Monday, March 02, 2009

Wedding daze (Andrea is married, part 2)

Friday we had a bit of an adventure related to how although we had enough cars for every party that needed to be somewhere, Andrea hadn't gotten the keys to the Mercury from her parents so when Rachel took the minivan off to get bridesmaid (bridesmatron?) shoes, Andrea had no wheels. I had a very brief stint helping set up chairs in the reception hall, but the women in charge stopped us because they thought they might rearrange the tables a few more times for best effect, and the chairs would just be in the way. So when I had the chance to go run errands I jumped for it.

I didn't get to run the biggest errand, though; we needed plastic plates for the reception that were only carried by the Costco way up by our motel. I volunteered, but Dad asked if I really wanted to be responsible if I got the wrong kind. I conceded the wisdom of having him go instead.

Saturday morning we tried to take a shortcut from our motel down to the Sinden house, our jumping off point. I missed the 512 ramp, though, and there wasn't a way to get back on track for miles, so we followed Google's instructions through the back roads. (I love that iphone.) We still arrived in plenty of time for Rachel to go up with her sister and mother to have their hair done, but the others were having wedding morning jitters and had left early. At that point we really did have a car crunch if Rachel were to take another car up to the hair salon, so we decided that nobody would care in the long run if Rachel just did her own hair instead. This turned out to be the right call, since Andrea's group was a half hour late to the temple as it was. Adding another hour round trip for Rachel to have driven the minivan back to pick us up would have not been good.

Thursday, Rachel had offered me two-to-one odds that Andrea would be late for her wedding. I accepted. The consensus among family members was that I was a fool. They were right; I now owe Rachel a back rub, even though I hear that Mom very uncharacteristically hit 90 on the way up. Fortunately, the temple was "mostly closed" for maintenance that day. I'm not exactly sure how it worked, but the result was that we were the only group there, and nobody seemed to care that the bride was late.

The ceremony was brief. I thought back to my own wedding and how lucky I was to have Rachel. I wanted to go find a quiet place and hold her afterwards; instead, I went back down to reality where Isaac was mad. Isaac wasn't feeling well and Saturday was particularly bad; when I wasn't trying to rock him to sleep, Rachel was.

Pictures took a couple hours. Matthew and Melissa were fine, and Melissa particularly charmed the photographers. (I wouldn't be surprised if the woman had a talk with her boyfriend about children that night.) Isaac was still disgruntled. After a late lunch at 3:30 -- more like dinner time for those of us on an earlier time zone -- the reception was at 7:00. Those of us not in charge (read: everyone but Mom) got a bit of a break.

At the reception, Isaac finally slept. The receiving line was mercifully brief, then Jeremy's nieces and nephews from his sister Christine and her husband Tim stole the show with an Irish tap dance. They were really, really good -- I understand they compete nationally. Very impressive. Then Jeremy had a dance with Andrea. They took waltzing lessons together especially for the occasion. They looked good.

When Andrea tossed her bouquet, Melissa was very excited for a chance to get BIG FLOWERS. The bouquet got stuck in the canopy, but when Jeremy knocked it down it landed right in front of her. Alas, shefroze and a bigger girl scooped it up. Melissa was in tears that she had been so close. Pointing out that the other girl must be very happy didn't help -- go figure. Rachel gave her her corsage as a consolation, and we assured her that when she gets married she will have BIG FLOWERS.

Shortly before the end of the reception, Rachel asked if it wasn't the groomsmen's responsibility to trash the newlyweds' car. "That's a stupid tradition," I said, and as far as I know they got away unscathed.

Pictures will have to wait until Rachel gets back with the camera.

5 comments:

Butterfly Girl said...

HAHAHAHA, I have spent the last 5 minutes laughing to the point of tears that you would actually take Rachel up on that bet. You ARE a fool's fool! :) I almost tried the same bet with Will, but I guess he learns faster than you. hehe.

Jonathan Ellis said...

:(

Rachel Ellis said...

Not "trash" the car! Decorate it! With streamers and balloons and stuff. :)

Jonathan Ellis said...

Ah, I misunderstood.

Probably because the idea of putting balkoons and streamers on someone's car is so foreign to me. :)

jeremy said...

The best man, Brian, was guarding the car :-). He was so vigilant that his wife, Carrie, came into the church to ask me if I could go outside so she could take a picture with Brian and me. She explained that Brian wouldn't come inside because he was guarding the car! So no trashing/decorating the rental car :-).

However Erin, Andrea's friend from BYUH, gave us a Just Married sign that was attached with suction cups... it actually stayed on so well that when we got to the hotel, I accidentally ripped the suction cup off of the sign, but it stayed on the car - we got the sign off though. No extra rental charges :).