Pre-Wedding Celebration
Most everyone arrived at my wedding Friday evening. But everone seemed too tired to do anything except eat dinner and go to bed. Many of them traveled from California and needed to get up early in order to arrive at a decent hour. The three hour difference really does screw with you. But a few people returned to my room for chatting, until I kicked them out because I was too tired.
Saturday was when the fun really started. We had rehearsal at 10am at the officiant's office. They had a little walkway that doubled nicely as the aisle. It took about half an hour to get everything done, mostly because we didn't know who paired up with whom and what the parents were going to do. We went through 2 rounds before we called it a day. It was getting hellaciously hot by 10:30. My bridesmaids decided how they were going hold their hands, whether or not to open their parasols, etc. They discussed amongst themselves and agreed what to do, which made my wrangling much easier.
After that, we went to the cheesecake factory. We were originally going to go to a Thai place, but they had charged us twice for the same meal and they said they couldnz't find any record of that, so we said, forget it. Chris arranged for us to eat at the Cheeseczke Factory in Winter Park, which was about a 45 minute drive from the officiant's office. I thought that might have been too far to drive and I called the Cheesecake Factory at Mall at Millenia. Both were able to accomodate 30+ people on short notice and allowed for seperate checks. We opted for the Millenia one because they were only 10 minutes away. They were fantastic when we got there and served us well.
We took a short break to walk around the mall and then off to laser tag at Wonderworks on Sand Lake Road. We played two games, both of which, Ib got nearly the top score. My theory was that I'd run around and shoot. Peozple couldn't get me if I moved alot. However Dave B.'s method was much better as he found a corner to hide and shoot from and managed to get twice as many points as I did!
At one point, my brother and I were back to back near the wall and we got several targets that way, however, Dave Z(different than Dave B) came running up to us and got both of us, so we split up. During one game, I ran smack into Faust's chest. He's a muscled man who can lift about 350, so I just bounced. It's like hitting a wall, but I wasn't hurt, just amused.
The plan was to finish up with Go-Kart, but everone was tired from running two games, seven minutes each, so we just returned to our hotel where we just relaxed and either hung out in my room or at the pool.
Dinner was a pizza party at BJ's that we'd planned. It might sound like a kid's birthday party, laser tag and pizza, but we enjoyed it immensely. While at BJ's, we ordered a large Pizookie. It's a baked cookie with ice cream. We originally expected just a handful of us to eat it because we didn't consult with the second table, but the next thing we knew those scavengers came to our table like a group of starving vultures and devoured the Pizookie. It was all well and good though. Everyone took a small enough amount so that everyone was able to get some.
After dinner, we returned to the hotel where everyone offered to let us get some rest. But as we all know, hallway conversations always last a lot longer than you realize. By the time we were in our hotel room, it was nearly midnight. We were tired and ready for bed.
The one thing I regret is that I don't have photos of any of it.But at least I'll have the memories.