But yesterday, it was called to my attention that my Maid of Honor duties are not complete until I give Emily and Michael's wedding life eternal by immortalizing it in the blogosphere. I guess since the bride herself has yet to do so (I mean, what was she doing for a week in St. Lucia, if not composing her wedding wrap-up blog post?) it falls to the maid of honor, as so many responsibilities do. ; )
Andrew and I drove down to Maryland after I got off work on Wednesday June 1, battling Lincoln Tunnel rush-hour traffic, police officers on foot, and slow McDonalds personnel. We finally made it home around 12:30 am. That was the earliest night I had the whole weekend.
I was up pretty early the next morning, because I've gotten on a schedule of waking up at 6:30, so even when I don't have to, I'm up early. But we had a lot to do that day, so the extra time was helpful. When Emily got home around 11, she, mom and I went to get our nails done--mani and pedi. I guess a wedding is a cause for splurging. I love pedicures, but I don't often get them because they don't love me back. And they're expensive. The pedicurist probably hated me, because I about kicked her in the face three times. I hate that little pumice stone. I'm not usually ticklish, but it gets me every time. While I was in the pedi chair, my mom almost threw down with the manicurist. There's this new gel/ shellac stuff that we wanted on our nails, so they'd last through all the manual labor Emily made us do on Friday. I guess there are two brands, and Emily wanted brand A because she'd had brand B and it sucked. The manicurist refused to use brand A, even though we were paying him, and told him that's what we wanted when we made the appointments. He said, "Do you know my job better than me?" I honestly couldn't believe how rude he was. Now, the customer isn't always right--I've worked in the hospitality industry long enough to know that, but when you make an appointment and are paying for something, you should probably get that thing. So, our appointments took three hours and we didn't even get what we wanted. But the freaking stuff is still on my nails (I'm probably going to need a power sander to get it off), so at least it didn't chip off for the wedding.
The rest of Thursday was spent running various errands--buying swizzle sticks and cocktail napkins, duping Wal-mart employees into breaking copyright law and buying flowers, because Emily did her own, and the batch she ordered came in wilted and gross.
After dinner on Thursday, Emily started freaking out a bit. I mean she still had a lot to do, but I was confident it would get done. AJ was pestering her to go out, so finally, we just decided to stop thinking about it for the rest of the night and go out and get her drunk.
We went out in downtown Frederick, first to Firestones, but then quickly moved over to the Cellar Door once I mentioned it was $3 margarita Thursday. It was actually quite fun, and Emily, Andrew and I convinced AJ to dance solo for a minute and a half for a free margarita. Well worth the $3.
Friday we spent all day in the reception hall getting everything ready. Emily and Mike pretty much redecorated the entire place. We set up all the tables, Emily put out the flower arrangements, built a wall to hang pictures on...it was a complete transformation. We probably had twenty or more people there. We even had a little sweatshop going...aunts, moms and cousins were ironing 150 chair covers and 17 tablecloths for about 5 hours. We cut it close--we left for the rehearsal dinner a little later than we planned, but we got everything done, and it looked fantastic.
The rehearsal went pretty smoothly, and the dinner was at a restaurant called the Blue Dolphin, right down the road (pretty much everything for the wedding was right down the road). The food was delicious, and plentiful. I've never seen such huge crab cakes--and when my dad makes crab cakes, we call them boulders. Perhaps what I liked best about the restaurant was the huge basket of after dinner mints in the bathroom. They had my favorite kind--those pillow mints that kind of melt in your mouth. Delish.
After the rehearsal, we were still up til about 2 am--I was making a "Just Married" sign for the rental Beemer, and Emily and Mom were finishing the boutonnieres. If that damn first flower delivery had come in alright, Friday and Saturday would have been much less stressful. As it was, though, Emily was making her bouquet right up until the minute she left for the church.
Saturday morning dawned hot. We had 9 o'clock hair appointments at a salon, where else? down the road. I got my hair done first and loved it. It was a twisted back, low bun/twist thing. Very romantic, pretty much exactly what I asked for. Emily wasn't quite as happy, but I thought her hair looked great. Half of it was twisted back and held with a sparkly barrette, and the rest was wavy on her shoulders. Her make up looked fantastic, too. Mine looked horrible. The make up lady didn't ask me what I wanted, she just decided it would be a good idea to use a lot of black eye shadow. For an afternoon wedding. I had to ask her three times to lighten it up, and still had to do some touch ups when I got home. But I guess it came out alright in pictures.
We went home and had to finish up all the flowers, eat (I think I ate a doughnut and three crackers all day before dinner), get dressed and have mimosas. We got stuff to make mimosas, thinking we'd have a nice girls lunch before we had to get ready. But we were making flower arrangements, so unfortunately we didn't get to do that. But we all managed to get dressed, photographed and to the church with only a little stress.
The ceremony was really pretty, though I won't say it went off without a hitch. We couldn't find the boutonniere pins for awhile, Mike got the wrong boutonniere, and I could barely keep it together. I cried pretty much every time I looked at Emily, and I forgot to bring tissues, so I just had to stand with my head parallel to the ground so the tears would fall off my face instead of running down it. It was not glamorous.
Then Emily and my dad missed the cue to walk down the aisle, so we were waiting awhile, wondering if she ran away. Later I said she should've paid a girl to wear a white dress and run past the church windows towards the parking lot, to see how fast Mike can run. But I guess that wouldn't have been very nice.
She walked down the aisle to the Red Hot Chili Pepper song, Hard to Concentrate. It was beautiful, but I didn't see most of it, because I had my head down trying not to cry. I had teared up every time I heard that song for the past three months. But the ceremony was beautiful, and my grandfather performed the actual marriage and my cousin Megan sang a song called There is Love, which I've never actually heard before but really liked. After the ceremony there was a receiving line, and then photos. Clouds were rolling in, though, so I tried to corral all the families to get through the photos quick, because the wedding party still had to do some outdoor shots at a golf course...down the road.
Luckily, the rain mostly held off, and there were only a few drops here and there. It made for good pictures, because we didn't have to squint in the sun. The photographer got some great shots, but they're not posted on her website yet. But you can still take a look here if you like looking at wedding photography as much as I do.
The reception was lots of fun, and luckily I gave my speech pretty early on, so I was able to relax and enjoy most of it. Of course I cried, but I think I did an ok job, because everybody told me I did and there's a picture of my mom and grandma crying.
Dinner was good--prime rib and chicken, so you really couldn't complain. Open bar is always a plus too, though I heard the bartenders were a little stingy. No worries, though, because now Mike and Emily have tons of left over booze, so they have to throw lots of parties until it's gone!
The dance floor was a good time, with a little help from Jack and Captain Morgan, and there always at least one person on the floor--usually that person was the other bridesmaid's husband, Everett. What a pip. The DJ was pretty good--he played some old time stuff in the beginning, so the oldies could dance, and then once their old people legs gave out and made room for the young people. he pumped it up a notch. Andrew and I danced a lot, but to be honest, I had a hard time finding my groove. I drank a lot, but I guess not quite enough. I really liked that Emily and Mike were on the dance floor a lot. I hate going to weddings when you can't even find the bride and groom, because they're always off doing something else. I don't mean something else, I just mean, you know, stuck in a corner talking to some distant relative who doesn't realize it's rude to monopolize their time. I'm glad Mike and Em were able to get their groove on at their own reception.
The next morning, we all had lunch at Emily and Mike's house and watched them open presents, because they weren't leaving for their honeymoon until Monday. They got some sweet swag, especially the present Andrew and I gave them--a double date basket. Because the four of us really like to hang out together, we got them some games and some alcohol (though we probably could've saved our money on the Crown and given them a bottle leftover from the reception) and just little things to make them think of us always. Then Andrew and I had to leave to drive back up to New York, because I had to work the next morning, and still didn't have my bed set up in my apartment.
And that was it: the wedding of the decade, my favorite wedding so far. I kind of can't believe it's over. It's weird that we've been thinking about this day for like a year, and now, it's gone. Plus, my sister is married. So weird. Well, there's my wedding novel. Guess that's my MOH duties, done and dusted!
Awww....thanks, Bridge!! You gave an AMAZING toast. You made EVERYBODY cry. Best one ever! And your pics are awesome. There's one of Dad smiling :-O PS-I literally cracked up laughing when you called Ev a pip. lol!
ReplyDelete