Operation Wedding is Go! - The days before the wedding and the rehearsal
More journaling for myself. :)
I took a few days off before the wedding to make sure all the little details were taken care of. I *think* I would have been OK with just the Friday off, but taking Thursday too meant that I was much more relaxed about the whole thing. I finished up all the little projects like final seating charts and printing and mounting the signage. We were not having assigned seating for the ceremony, but I realized at the last minute that we probably wanted to at least reserve spaces for immediate family to make sure that at least the parents and siblings had priority seating, so I made little signs and dug out some gold upholstery cord to drape across the reserved seats and make it look all nice. We also made a trip to CostCo to pick up some snacks for the cocktail hour and some candy for the tables. I am usually the sort that has a ridiculous amount of snack foods left at the end of a party, but in this case, Mr. Greg was putting me to shame. He was intent on buying a lot more than I'd planned on and we ended up getting out of there with a FULL cartload of snacks, and CostCo carts are NOT small! :P Ah well, leftovers are better than hungry guests.
Thursday was a super busy day. I got up eary to meet the flower delivery guy who came quite early in the day and delivered two enormous boxes of flowers. The dahlias were much more purple than burgundy, which disappointed me, but done was done and we would have to roll with it. I quickly processed them and got all the flowers into water, occupying pretty much every large vessel we owned and much of the counter space in the house. Then I rocketed out the door for a manicure - I am generally not into nail polish and all that, but I figured with so many people looking at or taking pictures of my fingers, it was probably worth it. I went and had them done at the local beauty college, partially because they were cheap and partially because they were across the street from the wedding site. In retrospect, I probably should have just paid for a practiced professional, because it was not a super positive experience. I opted for the gel manicure since that is supposed to be more durable and I figured that since they do the fast-cure under a light, maybe I wouldn't mess it up, but the application was very awkward. Once I was done there, I went to the wedding site and got the key and a last tour of the site. Here's where the first glitch happened - the red velvet curtain we had meant to use as a backdrop had torn and we would have to use the 70's gold one instead. It was a little disappointing, but there really wasn't anything to be done, so I took the key and went home. We had planned on doing the set-up on Friday, before the rehearsal, but I really wanted to get the areas staged with the correct project boxes, and whymc reluctantly agreed. We packed up both cars - literally to the roofs - and headed down to the site. We arrived pretty late in the evening, and surprised some Masons who were just leaving for the night, but it meant that we had the site to ourselves and didn't have to worry about interfereing with their festivities. Luckily, we found a cart on site that reduced the number of trips we needed to take between the building and the car, but there was still a lot to haul in and then get to the appropriate rooms. We got everything sorted, though, and were back home and headed to bed around midnight, including a detour past Woodman's for some additional gourds.
Friday - Oh good gods, it's the day before my WEDDING! I started by getting up in time to change the water on all of the flowers and load the last of the wedding materials, including my dress, into the car. I was a little concerned, since many of the flowers were already opening, but I figured they just had to make it through the day on Saturday and it would be OK. We were not going to be home in time for Trick or Treaters, so we left a giant bucket on the porch with a sign reading "Please take TWO" and just hoped for the best. Greg and I got into the car and ran some lightning-fast errands on the way into site. His cufflinks had not come in the mail yet, so we stopped by the Nedrebo's and picked up a cheap pair that would just have to do. We met a variety of folks on site at about noon. My mom and her boyfriend, Dan, were there right away. My sister, Buffy, was supposed to be there as well, but she had a sick kid that could not be dropped off with the friend who had planned on watching them, so we agreed that she would just come down when her husband got home and was able to watch the kids. Zack and Jenna showed up to help and so did Deena, so we had a good portion of the wedding posse on site. The set up went pretty smoothly - the black stones around the candles for the ceremony space looked really great. We clusetered some pumpkins and gourds around the little faux marble pedestal we were using for an altar and it looked very nice and autumnal. In the Ballroom, our Plan A for the paper lanterns around the dance floor looked derpy, so we took it down and reconfigured. Instead od surrounding the dance floor, Greg, Dan, and Zack constructed a neat chandelier-type arrangement in the middle of the room. Extra lanterns were scattered on tables and surrounded by gourds. I think the ultimate look was better than we had planned, after all. We set up the seating chart table with out little Halloween-bead tokens and next to it placed a cocktail table with a picture of Larry and Mary's (Greg's parents) wedding since Larry passed away a few years ago. Also on that table was our guest book - a dictionary where we asked people to circle words meaningful to a successful marriage or otherwise important to a healthy relationship. I loved this idea, since it eliminated the situation where everyone just writes "congratulations!" or just signs their name. Deena and I constructed the table centerpieces - an IKEA bowl filled with pea gravel and then sticks and gourds arranged to make little haunted houses. I charged Jenna and Teffan with being the house-lighters and going around to each table and lighting the houses with LEDs after the ceremony but before dinner. I organized the bridal room and then it was about 3PM and we were essentially done! Pretty much everyone went their separate ways for a break. Greg had a little nap at the Masonic Center and Teffan and I ran out to the dollar store for a few incidentals and some coffee for the mister.
Before too long, it was 5:30 and time for the rehearsal. I almost forgot, but remembered just in the nick of time, that I had gotten Greg and I rehearsal "uniforms" - Nightmare Before Christmas t-shirts! his was just the smiling Jack's head and mine was a cute Jack-and-Sally in love shirt. :) We probably should have scheduled more than an hour for the rehearsal, so things were a little chaotic, because getting our friends in order is like herding cats, but we got it done. We scripted some funny schtick into the ceremony and everyone was clear on their parts. I had a "practice veil" for the ceremony too, since I wanted to make sure Greg could lift and flip it appropriately. It was awsome - I got some black spiderweb material from the fabric store and sewed it on to a black and rhinestone headband. (I had asked a waitress where she got it, because it matched my wedding theme, and she had given it to me!) So, I got a bonus veil and got to be all spooky bride on Halloween.
After the rehearsal, we went to Taverna Atlantis and had the reception dinner. We assured the waitress that she should just bring out food as it was done and not worry about getting everything to the table at once, since we were such a big group for such a small restaurant. As expected, the food was great (mmmm... lamb) and I think everyone had a good time. It also ended up being cheaper than the other place, I think, even accounting for everyone ordering off the main menu and getting drinks and appetizers if they chose. We had considered inviting folks back to our place for dessert, but opted to just buy a round of baklava instead and headed home for some alone-time around 9:30PM.
We completed the few little things that needed to get done and then Greg and I sat in our library, in our matching comfy recliners pushed close enough so we could hold each other's hand, with the birdies cheeping in the corner, the fireplace on, and a good Scotch in hand. Life was, at that moment, perfect in every way.
I took a few days off before the wedding to make sure all the little details were taken care of. I *think* I would have been OK with just the Friday off, but taking Thursday too meant that I was much more relaxed about the whole thing. I finished up all the little projects like final seating charts and printing and mounting the signage. We were not having assigned seating for the ceremony, but I realized at the last minute that we probably wanted to at least reserve spaces for immediate family to make sure that at least the parents and siblings had priority seating, so I made little signs and dug out some gold upholstery cord to drape across the reserved seats and make it look all nice. We also made a trip to CostCo to pick up some snacks for the cocktail hour and some candy for the tables. I am usually the sort that has a ridiculous amount of snack foods left at the end of a party, but in this case, Mr. Greg was putting me to shame. He was intent on buying a lot more than I'd planned on and we ended up getting out of there with a FULL cartload of snacks, and CostCo carts are NOT small! :P Ah well, leftovers are better than hungry guests.
Thursday was a super busy day. I got up eary to meet the flower delivery guy who came quite early in the day and delivered two enormous boxes of flowers. The dahlias were much more purple than burgundy, which disappointed me, but done was done and we would have to roll with it. I quickly processed them and got all the flowers into water, occupying pretty much every large vessel we owned and much of the counter space in the house. Then I rocketed out the door for a manicure - I am generally not into nail polish and all that, but I figured with so many people looking at or taking pictures of my fingers, it was probably worth it. I went and had them done at the local beauty college, partially because they were cheap and partially because they were across the street from the wedding site. In retrospect, I probably should have just paid for a practiced professional, because it was not a super positive experience. I opted for the gel manicure since that is supposed to be more durable and I figured that since they do the fast-cure under a light, maybe I wouldn't mess it up, but the application was very awkward. Once I was done there, I went to the wedding site and got the key and a last tour of the site. Here's where the first glitch happened - the red velvet curtain we had meant to use as a backdrop had torn and we would have to use the 70's gold one instead. It was a little disappointing, but there really wasn't anything to be done, so I took the key and went home. We had planned on doing the set-up on Friday, before the rehearsal, but I really wanted to get the areas staged with the correct project boxes, and whymc reluctantly agreed. We packed up both cars - literally to the roofs - and headed down to the site. We arrived pretty late in the evening, and surprised some Masons who were just leaving for the night, but it meant that we had the site to ourselves and didn't have to worry about interfereing with their festivities. Luckily, we found a cart on site that reduced the number of trips we needed to take between the building and the car, but there was still a lot to haul in and then get to the appropriate rooms. We got everything sorted, though, and were back home and headed to bed around midnight, including a detour past Woodman's for some additional gourds.
Friday - Oh good gods, it's the day before my WEDDING! I started by getting up in time to change the water on all of the flowers and load the last of the wedding materials, including my dress, into the car. I was a little concerned, since many of the flowers were already opening, but I figured they just had to make it through the day on Saturday and it would be OK. We were not going to be home in time for Trick or Treaters, so we left a giant bucket on the porch with a sign reading "Please take TWO" and just hoped for the best. Greg and I got into the car and ran some lightning-fast errands on the way into site. His cufflinks had not come in the mail yet, so we stopped by the Nedrebo's and picked up a cheap pair that would just have to do. We met a variety of folks on site at about noon. My mom and her boyfriend, Dan, were there right away. My sister, Buffy, was supposed to be there as well, but she had a sick kid that could not be dropped off with the friend who had planned on watching them, so we agreed that she would just come down when her husband got home and was able to watch the kids. Zack and Jenna showed up to help and so did Deena, so we had a good portion of the wedding posse on site. The set up went pretty smoothly - the black stones around the candles for the ceremony space looked really great. We clusetered some pumpkins and gourds around the little faux marble pedestal we were using for an altar and it looked very nice and autumnal. In the Ballroom, our Plan A for the paper lanterns around the dance floor looked derpy, so we took it down and reconfigured. Instead od surrounding the dance floor, Greg, Dan, and Zack constructed a neat chandelier-type arrangement in the middle of the room. Extra lanterns were scattered on tables and surrounded by gourds. I think the ultimate look was better than we had planned, after all. We set up the seating chart table with out little Halloween-bead tokens and next to it placed a cocktail table with a picture of Larry and Mary's (Greg's parents) wedding since Larry passed away a few years ago. Also on that table was our guest book - a dictionary where we asked people to circle words meaningful to a successful marriage or otherwise important to a healthy relationship. I loved this idea, since it eliminated the situation where everyone just writes "congratulations!" or just signs their name. Deena and I constructed the table centerpieces - an IKEA bowl filled with pea gravel and then sticks and gourds arranged to make little haunted houses. I charged Jenna and Teffan with being the house-lighters and going around to each table and lighting the houses with LEDs after the ceremony but before dinner. I organized the bridal room and then it was about 3PM and we were essentially done! Pretty much everyone went their separate ways for a break. Greg had a little nap at the Masonic Center and Teffan and I ran out to the dollar store for a few incidentals and some coffee for the mister.
Before too long, it was 5:30 and time for the rehearsal. I almost forgot, but remembered just in the nick of time, that I had gotten Greg and I rehearsal "uniforms" - Nightmare Before Christmas t-shirts! his was just the smiling Jack's head and mine was a cute Jack-and-Sally in love shirt. :) We probably should have scheduled more than an hour for the rehearsal, so things were a little chaotic, because getting our friends in order is like herding cats, but we got it done. We scripted some funny schtick into the ceremony and everyone was clear on their parts. I had a "practice veil" for the ceremony too, since I wanted to make sure Greg could lift and flip it appropriately. It was awsome - I got some black spiderweb material from the fabric store and sewed it on to a black and rhinestone headband. (I had asked a waitress where she got it, because it matched my wedding theme, and she had given it to me!) So, I got a bonus veil and got to be all spooky bride on Halloween.
After the rehearsal, we went to Taverna Atlantis and had the reception dinner. We assured the waitress that she should just bring out food as it was done and not worry about getting everything to the table at once, since we were such a big group for such a small restaurant. As expected, the food was great (mmmm... lamb) and I think everyone had a good time. It also ended up being cheaper than the other place, I think, even accounting for everyone ordering off the main menu and getting drinks and appetizers if they chose. We had considered inviting folks back to our place for dessert, but opted to just buy a round of baklava instead and headed home for some alone-time around 9:30PM.
We completed the few little things that needed to get done and then Greg and I sat in our library, in our matching comfy recliners pushed close enough so we could hold each other's hand, with the birdies cheeping in the corner, the fireplace on, and a good Scotch in hand. Life was, at that moment, perfect in every way.