The Wedding of the Year (so far, at least...)
Big, honkin' wedding post.
Cut for those who will find this long and rambling.
edit: Wow, I wrote a lot. Bear in mind that I did something unusual for me: I wrote a lot of this to recap in for myself, in the future. I want to remember this stuff, so I wrote it down here.
Also, I spelled names wrong, I'm sure. Sorry.
Wedding Stuff
For those of you who didn't know, I was in a wedding this past weekend. It was the first time I have ever been in a wedding, and the experience was fun.
I left Friday at about 3:30, so I could make it to St. John's by 6. Unfortunately, the online maps took me on kinda a rural tour of mid-MI (I should've just taked 69 to 27, but it's over now). It ended up having me exit 75 right at the exit I used to use to get to my sister's when she lived at Kettering, so it brought up many fond Flint memories. Also, within 3 minutes of entering Flint, I had to stop for a cop car. Ah, the memories....
I passed a Fazzoli's, and I had to resist the impulse to stop. I so wanted to.... I <3 Fazzoli's...the temptation was so strong... sometimes I wish I HAD stopped....
Then, I made an amazing discovery: I found where lawn knomes are born! There was this shop somewhere along the drive that had about 1/2 an acre COVERED with various lawn ornaments. It was just a blur of white cement as I passed by. So... many... lawn... ornaments...
There was pretty decent traffic most of the way. I didn't feel too "children of the corn".... until I was almost to the church. Then I was driving in the dark through these seemingly deserted roads. I think I went over 10 minutes without seeing another person. Plus, my cell phone didn't have a signal, so if I hadn't of found it, I may still have been driving those roads as we speak.
The rehearsal was good. I was surprised how many people were there. I didn't think much about who comes to those things, but there seemed to be a lot of people. Bethany's newborn niece was there, and I couldn't help remembering that the last time I went to a rehearsal, I was almost her age, being passed around between the various adults. Though I was 6 months, and she is TINY.
What more to say about the rehearsal? I found it really funny that we got to put little pieces of tape down as our "marks", just like theater people. Noah has become a VERY affectionate kid; he was hugging everyone like crazy! He said he remembered me, but I really doubt that. We hung out; it was cool. I thought it was cute to watch all the little nephews and nieces play together (can you tell I like little kids?)
Listening to Ben talk was a nice little reminder of college. I decided Justin reminds me a lot of Scott. I finally "met" Jeremy, seeing as I don't think I actually talked to him during either day. It was good to see Jill & Pat.
I got some new things to ponder. During rehearsal, both Ben and Jesse purposely fudged the lines. At the time I thought it was more to be funny, but now I wonder if there is some legality involved; like if you actually say it, are you married then? Like religiously? Very Series of Unfortunate Events quandary.
Now, some of you know I made this picture montogue/slide show thingie for the wedding. I spent a lot of time and energy on it (and enjoyed it immensely, in case there is a doubt). We tried to show it at the rehearsal, but there were.... problems. To make a unfortunately long story short, the media player and the projector didn't play well together. But Pat, selflessly volunteering his laptop, saved the video and became my new hero. If it hadn't of worked, I don't think I would have actually gotten too upset about it; the video itself was fine, and Bethany & Jesse would still eventually get it. However, I did really want to see people see it, so I'm glad it eventually worked.
I spent the night at Brenda's parents with them, Brenda's husband, Nikki, and her husband. Brenda's parents have the coolest house EVER. It's HUGE. Upstairs there are 4 bedrooms, a bathroom, a sewing room, a laundry room, and a family room with a bar! It was BEAUTIFUL.
Nikki and I left for the hair place at about 9am. Everything was so slippery, it was really dangerous walking, let alone driving. I'm glad I didn't kill anyone (or my car) that day.
We (as in Nikki, Katheryn, Brenda, Kayla, & I) at the hair place, so we had it to ourselves for awhile. Brenda's mom sent us breakfast, and we ate it there. I'm still not sure if I like what I had her do, but hey, it's done now. The stylists were a little weird.
Afterwards, to kill some time, all of us minus Brenda went to Walmart (sorry, Ken!). Now, the most evil thing I thought about St. John is it has 2 Walmart's within walking distance of each other. I was mad, until I found out one is still being built, and the other will close when it opens. So it's less evil then I thought. I bought a camera battery, which was good, cause mine ran out.
We headed over to the church, where they provided us with snacks AND lunch. I ate so much last weekend. Bethany was there, and Tara was doing her hair. The rest of us ate, did our make-up, and played cards. We played a card game I had never played before, called "Golf". I did pretty good. Noah helped me.
While the guys did their pictures, we got dressed and finished with getting ready. Then the girls took pictures, which didn't take that long, but may have taken longer if we had had time, which I think we ran out of. We spent some more time hiding out in the dressing room, waiting.
I should take a moment to say that Bethany looked really pretty. I don't want to say it like Tara did such a good job, cause that implies she's not usually pretty, but it was cool to see her all dressed up, with her hair and actual make-up on. Yeah, I'm being girly, but she looked nice.
At one point, Bethany started to kind of hyperventalate because of the temperature in the room and all the people in there. That was not good. She seemed to be fine the rest of the day, as far as I could tell, thankfully.
When we went to line up, we stood there for awhile before someone (ie, Kris) noticed that Bethany didn't have her veil. I still crack up that we all missed that. Good job, Kris!
We all managed to walk down the isle without tripping or anything. Lydia got scared of Justin and refused to, which was funny. Ben cried a little during the ceremony, which was incredibly cute.
There isn't much to say about the ceremony. It went really smoothly; it was nice, not too short, not too long. No fires were started or drunk relatives were roudy. It was nice.
After, they showed my video, and I was going to go up to the balcony and watch it with the other bridesmaids, but ended up watching it from the back of the church with Bethany and Jesse. It was cool, because I did actually get to see their responses, and it was fun.
Quick note: Duplian Church of Christ's sanctuary is almost exactly like St. Peter's old one. No joke. It amazed me. Same pew arrangement, same window things in the back, same placement of the stairs to the balcony. Same ceiling. Mostly, it was just smaller. WEIRD.
Afterwards, we got the best present of the wedding: we did NOT have to be in the receiving line! That was a blessing I didn't appreciate until I was NOT in it.
We took pictures with the whole group then, and got to leave while B & J had to take more together. Headed over to the hall, which was AMAZING. That is my favorite dinning hall EVER. It kind of looked like a lodge; with tons of windows and this cool porch that went all the way around. The room wasn't the kind of black-hole rooms you usually see. The walls were light colored, and there were all these kind of christmas lights around. SERIOUSLY pretty.
They split up the head tables into 3. I was at table 2 with Kathryn, Frank, Nicki, Matt, Kayla, Courney, and her significant other. It was nice Kayla was there, since I wasn't the only one with out a date, thought she is 17, so it was slightly pathetic. After we ate, they took our tables! We were on the dance floor, so they got rid of the head tables. We were left orphans. :(
Now, you know how usually you do the tap-the-glass thing and the couple has to kiss? Well, they did something different, which was ganked from Ben & Kris, and I don't know who they ganked it from. Every couple there was put on a list. Every once in a while, the DJ would call out a couple, and they would have to kiss. Then B & J had to minic the kiss; body movements, where the kiss was placed, how they approached each other. I used to think this was just a way to get out of doing the glass-thing, but it turned out to be really fun. I can see myself doing it someday at my imaginary wedding. Although, at my wedding a brawl may break out when my parents and their significant others came up, and I may need a bouncer (hmmm.... note to self: bouncer at my imaginary wedding might be a good idea reguardless...).
I definetly learned somethings. There are things I would have done differently, but I got some pretty good ideas too. Maybe someday I'll actually get a chance to use it.
I have to say my first real bad comment, though. The food was fairly crap. Those bow ties were disgusting, the beef tips were scary, and the chicken was dry. The potatos were fine, and the rolls were wonderful. And we all should know what I think of the green beans and peppermint sticks. # out of my 4 chocolates were good. The cake was half good; yellow cake good, cherry-speckled crap not.
Another downer of the evening: I locked my keys in my car. I went to get something from my car, was in a hurry, and left them on the seat. Knew as soon as the door shut. Plus side: AAA was really fast.
As I meantioned earlier, I did dance. I'm shocked myself. Not well, granted, and never during a slow song, but I attempted, and that was more dancing then I had ever done before. Me, Nicki, and Kathryn were amazed at some of the music played, as this was a very conservative group. There were some bad songs in there. I hope the church people really did leave early.
In stead of a guest book, they had everyone sign a picture frame. Much better than the tray, IMHO.
The evening wore down, and I stayed until mostly the end. I stayed at Brenda's parents again, this time plus Brenda and her brother and minus Nicki and Matt. We had some nice conversations that night. The next day they took me out to eat for lunch, which was really great of them, and I headed home.
All in all, I had a really gerat time. It was fun, it was touching, and I'm really glad I got the honor to be a part of it.
This next part I hesitate to write, seeing as Jesse will be reading this, Bethany will probably be eventually, and others will be as well. One regret I do have is that I don't feel like I really spent any time with the bride or groom. It seems to me like I haven't really spent any real time with either of them lately, and, well, I miss them. I know they're really, really busy, but I guess I thought I'd get to see more of them.
I got to see a lot of other people that I haven't seen in awhile that I miss too (ie, John, Jill, Pat, Bryan, Scott, Allison, Ben, etc). I wish I had gotten more time with everyone, but I don't think I really expected to see much more of them at the wedding, cause, well, there was a lot going on.
Is that silly, that those two paragraphs pretty much contridict each other? Yeah. My mind is silly that way. :)
Umm, conclusion? Friends are good, weddings are good, love is good, good times are good, and I miss people.
Cut for those who will find this long and rambling.
edit: Wow, I wrote a lot. Bear in mind that I did something unusual for me: I wrote a lot of this to recap in for myself, in the future. I want to remember this stuff, so I wrote it down here.
Also, I spelled names wrong, I'm sure. Sorry.
Wedding Stuff
For those of you who didn't know, I was in a wedding this past weekend. It was the first time I have ever been in a wedding, and the experience was fun.
I left Friday at about 3:30, so I could make it to St. John's by 6. Unfortunately, the online maps took me on kinda a rural tour of mid-MI (I should've just taked 69 to 27, but it's over now). It ended up having me exit 75 right at the exit I used to use to get to my sister's when she lived at Kettering, so it brought up many fond Flint memories. Also, within 3 minutes of entering Flint, I had to stop for a cop car. Ah, the memories....
I passed a Fazzoli's, and I had to resist the impulse to stop. I so wanted to.... I <3 Fazzoli's...the temptation was so strong... sometimes I wish I HAD stopped....
Then, I made an amazing discovery: I found where lawn knomes are born! There was this shop somewhere along the drive that had about 1/2 an acre COVERED with various lawn ornaments. It was just a blur of white cement as I passed by. So... many... lawn... ornaments...
There was pretty decent traffic most of the way. I didn't feel too "children of the corn".... until I was almost to the church. Then I was driving in the dark through these seemingly deserted roads. I think I went over 10 minutes without seeing another person. Plus, my cell phone didn't have a signal, so if I hadn't of found it, I may still have been driving those roads as we speak.
The rehearsal was good. I was surprised how many people were there. I didn't think much about who comes to those things, but there seemed to be a lot of people. Bethany's newborn niece was there, and I couldn't help remembering that the last time I went to a rehearsal, I was almost her age, being passed around between the various adults. Though I was 6 months, and she is TINY.
What more to say about the rehearsal? I found it really funny that we got to put little pieces of tape down as our "marks", just like theater people. Noah has become a VERY affectionate kid; he was hugging everyone like crazy! He said he remembered me, but I really doubt that. We hung out; it was cool. I thought it was cute to watch all the little nephews and nieces play together (can you tell I like little kids?)
Listening to Ben talk was a nice little reminder of college. I decided Justin reminds me a lot of Scott. I finally "met" Jeremy, seeing as I don't think I actually talked to him during either day. It was good to see Jill & Pat.
I got some new things to ponder. During rehearsal, both Ben and Jesse purposely fudged the lines. At the time I thought it was more to be funny, but now I wonder if there is some legality involved; like if you actually say it, are you married then? Like religiously? Very Series of Unfortunate Events quandary.
Now, some of you know I made this picture montogue/slide show thingie for the wedding. I spent a lot of time and energy on it (and enjoyed it immensely, in case there is a doubt). We tried to show it at the rehearsal, but there were.... problems. To make a unfortunately long story short, the media player and the projector didn't play well together. But Pat, selflessly volunteering his laptop, saved the video and became my new hero. If it hadn't of worked, I don't think I would have actually gotten too upset about it; the video itself was fine, and Bethany & Jesse would still eventually get it. However, I did really want to see people see it, so I'm glad it eventually worked.
I spent the night at Brenda's parents with them, Brenda's husband, Nikki, and her husband. Brenda's parents have the coolest house EVER. It's HUGE. Upstairs there are 4 bedrooms, a bathroom, a sewing room, a laundry room, and a family room with a bar! It was BEAUTIFUL.
Nikki and I left for the hair place at about 9am. Everything was so slippery, it was really dangerous walking, let alone driving. I'm glad I didn't kill anyone (or my car) that day.
We (as in Nikki, Katheryn, Brenda, Kayla, & I) at the hair place, so we had it to ourselves for awhile. Brenda's mom sent us breakfast, and we ate it there. I'm still not sure if I like what I had her do, but hey, it's done now. The stylists were a little weird.
Afterwards, to kill some time, all of us minus Brenda went to Walmart (sorry, Ken!). Now, the most evil thing I thought about St. John is it has 2 Walmart's within walking distance of each other. I was mad, until I found out one is still being built, and the other will close when it opens. So it's less evil then I thought. I bought a camera battery, which was good, cause mine ran out.
We headed over to the church, where they provided us with snacks AND lunch. I ate so much last weekend. Bethany was there, and Tara was doing her hair. The rest of us ate, did our make-up, and played cards. We played a card game I had never played before, called "Golf". I did pretty good. Noah helped me.
While the guys did their pictures, we got dressed and finished with getting ready. Then the girls took pictures, which didn't take that long, but may have taken longer if we had had time, which I think we ran out of. We spent some more time hiding out in the dressing room, waiting.
I should take a moment to say that Bethany looked really pretty. I don't want to say it like Tara did such a good job, cause that implies she's not usually pretty, but it was cool to see her all dressed up, with her hair and actual make-up on. Yeah, I'm being girly, but she looked nice.
At one point, Bethany started to kind of hyperventalate because of the temperature in the room and all the people in there. That was not good. She seemed to be fine the rest of the day, as far as I could tell, thankfully.
When we went to line up, we stood there for awhile before someone (ie, Kris) noticed that Bethany didn't have her veil. I still crack up that we all missed that. Good job, Kris!
We all managed to walk down the isle without tripping or anything. Lydia got scared of Justin and refused to, which was funny. Ben cried a little during the ceremony, which was incredibly cute.
There isn't much to say about the ceremony. It went really smoothly; it was nice, not too short, not too long. No fires were started or drunk relatives were roudy. It was nice.
After, they showed my video, and I was going to go up to the balcony and watch it with the other bridesmaids, but ended up watching it from the back of the church with Bethany and Jesse. It was cool, because I did actually get to see their responses, and it was fun.
Quick note: Duplian Church of Christ's sanctuary is almost exactly like St. Peter's old one. No joke. It amazed me. Same pew arrangement, same window things in the back, same placement of the stairs to the balcony. Same ceiling. Mostly, it was just smaller. WEIRD.
Afterwards, we got the best present of the wedding: we did NOT have to be in the receiving line! That was a blessing I didn't appreciate until I was NOT in it.
We took pictures with the whole group then, and got to leave while B & J had to take more together. Headed over to the hall, which was AMAZING. That is my favorite dinning hall EVER. It kind of looked like a lodge; with tons of windows and this cool porch that went all the way around. The room wasn't the kind of black-hole rooms you usually see. The walls were light colored, and there were all these kind of christmas lights around. SERIOUSLY pretty.
They split up the head tables into 3. I was at table 2 with Kathryn, Frank, Nicki, Matt, Kayla, Courney, and her significant other. It was nice Kayla was there, since I wasn't the only one with out a date, thought she is 17, so it was slightly pathetic. After we ate, they took our tables! We were on the dance floor, so they got rid of the head tables. We were left orphans. :(
Now, you know how usually you do the tap-the-glass thing and the couple has to kiss? Well, they did something different, which was ganked from Ben & Kris, and I don't know who they ganked it from. Every couple there was put on a list. Every once in a while, the DJ would call out a couple, and they would have to kiss. Then B & J had to minic the kiss; body movements, where the kiss was placed, how they approached each other. I used to think this was just a way to get out of doing the glass-thing, but it turned out to be really fun. I can see myself doing it someday at my imaginary wedding. Although, at my wedding a brawl may break out when my parents and their significant others came up, and I may need a bouncer (hmmm.... note to self: bouncer at my imaginary wedding might be a good idea reguardless...).
I definetly learned somethings. There are things I would have done differently, but I got some pretty good ideas too. Maybe someday I'll actually get a chance to use it.
I have to say my first real bad comment, though. The food was fairly crap. Those bow ties were disgusting, the beef tips were scary, and the chicken was dry. The potatos were fine, and the rolls were wonderful. And we all should know what I think of the green beans and peppermint sticks. # out of my 4 chocolates were good. The cake was half good; yellow cake good, cherry-speckled crap not.
Another downer of the evening: I locked my keys in my car. I went to get something from my car, was in a hurry, and left them on the seat. Knew as soon as the door shut. Plus side: AAA was really fast.
As I meantioned earlier, I did dance. I'm shocked myself. Not well, granted, and never during a slow song, but I attempted, and that was more dancing then I had ever done before. Me, Nicki, and Kathryn were amazed at some of the music played, as this was a very conservative group. There were some bad songs in there. I hope the church people really did leave early.
In stead of a guest book, they had everyone sign a picture frame. Much better than the tray, IMHO.
The evening wore down, and I stayed until mostly the end. I stayed at Brenda's parents again, this time plus Brenda and her brother and minus Nicki and Matt. We had some nice conversations that night. The next day they took me out to eat for lunch, which was really great of them, and I headed home.
All in all, I had a really gerat time. It was fun, it was touching, and I'm really glad I got the honor to be a part of it.
This next part I hesitate to write, seeing as Jesse will be reading this, Bethany will probably be eventually, and others will be as well. One regret I do have is that I don't feel like I really spent any time with the bride or groom. It seems to me like I haven't really spent any real time with either of them lately, and, well, I miss them. I know they're really, really busy, but I guess I thought I'd get to see more of them.
I got to see a lot of other people that I haven't seen in awhile that I miss too (ie, John, Jill, Pat, Bryan, Scott, Allison, Ben, etc). I wish I had gotten more time with everyone, but I don't think I really expected to see much more of them at the wedding, cause, well, there was a lot going on.
Is that silly, that those two paragraphs pretty much contridict each other? Yeah. My mind is silly that way. :)
Umm, conclusion? Friends are good, weddings are good, love is good, good times are good, and I miss people.