Sat, Feb. 22
... And they all lived happily ever after
Well. Diaryland's being dumb and not letting me sign in, so I'm going to write my entry in WordPad, and then try to post it later.
Yesterday was a long day. Fun, but long. Hmm... what's going to be the best way to go about this? A chronological description of the past 2 days, I think.
Thursday, noon: I drive to the church to pick up Amanda, one of the other bridesmaids, and take her to the salon, where all of us are getting our nails done. I've never had a professional manicure before--it's fun to have someone else play with my hands, especially when she massages them. After that, we head to Allison's for Amanda's second-last dress fitting, then to the church to decorate the sanctuary.
4:00 p.m.: The sanctuary is decorated and the rehearsal's supposed to be starting, but the groom isn't there. Kat's freaking out--she's convinced she's been jilted, and she isn't even at the altar yet--and we're all trying to calm her down. Finally, Christian shows up at around 4:45, and we can get the rehearsal underway. We run through the processional twice and the ceremony once, and then we all head to Kat's mom's house for a rehearsal dinner of make-your-own sandwiches and birthday cupcakes for Jason.
7:30 p.m.: Kat, Erin, Ness, Laurel, and Marichelle head to the hotel to decorate for the reception; Amanda and I go back to Allison's once more. Her dress is finished now, so we take it and Marichelle's dress, which Allison had kept to finish hemming, and then we go to Vanessa's house, where we're all spending the night. The others get there at around 9:30, about an hour after us, and we start to take turns showering, trying out hairstyles, and painting our toenails, while we wait for the limo (Kat's last-night-as-a-single-woman dream).
11:30 p.m.: The limo's supposed to be here by now, but it's not, so Laurel and Vanessa's mom spend a few minutes phoning around to the different limo companies, trying to remember which one it was booked through. We find it, and they realize that they had forgotten to actually book it, so they got their office manager out of bed, and he's on his way over to pick us up. He'll be about an hour later than we'd anticipated, but they'll "make it up to us," whatever that's supposed to mean.
12:30 a.m.: The limo finally arrives. We were all pretty tired, but this perked us all up a bit. We cruise around the city for an hour or so, stopping at 7-11 for slurpees, going to the limo comapany's shop to take pictures in front of the limo indoors, because it's really, really cold out, and then taking Sarah (Christian's stepsister) back to her hotel. It ends up costing us $50 for the hour, instead of $200, because of the mixup. That's a blessing!
2:00 a.m.: We're finally in bed. Laurel, Amanda, and I are sharing a room, and Laurel and I are sharing a bed. The other two girls fall asleep pretty quickly, but I'm still awake. Pretty soon, Laurel rolls over in her sleep and starts snuggling with me. Okay, I guess we're spooning tonight.
Friday, 7:10 a.m.: Ness comes into our room, turning on the lights and being really noisy to wake us up. We need to leave in about 20 minutes to make our hair appointment on the other side of the city by 8:00. We don't have to shower, do makeup, or anything like that, so we're out of there pretty quickly. Kathy's up, but Erin and Marichelle are still sleeping. We pile us, our dresses, and our backpacks into Laurel's car, and drive to her hairdresser, who opend up two hours early to do our hair.
10:45 a.m.: All three of us have our hair in gorgeous updos, and we're on our way to the church to get dressed and do our makeup. There are a few small details that need to be taken care of once we get there, like setting out candles, but almost everything is done. We're the first ones there, so we have our makeup finished and are dressed by the time anyone else gets there. That frees us up a bit more to run around and get things ready once everyone arrives. The other girls get there by 12:00 or so, and they're all dressed. Our dresses are burgundy satin, with empire waists and princess seams, and spaghetti straps. They're quite simple, but they look great. We help Kat get into her dress, and then wait around: taking pictures, sending flowers to their designated recipients, lighting candles, and so on. Kat's gorgeous--her dress is a halter top, with a V-neck and some beadwork on the bodice. The skirt is quite simple, but there's a "swoop" of fabric across the waist and buttons down the train, which is chapel length. It's simple, but very elegant, and she looks beautiful.
1:00 p.m.: The guys are locked in their hallway, so we head to the hallway to wait for the last few stragglers to be seated, and then we line up at the back doors for the processional. Zac (my cousin) and Anni, the ring bearer and flower girl, are nervous, but someone has told each of them to look out for the other, so her hand is already in his arm and they're reminding each other to be quiet. They stick together pretty much all day. They're so cute! Nadine's playing the piano; the moms and Laurel enter and light candles to the "Feather Theme" from Forrest Gump, the bridesmaids and the flower girl and ring bearer enter to "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring," and Kat and her dad enter to Pachelbel's "Canon in D." Kat's carrying a bouquet of red and white roses, and we each have three white roses, with baby's breath and some greenery, which we're carrying in one arm. The ceremony flies by, but my feet are telling me that it's long. They're already hurting, and it's only the beginning of the day! During the ceremony, Zac is wiggling, so Doug, his dad (my uncle), squeaks at him. The squeak is the universal Anderson attention-getter from across the room--my dad's whole side of the family does it. So, when Doug squeaks at Zac, I automatically look, and then realize that it's not for me, and I have nothing to worry about anyways.
1:45 p.m.: The ceremony's over. We get our purses and coats, and the bridal party gets onto a school bus that's waiting outside the doors for us. We sit with our "buddies": Brandon and Erin, Brian and I, Trevor and Vanessa, Jason and Amanda, and Edwin and Marichelle--the people we walked down the aisle with--and are heading to the Devonian Gardens to get our pictures taken. Once we get there, the girls all decide to leave our jackets in the bus, so it's a quick, cold walk (-20 C) to get inside. We have to go through the mall to get to the gardens, which is always fun. We attracted quite a bit of attention--a bride, groom, 10 attendants, and a flower girl and ring bearer. While we were crossing the +15 (Calgary's indoor walkway system between downtown buildings), we saw someone on the street being mugged. That was kind of funny. Pictures are long, and our feet are all aching. Some of the guys go get Arby's or Subway from the food court just off the gardens, but none of the girls brought our purses in from the bus, so we're all pretty hungry by the time we're finished. While we were there, Zac told Anni, "I've only known you for two days, but I'm going to remember you forever!" A little later, he said, "I think I'm going to marry Anni!" Her response? "I need to think about that for a little while." Maybe there was a match made at this wedding? ;o)
5:00 p.m.: We leave the gardens, traipse through the mall again, and then back out to the bus. This time, the guys all give their buddies their jackets, so it's a little bit warmer. The bus is parked across the street, though, so it's a little bit longer walk. We all look pretty funny--we're running in that funny, tiny-step run that you do in heels, and it's really obvious that our feet are beyond sore, because we're gimping so much. On the bus, we sit in the same seats we did on the way, with our buddies again. This is becoming quite the event--"Make sure you know where your buddy is!" My buddy is Brian, (not that Brian; a friend of Christian's from Medicine Hat). We hit a Tim Horton's on the way to the hotel, and some of us get some coffee or something like that. When we get to the hotel, we have about 15 minutes to spare before we have to meet up to do our processional in, so we mingle a little bit and talk to some of our friends and family, since we didn't have a chance to do that after the ceremony.
6:00 p.m.: The reception's about to start. We line up in our buddies, and have some difficulty figuring out what order we're going to stand in. Somehow, the idea of "stand in the same order you stood during the ceremony" (and the same order we stood for half the pictures) doesn't make sense anymore. Eventually we get it right, though, and we're ready to go in. They announce Kat and Christian, and the rest of us follow and sit down at the head table. There's a bit of an open mic time, and then it's time to eat! This is some of the best food I've ever had at an event like this. Definitely better than what I had at my grad. After we've eaten, we pose for a few pictures on two or three of our cameras, and it turns into an all-out paparazzi event! We're standing behind the guys' chairs, and suddenly there are 20 people trying to take our pictures. There were a few other poses we wanted to get, so we moved to a bigger space beside the table, and a few 5-minute poses turned into 20 minutes of posing and smiling for 20 people at once. We got some good shots, though, and they're on our cameras, so they'll be a lot easier to get than the pictures from the photographer, although I'm going to want copies of some of those, too. I've run out of film in my camera, and I forgot to bring an extra roll, so I've stolen my mom's camera to get some pictures on there. She always takes a long time to finish a roll of film, but I figure that if I can polish off her roll tonight, I'll get my copies of the pictures sooner than July.
8:00 p.m.: Speech time. Laurel gives one to Kat; Brian gives one to Christian. I give the toast to the bride... it's a little bit scattered. I did it without notes, which made me a little bit flustered and not quite as smooth as I wanted to be, but it went okay. Trevor gave the toast to the groom, and Ken gave a rather unconventional toast to the couple. We were all quite surprised at how short he managed to keep it. It's not like Ken to keep any speech into a time limit, but he did quite well! Kat and Christian cut the cake. He feeds it to her nicely; she rubs it in his face. She throws the bouquet--it ends up in pieces on the floor. That's always an entertaining event. I never manage to catch the bouquet, but I always get a piece of it. I wonder what that's supposed to mean... Christian throws the garter, and it goes way over everyone's head. Trevor is the first one to catch it, though.
9:30 p.m.: The dance starts. At first, after Kat and Christian's first dance, it looks like a junior high dance: girls on one side of the room; guys on the other. Zac and Anni are dancing in the middle of the two groups, and they're the only ones who look good out there! After the first slow dance, it gets better, though. More people are out there, and people are starting to have more fun with it. I'm not much of a dancer, but I get out there a little bit. Some more mingling; talking to people from church, friends from Rocky. There are a few people there I haven't seen in a while, and it's nice to have a few minutes to hang out with them. My feet are liking me a little bit better--the shoes have been off since the reception started--but my ribs are starting to hate me. I'm wearing a strapless, backless bra, which means that it comes down to the bottom of my ribs, and there's boning all down it. I've been wearing it since 11:30, and the boning is poking into my ribs.
11:00 p.m.: Kat and Christian left a few minutes ago, and we start to help Laurel clean things up a bit. We don't have a lot to clean up, but there's still enough that it takes us a few minutes. There are only a few die-hards left, so we keep some music playing for a few minutes, but then decide that it's not worth it, since no one is dancing anymore, and start to pack up the stereo. We pile onto the bus for one more "buddy ride" (even though it's just Edwin, Trevor, Ness, Brian, and I by now), and head back to the church to pick up our stuff. The guys change out of their tuxes, we clean up the rooms we changed in, and bring in the gifts for the gift opening in the morning. There's more stuff to put away than I expected, so I just leave some of it for tomorrow. I'll be at the church anyways; I can deal with it then.
12:00 a.m.: We leave the church. It's not that late for a wedding, but it feels like it's been an incredibly long day. I drive Edwin home, and we unload some of the stuff that's being kept at his house, and then I drive to my house. My toes are so cold, they feel like they're going to fall off, and I tripped on my dress and put a little rip in the lining while I was walking down the stairs. When I get home, Janel is still up, so I show her my dress, flowers, and hair, and we talk a little bit about the day. Chelsea is in bed, but awake, so we turn on the light so she can see it, too. I check my email and fire off a pathetic excuse of an entry, and then crash--or try to. I realize that I don't have my pillow (I left it in Laurel's car, since that's what we took from Vanessa's house in the morning), so I grab one of the throw cushions off the couch and sleep with that. My hair's still up--most of us will probably sleep with it in, and there's so much hairspray and bobby pins that it'll still look almost the same in the morning.
1:30 a.m.: My feet don't know what to think when I lie down and actually take some of the pressure off them. They ache for a few minutes, but then it feels soooo good to be able to leave them up...
And that was my day. Interesting, hey? Yeah, that's what I thought, too. But you know, it's always good to have that kind of thing written down. Just for posterity, you know?
infinite || abyss
posted at 11:37 p.m.
