Wedding Weekend Winners

Because it’s hard to sum up the entire weekend in one little blog post, I figured just touching on a few highlights is the way to go…1. We were never short of good food. The rehearsal dinner was held at Mike Shannon’s Steakhouse, the wedding was catered by the Sheraton Hotel (where the reception was), and there was never a shortage of bagels, hors d’oeuvres, wedding cake and drive-thru. You can understand how I’m dealing with the weekend hangover this morning…

2. My friend Mary is beautiful. She naturally glows. But on her wedding day?She was beautiful. Even before the dress.After the dress, she didn’t look too shabby, either. 

3. Speaking of dresses, friends don’t let friends lace up alone.We’ve had the dresses and had them hemmed and whatnot over the last few months. I knew it was coming. There was no zipper. And it’s not pictured here, but girls were bracing themselves on door frames as the other girls threw all their muscle into pulling those laces and officially trapping us in a steel cage corset. It’s also not shown when three or four girls at a time would line up to fix the corsets. Kind of like in elementary school when you’d have a train of hair getting french braided.

Now, I sort of loved how skinny those dresses made me and all the lovely girls look. And my posture has never been better. However, I did have issues performing all of my maid of honor duties. As in, I couldn’t lean over/kneel down to straighten Mary’s dress during the ceremony. It ran the risk of me falling over and tearing her dress in the process, my strapless bra popping out in front of the crowd or me having to ask my friend Laura (who was next to me) to help me back up because I got stuck. No bueno.

Her dress was never that messed up from behind. She did a good job whipping it around as she walked. So I don’t feel so bad…

4. It was a wee bit humid on Saturday. Not awful, but pictures downtown on the cobblestone roads were cut short due to periods of light rain. After taking pictures for 2.5 hours, we were sort of ok with this.  

Also, when taking pictures in alleys, be prepared to know how to smile as you hold your nose. Garbage dumpsters do not smell pretty in the middle of the summer in St. Louis, Missouri. Word.Party buses are always a good idea. Even when you have a massive wedding party of 20.  Because people will have dates, make sure to get a bus that seats at least 32. And have sandwiches delivered to the bus for as soon as the ceremony is over. And make sure you have enough champagne and beer. Otherwise you will have to stop the bus. And it’s very had to park one of such a massive size in front of a convenience store. Just sayin’.

Also a good idea? Having your roommate for the night (hi Eva!) as your date. Eva was Mary’s unofficial wedding planner of the day- helping with the dresses/hair/makeup, keeping the boys in check, carrying things from the hotel to the church to the party bus to the reception hall, etc etc. Poor thing got put to WORK. 

Other good ideas? Clean and clear oil blotting sheets because Missouri is the most ridiculously humid place ever. And taking your shoes off before dancing on the seats of a party bus.

5. My toast was a success! I kept it short and sweet (and a little sassy because that’s how I roll).

Sadly, though, I could not raise my glass to toast with everyone else when I was done. My hand was shaking hard enough to where I’m sure all I would have done was pour champagne on myself…

6. Mary’s gift to Casey may have been the coolest thing EVER.Mary’s husband had said from day one how he wanted an ice shot luge. We all laughed and dismissed it. Then, Mary decided that would be her wedding gift to him. She’s kind of the coolest.

The shot they poured through all night was “tiger blood”. Some of you may know this shot well by a different name (ahem… red headed sluts).

This was one of my favorite shots in college. But I promise I only had one.

Ok… two…

6. Bring flippy floppies to dance the night away. 4-inch heals are not conducive to dancing all night. Only one or two girls had to learn this the hard way.

7. By the end of the night, after the reception was over, it was STORMING. At about 12:30, the power in the entire hotel went out. This dampered the after-wedding festivities.

Luckily, because I was exhausted from being up since 7:00 that morning, I was ready to turn in.

8. When the power is out and the storm continues, weird things happen. Like the alarms getting tripped at about 2:00 in the morning. This meant there was a message repeating over their sound system for 10 minutes (the back-up generators had some things still working). And lights blinking on and off in all the rooms for 10 minutes. Sleep was not easy to come by.

9. I ate like a garbage disposal on Sunday. My friend who rode to St. Louis with me (he also had a wedding) was amazed how I out-ate him. On every stop we made.

I blame the bridesmaid dress- not being able to breath deeply also meant eating was a little difficult. Who woulda guessed that?

Anyway…

This was the end of my crazy June. It’s bittersweet. I’m happy to have a few weekends of downtime. But starting with our crazy bachelorette trip to Vegas and ending with a gorgeous wedding of two of the most genuinely wonderful people I’ve met, I’ll be sad to see it end. The girls in the wedding party are girls I keep up with, but rarely get to see since our college days.

I told Mary she and Casey should probably get vows renewed and throw one of these little shindigs once or twice a year.

I’ll save you from discussing the look she shot me when I suggested the idea… yikes!

Whew. That was longer than I realized it would be. But I’m done. Or at least I have to be- time to run errands and get ready for a Cubs game! Peace out, homies!

About these ads