Wedding through the Eyes of Friends

Ok, at this point, there are only two posted.  Thanks Angela!!!  I'll post more wedding and reception pictures when I have them. 

The Bently

Talking on the Patio during cocktail hour

Day of the Wedding Prep

Still not nervous, I woke up at 7 (which is actually insanely late for me), and the dog was pretty much crossing her legs at this point.  We hustled outside for our walk and did about 3 miles or so.  Which...(spoiler) I feel terrible about because the dog is limping badly as of Sunday because of over-exertion over the past many days (we think).  We may have been walking her many times a day for many miles to keep her calm and well-behaved for the crowds.  Oops.  

My hair appointment was at 9:45, and the other girls, mothers, and grandma were all around then.  We swarmed into the hair salon and made our presence known, taking way too many pictures, and just being generally excitable. 

Pictures from hair:

I ran to a different spa to get my make-up done, then we quickly regrouped at the house to pile into the limo.  It dropped us at the church at around 12:30, and left to go pick up the guys from the hotel.  The girls then got into their dresses, took some photos, ate some food, and hung out.  My favorite parts of the morning were realizing I had not considered the "old, new, borrowed, blue" saying, and remedying it with a nasty old bobby pin I "borrowed" from Quynh (probably have to give it back for the luck, right?), and going to the bathroom.  Really.  My dress was extremely easy to get on and off, so we decided it was best if I just changed back into my sweatsuit to go.  Hannah was my look-out, and we sang the Mission Impossible theme song the entire way there and back. 

Pictures from the hang-out:

MoH Quynh

SiL Sara

Cousin Julia

My back, you already SAW the front

Trying to stay clean

Checking out the Bently

Rehearsal Dinner

After a hectic day of preparing, we finally reach the first party.  The rehearsal dinner!  Well, first the rehearsal.  Both Quynh and Missy didn't make it in time because of their absolutely valid reasons, so my Aunt Polly pretended to be Quynh.  We were lectured that if we had anything to drink before the ceremony, the priest would refuse to marry us ("If you want to test me, I'll give you the phone number of the last groom I refused to marry"), and made it through everything pretty quickly.  Now to the party.

Aside from the pouring rain, and the fact that I ordered ENTIRELY too much food, it was fantastic.  And, once again, my mother made the comment that "You know the bride's relaxed when she says to you 'Everything's just perfect' as it's pouring down rain."  What did I care?  We had food, friends, beer brewed by the best man (which was AMAZING), and one of the best parties I've been to in awhile.  Not to mention a very apropos slide-show that was assembled by my dad.  The songs he chose?  You and Me by Dave Matthews, Fins by Buffett, and Feeling Good by Buble.  PERFECT.

Now what you want.  Pictures.  Enjoy.

Groomsman Kyle, wife Steph, baby Maddie, and Chris 

Holy unattractive picture, Batman  

Watching the slide-show 

Mrs. P lovin on the puppy

Cathy, Groomsman Tim, and honorary Groomsman Jeremy

Bunch of my relatives

Tower of Matt's delicious home brew.

Chris with the Bridesmaids

Mom showing off her footwear.

Groomsmen got jerseys for their gifts,and I just had to represent.

Who knows what story I'm telling.

Brew-master extraordinaire and his fabulous GF Missy.

And, of course, Tim and Cathy.  V-Tech.  Boo, Tim.

 

Friday Activities

Friday was hectic as everyone started to arrive in town.  The groomsmen had planned on playing another round of golf at a different course, but it was pouring rain and they decided they valued their clubs more than their round.  Plenty of friends and relatives started arriving at my parents' house to help set up for the rehearsal dinner that evening, so we made use of the "many hands make light work" lesson.

I bought all the boys pizza, and then the girls took off to go to lunch and get our nails done.  You know, the important stuff.  Actually, only 2 bridesmaids went, along with some family and one groomsman's wife.  Well, Cathy.  You may recognize her from previous scandalous posts.  Hannah is a teacher and was working because it's REALLY hard for teachers to take Friday's off in May.  Missy is a doctor, and had patients until 3, and then still had to drive from Indianapolis.  Quynh's husband graduated from Georgetown's MBA program that morning (congrats Kyle!!!!) and then they drove from DC to Columbus. 

It takes a better photographer than me to catch Mrs. P smiling.  I swear she does in real life!

Cathy, and my aunts Yvette and Polly.

My cousin (and bridesmaid) Julia and myself.


And finally some nail salon shots:

The Family Arrives

Thursday, our immediate families had arrived in town and we got to share a relatively quiet day preparing.  Chris and I drove from Pennsylvania with the dog in the back seat on Wednesday, and jumped into warp speed.  I met with the seamstress, and amazingly did not have to take in the dress any further!  I lost 20 pounds between when I bought the dress and my wedding day (Though I probably gained it back this weekend!), and 10 pounds since she had last fitted it.  It was loose, but comfortable, and looked nice.  So we left it.

Thursday morning, we were at the license bureau by 8 am for our wedding license, rushed back so I could make a 9:45 hair trial, then let the boys go out golfing.  My dad, brother, Chris, and our neighbor who was doing music for the wedding golfed at the country club on what is normally a closed course.  They were more than excited to have access to it!  Not surprisingly, Mr. Williams demolished everyone, though my father played well, too.  Chris...doesn't get to play very often and spent substantial amounts of time in the rough.

That evening, Chris's parents, my parents, my brother and sister-in-law, and Chris and I went to Buca de Beppo for dinner.  There's nothing like over-sized portions of food and great house wine to relax nerves.  Of which I had none.  The entire weekend.  Apparently my mother was tense, but I was almost bizarrely calm.  Chris may have been freaking out a bit too, but consider what he was about to do?  I mean, really, who would want to end up with me?

Sorry Mr. P, I have to put up the photo of you coughing to show that Mrs. P was in fact happy, and the previous picture was just an anomaly.

How has my LITTLE brother already been married 3 years?!?!  Love them!

And the star of the show:

Wedding Blitz

I am now officially Mrs. P!!!!  I really could NOT have asked for a better week of events.  And the honeymoon is yet to come!  Hopefully, before I make it through the preliminary events, I'll have pictures of the ceremony and reception to share, but you know what?  I was too busy to look for my camera.  Chris, I love you, and obviously the best part of this was knowing that you can no longer escape.  I'll give you a taste of what I looked like, but you'll just have to wait around for more.  No fear, I have auto-publishing set up.

Notes on my fur-babies

Currently, Chris has sunk into a deep, dark depression because Monster was dropped off at Tim & Cathy's last night.  He will be staying there for the wedding and the honeymoon.  Chris is lost without his "little bubba", and cannot be convinced that they will take good care of him, and return him to us...alive.  I may not be helping when I told him I had dropped the cat at the SPCA.  I kid, I kid.

Harper also had a big milestone last night.  With the cat gone, we decided it was time to see how she did out of her crate at night.  She did not jump on us, nothing was chewed, and she slept peacefully on her own bed.  I may have made a big mistake, though.  At 2 am, she came over and put her paws up on the bed, whined, and I yelled at her.  She went into the hall and peed all over the floor.  Apparently she was asking to go out.  Bad mommy.  My little girl is all grown up.  Remember when she was a peanut?

**Yes, I'm re-using photos.  But aren't they cute?

HELP! Slideshow Music

So, my father is busy assembling that much-loved tradition of all rehearsal dinners: the slide-show of baby pictures.  He asked me a VERY difficult question:  WHAT SONGS SHOULD HE PUT TO THE PICTURES?

Oh, this may seem like an innocent question, but it is quite difficult for us!  The music has been a large part of how we framed the wedding.  Different vibes at different times, and a strong aversion to the overly traditional.  Don't EVEN get me talking about my hatred of Canon in D.  As a string player, I have played it too many times, and I just shudder in horror when the quartet strikes up.  However, I have decided to have the bridesmaids enter to a variation of it because it felt right (gag), but it IS the Canon in C by Winston so that at least I'm not bored to tears.

Back to the question at hand.  I'm inclined to consider the following songs.  Remembering our somewhat hippie bent, our aversion to the traditional, and just all around quirky music-obsessiveness, does anyone have any other suggestions?

You and Me - Dave Matthews.
Fins - Buffett
Mr. Larkin - State Radio
After Tonight - Justin Nozuka
Hey You - Pink Floyd
Feeling Good - Michael Buble
Get Your Way - Jamie Cullum
Lovesong - The Cure



They are pretty much in the order of how much I'm feeling them at the moment.  Thanks, again!

Last of Girls Night from Eons Ago

I will never fully understand how so many bloggers take pictures of every meal, every activity, and every aspect of their lives.  I just am not attached enough to my camera to make that possible.  Let me rephrase that.  I carry a camera in my purse.  Always.  A cute little point-and-shoot.  However, I do not believe you have seen a picture taken by that camera in many months.  Either the pictures are donations from friends, or from my Canon Rebel.  And by "my" I mean Chris's.  That I steal. 

My little point and shoot just never seems to make it OUT of the purse.  And, perhaps I don't take pictures of my food because I don't fully want to admit what I eat.  It's FAIRLY healthy, but also fairly quirky.  Who else eats a JAR of pickles a week.  And no wussy baby-sized jar.  A gigantic family-sized jar of whole, kosher dill pickles.  It's a horrible addiction.  Anyway...this is all a long ramble to say I've got to play up nights where a camera actually came out until I get better about making it a more frequent occurrence.  So...round 3.

 

Don't know these guys' names, but we spent a lot of time with them.  And Kelle may have let us live vicariously through her as she spent much of the evening getting cozy with the blonde.  I need to talk to her about if there's been further developments.  Kelle?  You reading?  We NEED TO TALK!

 

I know names!  Larry and Joe.  Awesome guys.  I could not figure out how to stay in touch in an appropriate way.  I have an email.  Hard to make guy FRIENDS when you're in a relationship.  But these are truly decent, nice guys.  And...big computer geeks like me.

 

Ridiculous.  Cathy forced the guys into the bar into a group shot.

 

Sheryl and Cathy demonstrating the "hottie whistles".  They were blown at one point in appreciation.  That is all I will say.

I do not believe in embarrassing  others if you're not willing to embarrass yourself.  See above picture of me dancing.

This is the very end of the night as the club closed.  Obviously, we have all danced our hearts out and are sweaty messes.  But so fun!  Thanks, girls!