(no subject)
So, you may have noticed that my big brother got married recently. It was wonderful. It was a beautiful wedding--small (around fifty people, I think), but lovely. There were board games and Rock Band and a lot of people who truly love Brad and Cecilia. Cecilia looked amazing. Brad's hat had the ticket stub from their first date (Zombieland) tucked into the band. The groomsmen--all in dark suits and wearing hats--formed a firing squad with Nerf machine guns and hit Brad with at least a few hundred darts. They recessed to Final Fantasy, they danced to Abney Park, their cake topper was Lego pirates (and it was Talk Like A Pirate Day), they started the reception by playing their first Rock Band round as a married couple, and they said the most beautiful vows that I've ever heard. And their officiant gave the most perfect wedding mini-sermon ever--not too long, but not skimping on the theology, not too silly, but still humorous, and he wins at everything for pointing out that the ubiquitous 'Love is...' passage from 1 Corinthians has nothing to do with marriage and that Paul's actual advice on the subject was 'don't get married unless you are burning with lust' (at which point I think everyone silently shouted 'I think we can probably still proceed'), but rather that it's part of a larger dialogue on the building of community.
There were a lot of hands from both families helping with everything, from set-up and clean-up and food and serving to hair braiding and coordinating. My most important role was as the Keeper of the Emergency Bag. The Emergency Bag was something that I started compulsively filling at 2am the night before we were leaving for Austin (we left early to go to Cecilia's bachelorette party, to get things ready for the rehearsal dinner, to be on hand to help with things, etc.) I was planning to take a few things anyway, because I needed to finish Cecilia's fascinator (we added a black and white cameo, but I had four different ones for her to choose from) and I wanted to have some sewing things in case the veil needed alterations....
...and the more I thought about it, the more things seemed potential useful, and before I knew it I had a giant tote bag ready to deal with everything. I just unpacked it and laid out the contents to have a look:
Contents of the Emergency Bag: Sewing kit (needles, embroidery scissors, beeswax, pins, chalk, rotary cutters, seam ripper, white buttons, black buttons, thread in white, black, cream, and grey, tape measure, disappearing ink markers, permanent markers, thimble), mirror, nail polish remover, make-up removing wipes, concealer compact, anti-chafe gel, sunblock, face wash, antiseptic spray, perfume, deodorant, lip stain, stain removing marker, hot glue gun, craft glue, glue stick, double sided tape, sticky tacky, Scotch tape, caution tape, bug repelling wipes, bug spray, fabric glue, pinking sheers, scissors, wire cutters, florists wire, black ribbon, batteries, hair spray, more sunblock
All of the items in bold were used--to repair a ripped seam on my dress, to add a tiny veil to the Lego pirate bride on the cake topper, to hang paper lanterns, to decorate tables, to power cameras, to keep strapless shirts from moving, to keep people from opening the door of the bridal party's changing room (we put caution tape over the door), and all manner of other last minute details. All weekend it was "Does anyone have scissors/tape/glue/something to keep people out/batteries/to keep the groom's sister from smelling like a locker room/etc.?" followed by "Ask Charis, she has a bag."
This bag?
WINS AT EVERYTHING.
There were a lot of hands from both families helping with everything, from set-up and clean-up and food and serving to hair braiding and coordinating. My most important role was as the Keeper of the Emergency Bag. The Emergency Bag was something that I started compulsively filling at 2am the night before we were leaving for Austin (we left early to go to Cecilia's bachelorette party, to get things ready for the rehearsal dinner, to be on hand to help with things, etc.) I was planning to take a few things anyway, because I needed to finish Cecilia's fascinator (we added a black and white cameo, but I had four different ones for her to choose from) and I wanted to have some sewing things in case the veil needed alterations....
...and the more I thought about it, the more things seemed potential useful, and before I knew it I had a giant tote bag ready to deal with everything. I just unpacked it and laid out the contents to have a look:
Contents of the Emergency Bag: Sewing kit (needles, embroidery scissors, beeswax, pins, chalk, rotary cutters, seam ripper, white buttons, black buttons, thread in white, black, cream, and grey, tape measure, disappearing ink markers, permanent markers, thimble), mirror, nail polish remover, make-up removing wipes, concealer compact, anti-chafe gel, sunblock, face wash, antiseptic spray, perfume, deodorant, lip stain, stain removing marker, hot glue gun, craft glue, glue stick, double sided tape, sticky tacky, Scotch tape, caution tape, bug repelling wipes, bug spray, fabric glue, pinking sheers, scissors, wire cutters, florists wire, black ribbon, batteries, hair spray, more sunblock
All of the items in bold were used--to repair a ripped seam on my dress, to add a tiny veil to the Lego pirate bride on the cake topper, to hang paper lanterns, to decorate tables, to power cameras, to keep strapless shirts from moving, to keep people from opening the door of the bridal party's changing room (we put caution tape over the door), and all manner of other last minute details. All weekend it was "Does anyone have scissors/tape/glue/something to keep people out/batteries/to keep the groom's sister from smelling like a locker room/etc.?" followed by "Ask Charis, she has a bag."
This bag?
WINS AT EVERYTHING.