"This is true love - you think this happens every day?"
-Westley
So I am finally starting this entry and thinking back on the events of last weekend and smiling. There was a lot of fun had, and surprisingly... I didn't cry when my sister and Ronnie said "I do."
First and foremost -- if you've tried to call me on my cell this past week, I lost it. I left it either at the reception or dropped it at the hotel. The caterer and the hotel staff have been contacted and no one has turned in a phone. So... I have to go get a new one, and finding a minute to do that is difficult. So... I'm sans cell right now. Apologies if you've attempted, or if I have been meaning to call you and your number is in my phone, not in my brain. I will let you know when I have the new one so you can call me and I can get your number into the phone.
Second, photos from the wedding portion of the weekend are here. Photos from the NYC portion of the weekend are here. You can refer to them throughout the entry, and I will be picking a shot here and thereto include here below that kind of sums up the action.
Anyway.
We left on Friday morning after getting an oil change and running a few minor errands. Thursday evening I had picked my dress up. I still wasn't happy with the top, but my arms moved and I could reach for things. We drove down to New London, racing against time after getting stuck in traffic. Doug wanted to get the 1pm ferry. We missed that because we were still in Worcester. We stopped to grab a quick lunch (Doug will not pay the money the ferry asks for their paltry fare) and it took a LOT longer than it should have. So we missed the 1:30 ferry because we were eating.
Had we missed it, the next one wasn't until 3pm, and that would have sucked...
Anyway -- we enjoyed our ride across the sound. There was a man behind us playing his mandolin. Our GES was amused that there was such entertainment on a ferry ride... I told her that was out of the ordinary.
We breezed across the north fork and all the way to our hotel, checked in, and connected with some of the relatives who had arrived before us.
We let Geoff try decaf coffee, which was probably the funniest thing I've seen in a long time. He insisted and begged and pleaded until Doug told him he could have decaf, but not regular, coffee. He thought he was so suave and debonair... he added cream and sugar, stirred it, and immediately took a huge sip like one would drink water.
Shocked at the temperature, he still managed to swallow it instead of spit it across the table at his father, who probably would have killed him.
I could hear in that split second Geoff making a life decision... "spit it out and hit dad and get KILLED on the spot as a result, or swallow and sear my esophagus. Hmmm. What to do, what to do?"
Nonplused, he set the cup down and said "I like it. It's a bit hot. I should add more cream and cool it down..."
Doug cautioned him that a tiny creamer would make little difference, but he didn't seem to care. He finished the cup, making a few faces here and there. I don't think he really liked it but he totally needed to "save face" as it were and get through the cup after making such a to do about having it in the first place.
Please note, he hasn't asked for more since.
Linda couldn't get the programs to print at home, the lines were messed up and it just wasn't working. So I went, printed, and used up all her black ink. At about 2am, I'm sitting there trying to convince the printer to let me take out the empty black cartridge... but it will not give it to me. Ginger, the maid of honor, said to me "I think God is telling us that we are done and it is time to go to bed now."
I had 50 sheets printed on one side... and had to leave them there. It broke my heart, but I had 50 in my bag for the 170 plus guests... and it would just have to do. Meh. Sadness. I even looked up the nearest Fedex/Kinkos to see if they were 24 hours (unfortunately, they weren't) because I would have gone over there and paid to have them printed.
This was done last minute for all the right reasons, but it should have been printed and folded and stored away the week prior. Oh well. 50 programs it is. Ginger and I (and Jess, who had fallen asleep on the couch) decided instead of just crashing at Linda's we'd go back to the hotel. We had Linda's car, so we headed out... and missed a turn. We were driving alllll over Long Island at like 3am. Nice. We got gas (which was mandatory as there was absolutely none in the car when we got in) and finally found the highway to head to the hotel. I got to bed at like 3:30. Splendid.
The alarm went off and Jess and I needed to go to the salon for hair and makeup. The morning was drippy and poury and horrible... which, of course, is just our luck. Watching the weather report that week it was little tiles of Mon:Sunny. Tues:Sunny. Wed:Sunny. Thurs: Sunny. Fri:Sunny. Sat: Rain. Sun:Sunny. Mon:Sunny etc.... We were pampered, preened, painted, curled, crimped and colored, and that was interesting. I'm not a salon kind of girl... and when asked what I wanted done, I pretty much didn't have an idea. In the end, my hair was cute, full of "product" enough to keep it from moving for 100 days, and Jess' hair was cute as hell and we left all girled up.
At 11am, it was pretty much drippy and nasty, and my heart was breaking. It's hard to do portraits in the drippy rain, much less have a wedding with like 170 plus people milling around at the beach in that kind of weather.
Linda on the verge of going Bridezilla. Me on the verge of going Bridesmaidzilla. Eventually, everyone was accounted for and our party ride cruised to the beach.
As we pulled out of the parking lot, the sky lightened. One of the girls on the bus said "OH! look at the sky! It's the SUN!" and we all turned around to gape. Indeed, just like some sort of silly fairy tale, the sky broke. The grey vanished. The blue won the battle.
And the wind picked up.
Oh dear God was it windy... we got to the beach and unloaded the bus and set to work on getting things set up. We thought we'd have like 2.5 hours for setting up and photos... but there was really only about 70 minutes!
We didn't have time for a rehearsal, but all of us (except Jess and Alex) had been in weddings before so we figured we knew the drill and would instruct the rookies on how to do it. The staff at the beach were awesome (seriously -- getting married on Long Island? Go to Sunken Meadow). Anything we wanted, they helped. Anything we needed, there was a person there to assist.
for the funniest picture of the day, click here.
The plan had been for the wedding to take place on the beach itself, like the website photos show... but the wind would take down the arbor and kill us all. That would be bad. So they set it up inside the party tent beside the pavilion. We got stuff set up, did our photo thing, and the guests started to arrive. So we didn't have time to max and relax inside the party bus the way we'd planned... keeping the bride hidden from view until it was time. We were a lot more casual about it -- Linda milling around, Ronnie milling around... saying hi, giving kisses... being there and enjoying the time before the short walk to the arbor.
We walked down the aisle to Peter Gabriel's "Book of Love," which almost made me cry. We all took our places... My dad walked my baby sister down to her husband...
The ceremony was very nice... very Celtic, very nontraditional. They did handfasting and drank from the traditional quaich, or Loving Cup, and declared one another Anam Cara.
They were declared before all witnesses and God himself and the universe as husband and wife, and we all walked back up the aisle to "Morning Ride" from the move The Princess Bride. Wuv. Twue Wuv.
The reception was a lot of fun, the kids played in the sand on the beach, the adults mingled and wandered and enjoyed cocktail hour and open bar and lots of frivolity. Linda and Ronnie danced to a song by The Pogues, title of which I cannot recall right this instant. The entire reception was great. Geoff broke a glass while banging the edge of his knife against it so Linda and Ronnie would kiss. Heh. Chaos! And me with bare feet. Not to fear, an easy clean up and a promise not to pound glass with such zeal and we continued with the fun.
Ronnie's good friend Cherry had set up a plan. She wanted them to go on a honeymoon. They weren't planning on it. They were using all their money and more money borrowed to pay for the wedding.
Maybe, just maybe... February, they thought. We'll go away in February.
So Cherry didn't think that was right. She told Linda that she wanted a horse & carriage to come to the reception in the evening and whisk them away to go to the airport to go on honeymoon.
Linda told her that was "inconceivable!" because she was hosting brunch the following morning.
Well... how about Sunday night? Would you like a hot air balloon to swoop in and take you away!
Nope -- Linda has to be at work Monday morning to do payroll.
I mean, someone goes to the effort to get a horse and carriage out there for ya and you're psyched... but there are arrangements that need to be made.
So I gave Linda a heads up that something would be happening, and encouraged her to get her ducks in a row. Cherry made me swear not to tell her WHERE they were going to be sent, and I kept that promise. I did tell her the dates, but not the where.
At the reception after the Best Man's toast, Cherry got up and delivered the news. She'd taken up a collection from friends and family and got them a little spending money. She bought tickets and made bed and breakfast reservations in Niagara On The Lake, Canada. They are there now, enjoying their honeymoon and folding money... and twue wuv.
Cherry is pictured here above, guarding "the nuclear football" as we started calling it. A card, with info on where they were headed, the money gifts... essentially she's holding the honeymoon in her hands. And she was quite the little mastermind and loved doing it. You can tell, can't you!
During the reception, I realized that I had forgotten to put out the 50 programs that I had printed and folded the night before. They were in the laptop case (the powerpoint presentation was running and a lot of people totally loved watching it... laughing at our bride and groom all the while). I snuck the programs onto the table where the place card setting thingies were, and people took them all... I guess that after the fact is better than not at all. Heh.
Alright. Enough from me tonight. I've been trying to get this entry posted for days now, and have been way too busy to sit down and write. This is what you get for now.
Next entry... brunch and New York City! Woot to the woo woo woo.
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