardines in the floor board.”
• Michael and Brandon decided early on in their relationship to save their first kiss for the altar. “We haven’t practiced it, but we have talked about it,” says the groom.
• "Saving our first kiss was definitely not just an easy thing to do,” shares Michael. “And just looking forward to it tomorrow and knowing that it’s the first for both of us, it totally makes it worth all of the difficulty times that we have wanted to kiss.”
• The girls are running a bit behind schedule, but Kelly isn’t phased. “Michael may want to be on time for the rehearsal, but until tomorrow, she’s still a late Bates, along with the rest of us,” jokes the mom of 19.
• Michael admits she is stressed out, but her wedding coordinator—a family-friend who has coordinated all of the Bates kids’ weddings thus far—puts her at ease. 
• “I guess I have always had a little bit of an organized tendency to me, but learning how to organize Bates weddings has taken time and prayer,” says wedding coordinator Kim Nafziger.
• When everyone meets at the church for the rehearsal, Carlin breaks down crying, and Michael tries to console her. “Everything hit me all at once, that this is really it,” says Carlin. “The dynamic of our family is going to be different.”
• John and Alyssa arrive from Florida, but the Bates hardly recognize Alyssa, who had recently dyed her hair dark brown. (Her locks are naturally light brown.)
• On the morning of the wedding, Michael is eager to tie the knot. “This is the day of my wedding, and I have never been so excited before,” says the bride.
• With four hours to go, both the guys and gals are running behind. “I’m super excited, but I’m hoping everything comes together in time,” says the groom.
• As the seamstress laces the back of Michael’s dress and fits the veil on her head, Callie starts bawling. “This breaks my heart, Mom,” says Michael, as she scoops her little sister into her arms.
• Michael had made it clear that she does not want flower petals to fall during the kiss, so Brandon purchases two confetti cannons for the younger boys to set off.
• Pictures begin, and Gil tears up when he sees his daughter in her wedding gown. “Michaela has never seen herself as someone that wanted to be in the limelight,” says the proud father. “And she has never viewed herself as lovely as we see her. And yet today, on her wedding day, she’s the perfect picture of what we would all consider a lovely bride.”
• Michael and Brandon decide to wait until the ceremony to see each other in their wedding attire, but they snap a picture of the two of them on either side of a door, holding hands and praying together.
• Despite all the delays, the wedding starts at 2:00 sharp. Just before walking Michael down the aisle, Gil shares a special time of prayer with his daughter.
• The grandparents and Brandon's parents enter the auditorium to a live performance of Lawson’s new song “I Will Always.” (Click here for information on how to purchase.)
• The wedding party, starting with matron of honor Kelly Bates, walks down the aisle to Canon in G. “It was an honor that Michael asked me to do that,” says the mom of 19. “Although I enjoy the role of mom…there is nothing like knowing that they’re one of my best friends and I’m one of their best friends.”
• When everyone else is in place on stage, the doors open, the guests stand, and Michael and Gil enter. When asked “Who gives this woman in marriage to this man?” Gil responds: “Her Mother and I and her 18 siblings.”
• A professor from the Bible college that Brandon attended gives the sermon, and Gil officiates the rest.
• After reciting their traditional vows, exchanging wedding rings, lighting a unity candle, and praying with their parents, Michael and Brandon are pronounced husband and wife. “And after I kiss her on the cheek, you can kiss your bride,” says Gil, smiling with pride. 
• The elated newlyweds share their first kiss and then embrace in a romantic hug, as the confetti cannons are set off from the audience. 
• “Knowing that I was his only girlfriend and the first girl he had ever kissed and being able to give that back, it was priceless,” says Michael. “Definitely worth waiting for,” adds Brandon.
• The couple drives away in a tactfully decorated getaway car, which Brandon successfully kept away from his brothers-in-law.