Mom's wedding - September 27
Thursday afternoon I left work right after lunch and started towards Pennsylvania, which turned out to be smart. Even though I should have had an hour's lead on dmitriizhirov getting into Pittsburgh, that was eaten up by traffic construction on I-470 outside of Wheeling. By the time we got to my Dad's house, we collapsed, which was ok, because he had been drinking with buddies and was on the verge of falling asleep anyway.
Friday morning I had to go get my dress fitted at the seamstress, and we stopped and had a marvelous breakfast at, of all places, Sheetz, after a complete failure to find a suitable diner or other breakfast place. We also shopped for the undergarments for my dress and a present for my nephew's birthday. We made a quick stop at Rich's house to show Mom my dress, since she had just emailed me suggestions from the catalogue and let me choose what looked best on me. They surprised us at the house by having my cousin Patra answer the door. Patra had booked her flight from Seattle less than a week before the wedding and hadn't told anyone other than her mother she was coming. We met Aunt Brenda and Dad at the cemetery to leave flowers for Mimi and Pap and then had lunch at Bob Evans.
We arrived early for the rehearsal, and dmitriizhirov sat in the pews and goofed off with the other guests. I met my stepbrother Matt standing across from him during the rehearsal. The rehearsal was fairly fast, but Rich was irritable because both of my brothers were late getting there, and all three of the boys kept doing things that annoyed him like slouching and standing around with their hands in their pockets.
The rehearsal dinner was at Mom and Rich's house. To save money and energy, my Aunt Trish and Rich's sister Gwen did the cooking, and it was largely a family affair, other than Mike, Rich's best friend Chuck and his wife, Mom's best friend Donna, Donna's husband Loren, Donna's granddaughter Amanda, and my brother Andy's girlfriend-of-the-moment Alex. (I actually like Alex, but I don't follow her and Andy's relationship. We don't hear much about Alex until there is an extended family thing going on, and then she is the date he shows up with. I wonder if she is the most socially acceptable of the women he dates.) Of course, when I say largely a family affair, that doesn't mean there weren't plenty of people. Family includes Grandma, stepgrandmother Mildred, stepaunts Gwen and Melinda, Aunt Trish, Uncle Jim, cousin Patra, brother Andrew, brother Casey, sister-in-law Megan, nephews Izacc and Ryland, stepbrother Matt...
Izacc, being 7, was pretty well overwhelmed by the number of people there and mostly zipped around hiding behind things, but he did poke his head out long enough to open his birthday present of Cranium Cadoo from me. He liked his card too - a card with pictures of dinosaurs all over that wished him a dino-mite birthday. I guess if I stick to telling my jokes to kids, they think I'm funny. Ryland was adorable. He spent the whole evening looking around in wide-eyed wonder and moving from adult to adult, other than a quick walking trip across the floor assisted by my brother. For an 11 month old, he is very calm and quiet.
Saturday morning I convinced Mike to go to breakfast with the guys while I went with Mom to get our nails and hair done. Patra was late getting us to Mom's house, so Mom threw her car angrily in reverse and proceeded to run the entire side along Rich's landscaping trailer, ripping off her bumper. It was at that point that Patra and I attempted to blend into the upholstery like chameleons so that we would not be harmed in the bridal explosion. It is never good when the bride dissolves into tears.
We got the hair and nails done without further incident and everyone arrived in plenty of time for the pictures. I was very grateful that Aunt Trish accompanied Mom and me and took care of getting Mom laced into her gown and calmed down. Mom was definitely coming down with a throat/respiratory infection of some kind, but the compresses and ibuprofen restored her to a pretty good state. By then, my cousin Jennifer and aunt Jacqueline had arrived, so we had the entire family at the church early for photos with the bride. It drizzled all weekend, so we were largely limited to photos inside, although Mike got some nice ones of the churchyard and buildings while he was waiting for the wedding to start.
The ceremony was lovely, especially the music. The soloist, Rich's niece-in-law, was perfect. I only cried a little (not helped by my bratty cousin mouthing the words "don't cry. don't cry" to me while I was standing up there. :P Mom looked gorgeous, and both she and Rich seemed a lot more relaxed once we actually go to the wedding part. I also enjoyed the touch of having the bride and groom each present a rose to the other's mother and place a rose in the church window in memory of their fathers.
The receiption was under a big tent on the stone porch outside the Kanaga House, the bed and breakfast the wedding party stayed in. The Kanaga House really deserves an entry in and of itself. It's a huge stone house built in 1775 and filled with antique furniture and decor. The only downside was that the rain was hard enough to flood under the tent and wet the stones, which made the dance floor somewhat slick. The reception food was phenomenal. Everyone in the family looked happy, nobody bickered about anything I knew of, and it was all in all a wonderful evening. After the reception formally shut down, we took some wine, leftover Ghiardelli chocolates, and Mom, Rich, some of Rich's relatives, Mike, Jennifer, Patra and I sat in the parlor of the Kanage House some more.
I woke up early Sunday morning and took some pictures of the Kanaga House, as well as some artsy pictures of Mom's and my bouquets. Sunday morning was a "family" brunch that involved 85% of the people who had been at the wedding. It was delicious, and a good way to wind down the weekend before we all scattered. Mom and Rich left on their honeymoon after most of the family had departed.
The last thing Mike and I did Sunday was stop by my grandparents' old house to pick up some more things that my brother said I could have.