Day before the wedding/rehearsal recap
Rehearsal day before the wedding went pretty well. I finished getting the centerpieces arranged in the morning and quickly put together some small vases of ivory and burgundy wooden roses with a few peacock swords with the help of Roger-Jake. Adam, Lizi and Andy ran a few other errands around town. I also arranged everything that needed to go to the reception site and the church in their respective boxes. I did most of this before we met back up with Adam, Lizi, Andy and my dad and Terrie for breakfast at Becky's Diner. I was productive.
Following breakfast, Roger took me to grandma's so that I could see uncle Merle and he could check out my hair. A bunch of members of my family were there so we chit-chatted for a few minutes. It was nice. But then we were off once more as there was still a lot of stuff left to do.
Back at home I made up diagrams and wrote out instructions for the reception site on how everything I was bringing them was supposed to be laid out. Finally all of that was ready. I worked on packing for the honeymoon some more and waited for mom to arrive as she was supposed to help me transport all the boxes to Shepard Hills. (She has a station wagon and much more room in her car than I have in mine.) When she wasn't at the house by 1:52 p.m. (and we were supposed to be at Shepard Hills at 2 p.m.), I started to get a little worried. I gave her a call and found out that she had either lost her keys or had locked them in her car.
Okay. Time for Plan B.
The guys -- Andy, Adam, Dave and Roger -- helped me load all of the reception boxes into Adam's Element and he drove me and all our stuff up to Shepard Hills. We were only a little bit late and they didn't care at all. Everyone oooh-ed and aaah-ed over my centerpieces and assured me that everything was going to look fabulous the next day. I left there feeling pretty confident about their abilities, so that was nice.
Since my nail appointment was at 3 p.m., I wasn't at the house very long before I had to leave again. Off I rushed to the Beauty Secrets Day Spa. Once there I had a glass of wine, turned my phone on vibrate (it had been ringing almost non-stop) and just relaxed and let someone do my nails. I did not answer my phone even thought I could hear it buzzing around my bag. I was planning on getting a french manicure but my nails didn't cooperate and because they were all different lengths a french manicure was going to look funny, so I just has her paint them an irridescent champagne color and she put some rhinestones on my ringfingernails. They were cute enough.
When I got back home I made sure that everything was ready to go to the church and finished up my packing. Poor Andy was running around like a crazy thing trying to arrange a way for his dad to experience the wedding from his hospital room. He ran out shortly before we were supposed to leave to go to the church to get a wireless internet router or something because he was going to attempt to webcast the ceremony for his dad. In the hustle and bustle of getting ready for the rehearsal (Adam and Lizi and Roger were staying at our place), Bethanne called to say that she and Seth were on their way but they might be a little late and my dad and Terrie walked in the door. Once Andy returned with router in tow, he and I opened dad and Terrie's wedding gift to us. They wanted us to open it at home because it's somewhat fragile and they wanted to make sure it was safe. They got us a real rose that has been preserved (somehow) and dipped in 24 karat gold. It's gorgeous. And very heavy. Ha. We love it. My dad had also gotten a special present for Andy, a buck knife, that he had given to him the day before when we learned that Andy's dad wasn't going to be able to make the wedding. Dad wanted to cheer Andy up, so he gave him his gift then. My dad can be really sweet. After thanking dad and Terrie and loading the ceremony boxes into cars to go to the church, we all headed out for the rehearsal.
The rehearsal itself was kind of long and not really that eventful but it was great to have everyone together and to see friends we hadn't seen in a long time, such as Jake and Bethanne and Seth. We went over walking down the aisle and how the ceremony was going to go a couple times and then, after Pastor Marty talked with us about a few details, we were done. We also practiced saying our vows. We discovered that we couldn't get internet service in the church, so webcasting the ceremony to Andy's dad wasn't going to work. it was decided that Andy would call his dad before the ceremony and then put his phone in his tux pocket so that his dad could at least listen to the ceremony.
Following the rehearsal was the rehearsal dinner, which was held in the downstairs hall of the church. Andy's mom and step-dad Chris hosted the rehearsal dinner and it was very cute and low-key. We had pizza and subs, chips, candy and dessert. There was somewhat of a Halloween theme with orange decorations. It was nice. During dinner Andy and I gave our parents their gifts (a framed 8x10 engagement photo we had had taken that Monday) and also gave our wedding party their gifts. The groomsmen got flasks with their names engraved on them filled with Captain Morgan's Private Stock and the girls received the jewelry that I made for them as well as some bath and body stuff from Avon, such as lotion, bubble bath and chapstick. It was nice to finally give everyone their gifts. It seemed like everyone liked them.
Following the rehearsal dinner, people were invited up to mom and Budd's for a bonfire. Andy and I had to run back to the house before going up to the bonfire because we had to pack up the dogs and their things to bring up with us as mom and Budd were puppy-sitting for us over the honeymoon. After some crazed hustle and bustle and packing (I finished throwing together my things for the honeymoon and gabbed the bag I was taking to my parents as I was staying there that night), we were on our way. Jake, Adam, Lizi, Roger and Alan decided not to come to the bonfire, which is fine, but they totally missed out on some fun times. As we were leaving the house I broke my fingernail trying to get the truck's door open. And of course I broke one of the ones with the rhinestones on it. I was bummed. I popped off a couple of the rhinestones and the thing was broken down to the quick. Ruined my damn manicure! And hurt too! Oh well, at least it was the ringfinger on my right hand.
Andy and I arrived at my mom's house and Bethanne and Seth, Brandy and Stacie were already there, along with some family and family friends from N.J. As soon as we were there (actually before, I think) my mom started pouring shots for everyone and Budd began started trying to light the bonfire. Now lighting the bonfire wasn't an easy task as it had been raining all day. It required a lot of time and a lot of gas to get that huge pile of wood ablazed but Budd was up to the task. While Budd attempt to light the bonfire, the rest of us were in the house tossing back slippery nipples with my mom. I think we did about.. 6 or 7 shots? Well, except Seth. He did like...12. My mom just kept handing them to him and apparently Seth was a fan of the slippery nipple. Somewhere in the middle of the shots, Dave and Miriam arrived. At least, I think that's when they got there. Once we were all warmed on the inside, we made our way out to the fire. Things got progressively drunker from there. Budd and his sister were particularly drunk. His sister asked me if I knew uncle Raymond. Um... yeah. I know uncle Raymond... the uncle part might have given that away. Haha. And Budd was hanging off Seth (he really liked Seth), bonding with him and trying to get him to spill intimate details of he and Bethanne's relationship. He then moved on to hanging off Brandy and telling her to stay away from my brother Brad. He also asked me if Brandy had a peter. Hahaha. I told him yes but only a little one. He laughed and then he stopped and looked at her for a minute and then said, "You and I are twins!" It was so hilarious. Budd was so funny that night. Some of my mom's brothers and sisters came up for a while and we all enjoyed ourselves at the fire.
Sometime later, it was getting pretty late at this point... maybe 11:30 p.m., Budd's brother and his wife and her kids arrived. Well, they stirred shit up. One daughter and her husband brought their dog (who can't be let off lead) for some damn reason and some scuffle happened between their dog and the puppies. The other daughter had her toddler son with her and was apparently in the middle of the dog scuffle? I don't know. I didn't see it. But I guess one of them tried to kick Gage to get him away from their dog and after that Andy was hacked. The dogs were separated. I think Budd might have done some yelling... or someone did and they took their dog and kid and went into the camper they had brought and didn't come out for the rest of the night. Shortly after that Bethanne and I sent Andy and Seth home for the night as it was getting late and we needed to be getting ready for bed so that we could get some sleep. Andy's still pissed about the dog incident. I am too, though probably not as much as him because I didn't see it happen.
While getting things set for bed -- Bethanne and Miriam were staying the night with me at my parents -- I went in to check on my dress and found it lying, still in it's garment bag on my brother's bed. My mom had never hung it up after we picked it up from being steamed. She and I pulled it out of the garment bag and found that it was a little wrinkled, as I had feared. I have no idea why my mom thought lying it on the bed was good enough... But she did for some reason. I stressed a little over that. I stressed mom out over it too.
Bethanne, Miriam and I showered (not together) and started getting ready to settle in for the night. Bethanne gave me an awesome french pedicure before bed though. My toes looked so cute. (They looked really cute for the entire cruise too!)
Finally we settled down, set the alarm and got some shut eye (to the sounds of drunken hoots and hollers from the bonfire).