The Wedding - Part I

There is so much to tell about the wedding that I know it will have to be a series of posts...

Anyhow, I'll skip Friday b/c there was nothing really interesting about the rehearsal or dinner or anything. Just the typical run through of the ceremony and some great Italian food.

Now, Saturday... 7:00 came pretty early that morning, when I crawled out of bed to get ready to go to the hair salon. I made sure everything was all packed and ready for Maddy. My mom woke up early too, so I gave her some last minute instructions for Maddy and headed out. I was the first one at the salon and the last one done.... Go figure. Anyhow, I sat in the chair and this chick says to me, "Do you like curls?" I said, "sure." She said, "Do you want it up?" I said, "Yes, definitely." So, she started this hour long process of putting tiny little ringlet curls all over my head. I totally looked like Shirley Temple. As this is going on, I can the bride in her stylist's chair just looking at me all weird... We were all sort-of wondering what she planned to do with this curl monstrosity... Eventually she put a million pins in there and made it all cute, but I can tell you now we were all freakin' out b/c it took longer to do my hair than it took to do the bride's!

So, then we head down to the mall for the make-up thing. That was all fine. I love the Clinique counter and then did a job on me, but there is a story at the mall... You see T (the bride) has this friend (sorority sister) that was in the wedding, JP. JP is an idiot. She is the most annoying chick I have ever met in my entire life. Anyhow, at rehearsal T had given us our jewlery to wear for the wedding as our "thank you" gift. JP left it in her car at the reception hall and didn't have it to wear for the wedding. Nice. So, while we were at the mall JP is trying to find something similar to buy to wear. Luckily, she did, but let me tell you that girl is so annoying. OH MY GOSH!

So, we all have hair and make-up done and we'rea ll ready to head out to T's mom's house for pics. Two hours of pics there. What a nightmare.

Driving to church. I have T's sister and JP in the car with me. JP falls asleep and is snoring the back seat! Nice. We get to church, and we're gathered in the basement, and my mom brings Maddy down. OH MY GOSH, was she the absolute cutest thing EVER. Totally made my day.

Then, it was ceremony time. We headed down the aisle. Jerry, Maddy and I looked great and it was definitely an "aaaahhhh" moment. I was ok through most of the ceremony until I looked over and saw both of my parents crying. Then, I lost it. I just stood there and then sat there and then stood there (yeah, it was a Catholic ceremony) thinking about the fact that these vows really mean nothing to her. At least it didn't mean anything to her that Jerry and I had said those same vows. Then, there was the reading from Corinthians (we had the same reading at our wedding) and those words about love reminded me that love isn't perfect, and it does forgive and it does grow and show patience and I felt so much better because I realized that Jerry and I can really get through this and it has nothing to do with her and them. They can handle their own marriage and deal with their problems on their own. I need to just worry about Jerry and I and Maddy. I was still mad though, realizing that Jerry had absolutely no respect for the fact that we took those vows, that our ceremony meant so much more to me than it did to him... But anyway, it was ok. I survived it. My brother never cried. He had the biggest smile on his face and looked really happy, so I survived.

I'll save the reception for the next post... just wait for the stories there. Wow.