Wedding Number Two

On Friday, I drove home from work, changed my clothes, and went to Adam’s house. He got his stuff together, and while doing that I realized that I had left my dress at home. Two seconds later, Mom called Adam’s phone to tell us she had just found my dress. Ooops. We stopped by Holladay’s end of the year party. We didn’t tell anyone we were going so they were surprised to see us. We chatted for a while, went by my house to get my dress and got on the road.

It took a while to get there. The nice thing about traveling with Adam is that we always seems to have a lot to talk about – even if it about nothing – or it is perfectly ok to sit in silence until I have a random comment related to some conversation we had two hours ago. Or Adam can fall asleep and I can watch his head bob out of the corner of my eye. :)

We arrived at our hotel at 12:30. There was no one to be found anywhere. The desk was closed, the phone number to call was busy, the other phone number said the call could not be completed, the night boxes for late arrivals were not programmed for me. What to do?

Shannon had left me a message earlier saying that her room was huge and we should come share (we had suggested sharing a room earlier, but she had said sharing a room with former students (and former co-workers!!! I don’t understand) would have been weird). With no other choices, except to find an even more expensive hotel at 1 in the morning, we woke up Shannon and slept on her extra bed.

Her alarm went off in the morning and she turned it off and rolled over. Later Dan called and asked if we were still going to breakfast. Good thing we can get ready in a hurry. After breakfast we caravanned our way to Chrissy’s wedding. It was in a park in the middle of Philadelphia and way back in the woods along some windy roads. We got there and there was no parking so we four point turned around in the parking lot to go back up the hill and there was a van in the way. The van, driven by Keegan, backed all the way up the curvy windy road – and expertly I might add. Turns out Keegan (Ellen’s new husband), was the shuttle driver and had backed up the hill more than a few times.

The ceremony was pretty with a burbling stream and geese, goslings, and ducks doing their thing in the background (which was a little distracting for the science teachers bc the ducks were trying to get it on). Plus we were worried that some of the approaching geese would dry to nibble on the sparkly bits of Chrissy's dress. You could tell Chrissy was trying not to cry and she was successful. The preacher was funny and personable and you could tell that he had taken the time to get to know Chrissy and Ryan.

Next was the reception - which I might add started before noon - something that called for a few rounds of adult beverages. My table was awesome for me - all the people I knew - so there was lots of conversation. One of the first things we did was peel the red stickers off the chocolates and put them on our foreheads and wave to Chrissy and Ryan. We are so grown up.

When it came time to decorate the car, which was a rental, it was the biggest brigade I have ever seen. More than ten people were out there giving a hand tying toilet paper and shoving greenery. The lady had just finished removing the greenery from the arch Ryan and Chrissy had said their vows under and she asked Ellen if she wanted it - of course she did! It was the main decoration for the car - plus the toilet paper Keegan took from the men's room. It had to be non-permanent and non-damaging and I think we were successful.

After the reception was over and Chrissy and Ryan drove away (for a honeymoon next week - Chrissy still had class to teach), Adam and I got on the road for home. We asked a random server at the reception for directions which turned out to be excellent and the drive was pretty uneventful. We stopped for IHOP for dinner and made it home before too late.

I like weddings. I like to think about what I want to do for my wedding (that is in no way shape or form going to happen anytime soon - but look out it will be an all weekend event). Everyone is happy at weddings. And the food is good. But I think I am done driving for now and done with weddings until October.

(the one photo i chose for this blog has been loading the entire time I have been typing - FYI - I hate dial up)