My Best Friend's Wedding

What a weekend! Trying to even think where to start is hard when so much happened. So I will attempt best I can. Pictures are on LJT (well part now, and part soon) so check them out there. Can honestly say I am not glad to be back at work in the slightest. pooh.

Thursday
My mom and I left Thursday morning a little past 7. I am so glad she decided to ride down with me. Can't imagine how bored I would have been had she not. It was a nice ride, for the most part and we chatted over this and that. Hit some bad traffic, once because of road construction, and once just normal Chicago traffic. That delayed us a bit, but it wasn't too bad and we got to Talia's house around 2:30, I think. She wasn't home, but there were three Amish ladies cleaning her house and they told us they hadn't really seen her at all that day. So, we went to my Aunt Day and Uncle Jim's house (Talia parents). Visited with her family some, helped out with some of the things they were doing. Then Mom, Aunt Day, Dyani and I went to town for some groceries, some pizza, a white sweater for Dyani (we were supposed to have white sweaters with our dresses but the wedding day was H-O-T), and wedding night apparel for Talia (that Aunt Day was in charge of buying). We went all over town, and had no luck with either the white sweater or the wedding night stuff. In the meantime I got EXHAUSTED. I thought they were going to have to carry me out of the store we were in at one time. They ordered pizza to take back to everyone still back at the house, and riding back with it got me SICK. Once back at the house, I couldn't eat, I just laid on the couch and felt really quite gross. Then mom dropped me off at Talia's at around nine. Only Michael, and one of Talia's friends husband Jason were there. Talia and her friend Hannah were picking up Rosie (one of the bridesmaids...the super cute pregnant one.) They got back about a half an hour later, and Talia was feeling sick so we went straight to bed.

Friday
Woke up around 7ish, I think. Had my morning bout of illness and got ready to go to pick up Talia's dress and get Rosie's altered. Found a new favorite snack in Crispix cereal. Does wonders to settle the stomach. In fact, right now I am munching on rice chex as a sad substitute because our local grocery store had no crispix. Waited around for Michael to come with Talia's car, and in the meantime, my mom came with my car, so we (Talia, Rosie, Hannah, Mom and I) piled in to my car and went to pick up the dresses. Talia tried on her dress, and it looked great. Just perfect for her. Simple and cool enough for hot summer day. My mother bawled and bawled. Rosie tried on her dress--- Talia had just happened to pick up the last one on her local Anne Taylor rack. And despite being 6 months pregnant, her belly fit in the size six with room to spare. And she had to get the top altered down quite a bit. Can I just say I was jealous! Picked up some other dresses, and then made our way to Jim and Day's house. Can't really remember exactly what we did there..... I think we ate some food, and talked, and helped with some things. Then we went back to Talia's and hung out there for awhile. Waiting for Karin (Michael's sister) and Matt and my dad to come. Talia realized she didn't have a room booked for her wedding night, which shocked Hannah, Rosie and I, but she didn't seem to nervous. Karin and Matt didn't arrive when we though they would, so we decided we better get to town to book Talia a room SOON. As we were driving to town, we passed Karin and Matt, so we turned around and flagged them down. Karin came with us and we went to a Bed and Breakfast Talia had seen earlier. It was beautiful. So she booked their wedding night room, and got a nice room for the first night (the Bordeaux) then we saw the 'bridal suite'-- the Petite Manoir (which was booked that night) but she booked it for sunday night. The lady was super nice and said they would have flowers, champagne and strawberries in their rooms. After leaving there, went back to Jim and Day's and did..... something...... (see my mind is going), Talia and Michael went back to their house for some reason.... and Natasha, Dyani, Rosie and I left for the rehersal. The rehersal went well. They didn't really think they needed one at first, but I am glad they had one. Got things ironed out, then the judge showed up and we ran through everything again. Then we were off to another Bed and Breakfast for the dinner. Dinner went well. Not a lot I wanted to eat, but nice nonetheless. Then it was back to Talia's house where we sat around talking, packing Talia's bags which she hadn't yet packed, and then we finally went to bed at around 12:30.

Wedding Day
There were NINE girls in Talia's house, so we got up early so we could all get ready on time. Lots of flurry and activity. Wasn't sick at all in the morning, so that was great. Sort of ran around like crazy women for awhile. Talia, Natasha, and Dyani went over to her parents house so her mom could do her hair and we (Karin, Rosie, Miriah and I) promised to meet them there in about an hour. Miriah did my hair, we got things around, we chatted. And then we realized Talia's dog hadn't been fed since Thursday, so we searched her house for food, and couldn't find ANYTHING. We ended up giving him cat food and LOTS of water, since he was out. This, and the fact that another of Talia's friend Renee was there and was talking to Rosie and wouldn't STOP talking made us late to meet up with the other girls. Found out later this totally stressed Talia out and she was MAD at us. Not happy we fed her dog (actually was pissy and said... oh great, you fed him cat food, now he will be sick) just angry we were late. But ah, I remember the bridal insanity well, so we will forgive her. She was super stressed about copies of her reading she wanted printed out...but when we left the house ( a bit late) she was starting to feel better. On the way to the park, it was her and her three pregnant bridesmaids, so we were joking about the SEVEN people in the car, and calming her down, and she was good after that. Got to park and we had our own "bride and bridesmaid cabin" that they had cleaned up best they could and had put mirrors and rugs and chairs in it. There was supposed to be food too, but that didn't arrive until later. People came and went, our flowers came and I helped tie ribbons on them. Took a bunch of pictures. Freaked out that the rings weren't there, until the family friend who did the flowers showed up and they were in one of her bags of wedding stuff. Gave the rings to the best man. Delivered a message from Michael to Talia and started to cry. (EMOTIONAL). Gave my camera to my Uncle Bruce for some ceremony shots, and missed out on some GREAT getting dressed shots, but oh well. We all got dressed and the wedding approached. Finally everyone except for Talia and us bridesmaids were in the cabin. Said a prayer for her in a big circle and started to cry again. Then it was time.

We all left the cabin in a big group. Michael had wanted her to come from the cabin all the way to the front where the ceremony was held by herself, but she said there was NO WAY she would make it. So we concocted the scheme to walk around her half way and then we broke off, and walked down the aisle by ourselves, and met the groomsmen at the front. It was nervewracking as then I was the FRONT the whole way, but we laughed and joked until she met up with her parents. Then she walked the rest of the way with her parents.... and I think that is the only time she really cried. They had their parents stand up with them, and Talia had her two younger sisters stand up too. The ceremony was quick... and when they kissed we had flower petals up with us that we threw at them. It was so pretty. I have to admit that many times during the ceremony I was wishing for my camera, because I had the most perfect vantage point. Then after they were pronounced man and wife, Talia's mom suprised them with a song, and while she was singing they started to dance. During that time I was directly accrossed from Karin (she stood up on Mike's side) and she was BAWLING, so of course, I started to cry. And then it was over. It was so pretty.

Then we mingled. I took pictures. And we stood around for at least an hour waiting to take some pictures all together. I knew they didn't want a big production of pictures....but people just kept talking to them, and then they had to start the food line, so we waited some more. We didn't take too many pictures, but it became a bit of a production, because EVERYONE needed the same picture (Mike didn't have much family there, but all the family he DID have there was down taking pictures) and complaining that the sun was wrong... although it was just fine. Ah well. Like I said, took very few pictures. One with the bridal party. One of Mike and his guys. One of Talia and us girls (we were going to do some more fun ones later, but never got around to it). And a few more of Talia and Mike. Then we meandered down to the food. Where nothing looked good to me. So I had a tiny plate. And then talked to some relatives. Took some more pictures. Spent the rest of the day doing the same. Talking to people and taking pictures. There reception was basically a picnic. A potluck lunch with chicken and pork, and games, and people singing, and things like that. They did break pieces off their traditional Norwegian cake and feed them to eachother, then did some cake smashing. Then they snuck away to sign their marriage license and I snuck after them with my long lens and took some pictures. Then we got some more pictures of them by a pond at the park. By that time I was so tired. So we packed up and were ready to leave when the couple asked if they could come with us. (Michael had left the lights on in Talia's car the night before so it was dead) So they rode back to town with us (they were smooching all the way). And we jumped their car before they left.

We went to our bed and breakfast and checked in. We had the "carriage house" which was a tiny little room that smelled kind of musty. To my SUPER PREGNANT NOSE it was horrible. Thankfully they had left us candles and we had a lighter, so it wasn't so bad. Hung out for awhile, then looked over the rest of the B&B--SO not as nice as Talia and Mike's. Then Karin came and we all decided to go to Pizza Hut. Sounded good at the time. Came back, and my parents stopped by, then all of Mike's guy friends stopped over. (these are guys from wisconsin, so they are Matt's friends too). They were all going somewhere, but we decided to stay in. Was supposed to be a romantic evening because it was our anniversary weekend. (today is our 2 year anniversary!!) But I got sick ALL the sudden. So all plans were squashed. Matt couldn't believe how fast I got sick. He said "you were fine, and then you were so sick. That just isn't normal" To which I told him, nope it isn't normal...it's pregnant. So we went to bed kind of early that evening.

Sunday
Sunday they were having a graduation Open House for Dyani, who graduated from high school, and Natasha who graduated from college. So we slept in a little, went to breakfast. Walked down to the other B&B where the guys were staying. Then we packed up and stopped by Talia's house for some things I had forgotten. We stayed there for a little bit and then went to my Aunt and Uncle's. When we got there ( early-- around eleven) Day and her dad were the only one's there so we helped get ready for the party. Party started around one, and we sat around, talked to relatives, ate some food. It was HOT that day, and I had to say I am so grateful that I don't have to go through my third trimester in the dog days of summer. We stayed there until about five, and then left. (Miriah rode home with us) Had to drive through some nasty storms on the way home (and go around some downed trees, etc.) But it was a quick drive home. Although, we didn't get to bed until about midnight. I was SO exhausted.

So that is the weekend. And um.... I think it is hailing right now. So odd. There is a really bad storm, and it sounds like hail on the window. Odd.