Wedding Recap – Part the First

It was a weekend of big smiles and some tears. Mostly smiles and mostly happy tears. I’m a sympathetic crier, so I definitely spent my fair share of moments blubbering. I’m not entirely sure what to write about, because I want to remember each and every moment and it’s probably too late for that. As a good historian, I should have taken notes or something. (Note to self: if you ever get married again, hire someone to follow you around and take notes).

Also, it would probably be nice if I made these posts at least a little bit fun to read. And I’m pretty sure that none of you cares about the nitty gritty details of the weekend.

But then I remember that this is my little fiefdom. And I want to remember my wedding. Especially after the nightmare that I had the night before. I dreamt that it was an hour after our wedding finished and that I didn’t remember a single moment. If that doesn’t get you to limit your drinking at your reception, I don’t know what does. And now I’m bound and determined to write down everything. If you don’t like it, just look at the pretty pictures and we can all pretend that I kept my babble to myself.

This picture counts as pretty. Because I say it does.

***

Kristian and I took Thursday and Friday off so that we could get everything ready and so that we could spend some extra time with all of our family members who flew in from out of town. My sister Allison and her husband Dustin got up early to go with me to the gym on Thursday. Which is a good thing, because I probably would not have made it on my own. I might be crazy when it comes to fitness, but I’m not that crazy.

(OK, maybe I am that crazy).

After the gym, we ran over to the print shop to pick up our programs. Allison made a new friend.

We spent the rest of the morning packing the car. You wouldn’t think that it would take an entire morning to pack a car. But you also wouldn’t think that a person could make as many wedding crafts as I managed to churn out. (See above reference to crazy, amounts of). We ended up needing to take two trips to get everything down to our wedding site. (See above reference to above reference to complete and utter craziness).

We ended up leaving my wedding dress for Kristian to bring on the second trip. The car was overly full and I had no desire to see it crushed under the weight of all our crap. I only reminded Kristian about 7,352 times not to forget it. Which is why it’s so funny that he came about 2 seconds away from leaving it behind.

(Funny, really, I swear it’s funny).

(Well, it would have been a hilarious story for our grandkids).

(Which is about how long it would have taken me to find the humor in the whole situation).

I was starting to feel pretty nervous during the drive down, so Allison distracted me with stories about her job as a Californian environmental monitor. This is why I am now an expert on incidental take permits and the plight of the coastal California gnat catcher. Go ahead, ask me anything. She’s sitting right next to me, so I’m sure I could answer you.

We had lofty plans for all of the things that we were going to get done that day. What we accomplished turned out to be going to Costco. And Ikea. Because they’re in the same parking lot. And we are multi-taskers. Also, not so good with that whole time management business. But! We also managed to accomplish some wine drinking with dinner. So there’s that.

Thursday night was the start of a gradual blending of our families (I will neither confirm nor deny that this was greatly aided by the wine). The kids really paved the way for the rest of us, chasing each other around, sharing toys, and just generally making friends with each other. Kristian’s seven-year-old nieces asked my three-year-old niece all sorts of important questions like “what grade are you in?” and “what school do you go to?”

(My niece had no idea what most of the answers were, but her mom was happy to supply her with the necessary information).

The rest of the evening is a bit of a blur because, well, wine. My family talked a lot and Kristian’s family probably spent a lot of time thinking “what have we gotten ourselves into?” When I say that we’re loud, what I really mean is that we make howler monkeys look demure.

Up next: A rare moment of quiet.