my debauchery-filled wedding weekend - the final chapter

seriously, my recap is now longer than the actual event.....this is it, i swear.

so after piling out of the limo, we wandered in and i immediately looked for denise, who was in charge. i heard music playing, so i assumed rory had made it over safely. first song i heard: luna doing "sweet child o' mine." excellent. i found denise and went over to the table to make sure everything was in order. seems sending rory for that month allowed them to be able to start it without me. glad i named the playlist "dinner music" instead of something creative that they wouldn't have been able to find....

turns out i did an excellent job with the music selection - lots of compliments. much of the dinner was spent playing "name that artist or song" around the table and most of the people (at my table at least) were impressed by the variety and depth of the selections. was fun to see the reactions and to hear songs i love being played - and to find out others loved them too. my table was basically the non-family wedding party - groomsmen and shannon and i. great conversation, lots of fun. no seating chart, which i think worked out well. as paul pointed out, you should just let water find its own level - people do a good job of organizing themselves.

again i took the opportunity to imbibe - seemed appropriate considering the circumstances. went with a couple more cosmos to go along with another amazing meal. such rich food - a week later, i'm still not sure i've recovered completely. not that that's a bad thing....

we had to keep things moving because, well, paying customers who had reservations were coming in at 5:00. so we did the toasts and speeches and "games" as we ate. somehow i ended up playing master of ceremonies for the afternoon - good thing i'm comfortable thinking on the fly. paul and shannon gave heartfelt toasts, the best man and matron of honor gave words of wisdom, the parents welcomed the bride and groom to their family. but in a last minute addition, ben upstaged them all with a witty, hilarious and touching toast to both sarah and brad. high point of the reception for sure.

then came the dancing.

we started off with sarah and brad's first dance - louis armstrong's "la vie en rose." lovely choice. then came the parent's dance - in a final hour decision (sarah called me at 11:30 wednesday night before i left), i cued up the choice - ray stevens doing "in the mood" as a chicken. absolutely hilarious. glad everyone jumped right in and went with it, otherwise it could have been disastrous. i'm sure there's great footage on the video - keep an eye on you tube for it.

the rest got off to a bit of a rough start mostly because, well, it was 3:30 in the afternoon and far too bright for most people to feel brave enough to lose their inhibitions. and no disco balls or colored lights to distract. but as the music continued, and the lights were dimmed slightly, the crowd started to gather. i've noticed it's usually children that really jump in, as if as we grow older, we lose our ability to give in to the beat. well, that and much of the crowd came from a nazarene background, where any sense of rhythm is bludgeoned out of you at a young age. as i've been told on several occasions that i shouldn't dance, my intention was to man the table, make sure everything went smoothly, thinking that would keep me from the dance floor. no such luck. shannon made sure i (and many others) didn't stay a wallflower. i figured weddings are the perfect place to embarrass yourself, and i'm sure i did. but i had a great time. i even slow danced to etta's "at last" with shannon and OTR's "fool" with sarah. never really done that much in my life - maybe three, four times. helps having beautiful partners.

again, seems my musical instincts were good, which was a relief, dance music not really being my forte. but i ended up proud of my playlist for both sections. maybe i should make a job of this.

then again, maybe not.

eventually, five o'clock rolled around and we made a hasty exit, walking back to the church. we were quite the sight, in our tuxes and bridesmaid dresses and wedding dress. lots of honking and shouts of congratulations. lots of goofing around. lots of time left in the day to celebrate, which we took advantage of. we stopped by the church to pick up our stuff, then wandered down to sarah's soon-to-be-old apartment and changed clothes to continue our revelry. the plan - to hit as many adult-beverage establishments as possible. we started at a place called the dark horse - 'twas paul and aaron and jason and shannon and me and, a little later, sarah and brad. cozy little neighborhood bar. but they were closing early for a private party, so we wandered out and hit kildare's, an irish pub/restaurant down the street. there, i decided to go ahead and have some more alcohol, this time in the form of a buttercream martini. or rather, two. ohmygosh were they amazing. good thing i don't do this all the time, otherwise i'd be fat and broke (well, fatter and broker). probably my new favorite drink. we hung out there for an hour or two, eventually losing people who had to head home to take care of pets or who had to, oh, i don't know, consummate their wedding vows or something. part of me liked that brad and sarah hung out with us. part of me thought, "wow, i so would be elsewhere if i were them." somewhere toward the end there they came around and offered us free shots of jamison, which we gladly accepted.

by this time it was down to three of us - paul, shannon and me. we decided it was too early to call it a night, so we headed down south street, i think looking for someplace for shannon to dance. me, i was just along for the ride. south street is quite the place - a lot like high street in columbus, but with a lot more activity late at night. a light rain had begun to fall, so we stopped in a couple of places, one being beyond the wall, where i purchased a william shakespeare action figure for my classroom (with quill action grip!). we walked by a place called fat tuesday with dance music pumping out, but shannon turned up her nose, so we kept on walking, eventually taking a break in some hole in the wall bar, where i topped off all of my other drinking with something called a tie me to the bedpost. how can you resist a drink with a name like that? so for those keeping track at home, that's two cosmos, two buttercream martinis, a shot of jamison and a tie me to the bedpost - more alcohol in one night than i've consumed in the past six to nine months. maybe longer.

finally, shannon's desire to dance outweighed her disdain for the scary fratmosphere of fat tuesday's, so we went in. i have to say, i'm not sure i see what the draw is - too crowded to dance, everyone in their own little world and music that did little to move me (though i was happy to hear two of the songs on my own wedding playlist). shannon later explained that it was still too early (only 11:15) and that this was far too "urban" for her tastes. didn't help that she got dirty looks from the moment she walked in (probably because she walked in with paul). so we didn't stay long, which made me happy.

things are a little blurry after this for me for what i'm sure are obvious reasons. we ended up at yet another bar, where paul and shannon had a night cap and i tried to not fall off the backless stool i was sitting on. eventually, we walked back to the church, where i got into my car and drove back to the hotel (and yes, i was fine to drive home - enough time had passed and i'd drank lots and lots and lots of water). i did a bit of journaling about the day (which i won't be sharing, sorry) before falling asleep, praying God would protect me from the hangover demons.

which, thankfully, He did.

epilogue: sunday was all about getting sarah out of her apartment. i met paul and shannon at sarah's apartment and eventually the newlyweds joined us as well. for the next four to five hours, we shoved the remaining odds and ends into whatever trash bags and containers were available. then, in the middle of the last nor'easter of the season, we loaded everything into everyone's cars - two minivans and three cars (so much for only having just a little bit). not how i had planned on spending my sunday in philly, but was glad i was able to help. even got to spend some time with sarah, which we spent dissecting exactly why i was still unattached. verdict? i'm too passive. and my default position is wrong - i assume no girl would like me instead of assuming they would. but this we already knew. and i digress. we ended the evening at a diner near their new house in the northwest suburbs. a great ending for a wonderful weekend. great to catch up with old friends and to make some new ones.

whew. i thought i'd wouldn't have enough for more than a couple of paragraphs. boy, was i wrong. i'll be back to my usual self-centered posts soon. gee, aren't you lucky?
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tunes: jet - are you gonna be my girl?

my debauchery-filled wedding weekend - part two

i really didn't mean for this to be this long....

since it was a morning wedding, everything started early, though i found myself wide awake well before my alarm. took the extra time to leisurely eat breakfast and then make sure i had everything i needed for the day - tux, my beloved rory for the reception music, change of clothes for after the wedding. drove myself to the church rather than wait on others, allowing me to set my own timetable after the wedding, which became important later. arrived around 9:15, to find only one groomsman there. so much for pictures at 9:30. turns out everything was running a bit behind, so pictures for the guys before the ceremony. i panicked for a moment, wondering if i should be with the rest of the bride's side, but was assured it was ok.

you couldn't have asked for better weather - blue skies, air cool enough to comfortably wear a tuxedo, soothing breeze. someone's prayers were obviously answered. some had bandied about forecasts calling for snow, but not a flake was to be found (outside the wedding party, of course).

my phone rang twice before the wedding. first time was from bookbinders, wanting to know if i could drop off rory before the wedding so they could have her set up. unfortunately, they called 25 minutes before the wedding and there was no way for me to get her there. so i pretended my phone was off and figured we'd figure it out later. the second was from sarah - or was it shannon - letting me know they were outside and needed me to join them. turns out sarah had a separate tie she wanted me to wear to differentiate me from the groomsmen. must have looked like quite the sight as meg and shannon held up her train and she handed me the tie. eventually we got everything together, made sure brad wasn't around and headed into the church.

the ceremony itself, other than being a bit behind, went off without a hitch - well, other than the intended one. everyone looked lovely, people cried (especially when brad read the part of the liturgy talking about watching over ben and began choking up), people laughed. everything a good wedding should be.

then came the post-cermony hoopla. lots of waiting around. lots of pictures. a little odd having my picture taken with the rest of the bridesmaids - the photographer had never dealt with a bridesman before and i think it though him off a bit. there's one picture with me standing with my arm around sarah while the other bridesmaids gather around us. i get the feeling it's going to look like i am the groom, which could prove to be loads of fun if i get a copy ("yeah, this is my first wife...").

then it got a bit....weird. see, the groomsmen and i were headed out to bookbinders, a few blocks away. but then we noticed the limousine just sitting there, waiting to take the bride and groom and bridesmaids to the reception. so in a rare fit of bravado, i asked the driver if it would be ok if he drove us to the reception. he said sure, so we climbed in the back, feeling pretty proud of ourselves. after a while, though, we realized we'd been in the limo for quite a while, so we asked the driver where we were headed. turns out, he was taking us to the wrong bookbinders. we explained to him that was the wrong one and were headed back when someone's phone rang. it was brad, wondering where we were. somehow the phone got handed off to me and i ended up talking to brad's mom, who had made the arrangements and was under the impression it was a one shot drop off deal. i explained to her i had talked to the driver and he had said it was ok, which seemed to allay her fears that there would be an extra charge. we all felt a bit sheepish but really, we hadn't done anything wrong. and, it would have been the bride who'd have gotten lost if we hadn't found the error, right? we all agreed that i would take the fall if anything bad happened - i mean, i'm from out of town, so not like i'd have to deal with it all the time.

and time escapes me, so we'll have to take another break, where i'll talk about the reception, how my music mix turned out and the post-reception activities....
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tunes: the beastie boys - body movin'

my debauchery-filled wedding weekend - part one

let me start by saying i hate driving on the east coast, where every gas station is 2-3 miles off the freeway and they rarely have fountain drinks. the midwest is far more road-trip friendly.

now, on with the recap.

the drive to philly went relatively well, other than an ill-advised mapquest detour through newark, delaware to avoid a $3.00 toll. lost about half an hour, if not more. and some idiot who decided to tailgate me in the right lane for my entire trip around baltimore's outerbelt. made me itchy to do more road tripping. maybe this summer. we'll see.

i checked in to the embassy suites out by the airport around 11:30 thursday night, twelve hours after i had left mason. when i dragged my stuff to my room on the first floor, i discovered, instead of the usual sleeper sofa in the front room, i had had a lovely conference table with a white board on the wall. caused a bit of consternation as i wasn't sure where steve (mahan) was going to sleep. turned out this was a non-issue, as steve canceled on shannon early that day. i eventually ended upstairs on the third floor, where it seems everyone else was, helping put the final touches on the wedding favors (heart-shaped measuring spoons with clever sayings on them like "a pinch of tenderness" - i can't make this stuff up). sarah, shannon, meg and julia then loaded up to pack the last of the stuff at sarah's apartment, leaving me to find bliss in hotel sheets.

the next morning i wandered into the breakfast buffet and found three generations of the farrell clan - judy and chris, andy (err....drew) and julia and their adorable offspring. chris and i made plans to head out to the the tux shop for a final fittings - a good fifty minute drive. but on the way we had to stop by sarah and brad's house to drop off the stuff from sarah's apartment - which i discovered was not even close to being all (but more on that later). so we dropped off judy and sarah's apartment and headed northwest toward the house, me doing my best magellan imitation in the middle of city i'd never been.

it's always an interesting prospect watching someone you love marrying someone else, especially if you haven't had the opportunity to meet their future spouse. fears are amplified - what if you don't like them? what if they turn out to be some kind of jackass? would you tell them? or would you swallow it and hope for the best? luckily, this wasn't a problem. brad is exactly what you hope for - a fun, intelligent man who adores sarah and loves ben. i worried the meeting might have been awkward given the history of sarah and i. but other than the typical first introduction stiltedness, brad and i hit it off. made the weekend much more bearable and enjoyable.

anyway, we unloaded the stuff, then headed to the tux shop. on the way home, i mentioned to chris that the only thing i had to do while in philadelphia was get an authentic philly cheese steak. somehow this turned into a detour in the middle of rush hour that led us to geno's, with only about 45 minutes before the rehearsal was to start. not ideal, but i'm glad i went - though i'll never be able to eat a "philly cheese steak" outside of philly ever again. and i was told later that geno's isn't even the best. guess i'll have to make another trip.

for those who haven't been following along at home, my official role in the wedding was that of bridesman - mostly like being a groomsman, only i stood on the bride's side. didn't seem that odd to me - i mean, i guess i could have stood on brad's side, but that would have been awkward since i didn't meet him until the day before the wedding. but it seemed to throw some people off. lots of questions on just how it would work, but really, the only change we had to make was making sure none of the groomsmen had to "escort" me down the aisle. little odd to walk down that long aisleway by yourself, but really, it's lasted about 15 seconds. and what's a little sacrifice for friends?

the church was st. peter's in downtown philadelphia. built in 1761 (!), it was one of the more unusual churches i've ever been in. instead of pews, they had what looked like penalty boxes, designed to sit families all together - like a booth without the table in the middle. people faced each other, which might seem odd in a church until you realized that while the pulpit from where readings and homilies are given was at one end of the church, the eucharistic table was at the other end. so you could shift as necessary. shannon and i decided it would be a great place to play sardines....

the rehearsal itself went quick once we finally got started - poor brad got stuck in friday afternoon traffic and was about 50-60 minutes late (and, as you can imagine, a bit frustrated). shannon and i ended up doing a reading from the velveteen rabbit together, which sarah asked us to do, oh, when we arrived for the rehearsal. it was the scene between rabbit and skin horse about what is real. good stuff. because the rehearsal got a late start, we only ran through the ceremony once, but everyone seemed to get it. so then it was off to the rehearsal dinner at the hyatt. most people drove over, but shannon and i decided to walk over. turns out ours was the wiser choice, as it $12.00 for parking and we arrived about 10-15 minutes before everyone that drove.

one of the first things we discovered upon arrival was that both of our name cards included "and guest." but since neither of our dates could make it (i think mine was supposed to be brent), we ended up playing musical tables and accompanying one another. shannon also helped me out at the open bar, always an intimidating prospect, since i don't like beer or wine and i don't drink often enough to know what to order. knowing i am a girl-drink drunk, she recommended a cosmopolitan, which ended up being my drink of the weekend. the meal itself was amazing and i got to know some of the rest of the wedding party, which helped since, really, i only knew sarah's side of things. it ended up being a fairly early night for me, because i rode with chris and judy and the mingledorff's and when they left, so did i. little awkward as they discussed who all had and had not gotten married. i just kept to myself and tried not to draw attention to my lingering singleness. then it was to bed in anticipation of the big day....
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tunes: ministry - everyday is halloween