The Wedding (page 2)

While dressing the tables, I found that we had some tablecloths that were not the right size for the smaller tables so Mindy came to the rescue by bringing the smaller tableclothes and also helped me immensely by putting some of the coverings that went around the head table and the ice table on as we went off to do yet more shopping.

Jonathan dragged me (almost literally, I was running on fumes) to Meijers so that we could pick up some ice, balloon, etc. I knew I wasn't going to have time to go home at this point, so we decided that he would go home, shower, pick up his Best Man and head off to That Pasta Place once we had dropped me and the ice off. I think it was about 11:00 am at this point, so he was pretty late! Fortunately my dress and all of my stuff had been brought over to the house the day before!

We were on our way back to the Carroll's from Meijer's when I got a phone call. It was my photographer Dennis. He had hurt his back when he was loading the equipment into his car. I just kept saying, uh huh ... Jonathan was really wondering why I was getting progressively whiter ... finally he did say that he never worked without a backup and that he would be there around the same time (Oh great, it's almost time and I haven't even finished decorating... but I digress)

Yes, Bridezilla did turn up briefly when my dad called on the cell phone just about that time and wanted to know if they had missed the place ... gave me some location and I'm sorry to say I got a bit snippy because I don't happen to know every landmark on the way there, even though I had given very specific instructions and they just weren't to that site yet. And yes, I did apologize :)

So Jonathan dropped me off after I tied the balloon (the most adorable dolphin!) to the address marking outside the gate. He left quickly for his mission of picking up food! In the meantime I was still setting up, my mom kept yelling from the house "get in here, you have to get ready". Finally about 11:30am I grabbed my bag of stuff and headed in to run into someone coming toward me. "I hope you're NOT the photographer". Scared him I think ... he asked why? "Because I'm the bride and I'm not ready yet." The really nice thing about being the bride?  It can't start without you (or the groom, but more about that later)!

Some people had already arrived like my dad and stepmom Carol, my mom and my Maid of Honor Aldona (my baby sister), my brother and his family. Fortunately Buddy has some experience setting up for weddings so he was helping Nancy decorate. It came out beautifully! My friend Debbie Schaeffer came early also with her friend Dorian who helped us out greatly by handling the parking.

My sister had not prepared in advance like me by bringing a nice robe to wear while putting hair and makeup together so she was sitting there holding something over herself and screeching whenever she saw a male. It was pretty funny actually.

I'm not sure what time it was but I did finally get partially dressed only to get a call from Jonathan. He told me he had decided that he was having second thoughts and didn't want to come to the wedding (he couldn't even do it with a straight face, I'm sure) and his Best Man was laughing in the background. I said "well fine, then I don't have to worry about getting dressed, just get the food and get back here and we'll have a big party!" The real reason he called? Seems he had not remembered to get the extension cords when he went home so I had to prevail upon his brother-in-law Stephen (Jonathan's family had since arrived) to run down to Meijer's (I'm sure my car would know the way by itself by this time) to get some extension cords and some toothpaste. And at some point, he and Richard had to go back to Richard's hotel because Richard had forgotten his jacket.

FINALLY, around 12:20 (I think) I was ready for photos. Actually considering I had to clean up, get makeup on, get my hair done AND get dressed (and take silly phone calls from my husband to be), I thought that was pretty good. I'm sure the photographer was happy, and he certainly used the site to advantage, I walked all over the lumpy ground in high heels with a big white dress holding bouquets, pitchforks, whatever ...

Jonathan was under orders to call before he got there as we didn't want him to see me while I was outside. People were starting to arrive en masse and it was good to see so many people I hadn't seen in a long time, but I couldn't stop for long.

Jonathan finally arrived a little after 1:00. My shiba friends who thought they might have missed the ceremony due to a shiba deciding to have her puppies THAT morning, but Dorian informed them that they were not even close to being late for the ceremony, but they were only 4 cars behind the groom!

On his way to the house in a hurry (see photo) Jonathan evidently gave instructions to several people (alas all men) to get the food out of the car and to go park the car in the shade. He should have told a female ... the car just sat there ... with the food and the dogs. This will become more significant later on!

Also we could not locate the "Somewhere in Time" CD that Nancy had put somewhere we couldn't lose it. Evidently when Nancy straightened up the room we were using to get ready she picked up the CD with the other stuff that she moved and it wasn't found again until about 2 weeks later. This was just one of the things that didn't quite make it to the wedding. I had some really cute paper fans that were to be given out to the ladies with the programs and I forgot to give them to Debbie, and also matching cake boxes that never made it out to the cake. They're Ebay fodder now for sure, unless I get into wedding planning! ;)