Wedding Blog

Are you ready for some recaps?! Well alright, let’s get right to it! I’ve spent some time thinking about how to structure the posts and I’ve decided that the most logical way to organize them (for me at least) is to go in chronological order, laying the events out in the order in which I lived them…

Thursday, April 16, 2009 was the first day of my wedding vacation. I had to work the days prior and up until that moment it seemed like any other week. I had planned to sleep in that morning since I had been up very late every night that week in a desperate attempt to finalize all of the shopping, packing, and crafting. It was a MAJOR goal of mine to be done by this Thursday and for the most part we hit that target. However, I was so stinkin’ excited to get my party on that I barely slept past 6AM.

Meanwhile in San Antonio, my mother was on her way to Enterprise to pick up the rental van that would be vitally important to transport the million and one things that we would need. My dining room was set up as the staging area and I had brought down the Rubbermaid bins brimming with crafts, all of my luggage for the weekend and honeymoon, the out of town bags, my gigantor dress and veil, our dog Vida, and what seemed like a partridge in a pear tree (or topiaries, as it were). I was so excited that I kept pacing around downstairs waiting for her to show up and running over my mental to do/to go list in my head. The clock kept ticking, but Mom still hadn’t shown up. I was starting to get antsy as I felt my timeline slipping off track. I literally walked outside every five minutes to see if I could spot her coming around the bend. It was during this time that I started to notice the weather, and it didn’t look good. The sky was an unappealing shade of grey and the humidity felt out of control. This did not bode well. I decided to do my best to ignore it and called my mother to check her status. Turns out she took a detour to the outlet malls in San Marcos to pick up a few surprises of the J.Crew variety for me, and a last minute birthday gift for the groom. I figured I could forgive her tardiness but urged her to get her happy self to Austin sooner than later or I was going to burst. About fifteen minutes later the van rounded the corner of our street and pulled up in front of our home.

After getting over the initial hilarity of the vision of my mother piloting what we lovingly dubbed the “date-raper mobile” (seriously, no windows or seats, save for the driver and navigator) we got right to work loading it up. We enlisted a very groggy Mr. L to get in on the fun and haul the heavier of the bins (which turned out to be almost all of them). With the van packed we were ready to go, so we said our goodbyes to Mr. L and headed out the door. This would be the last time I would see him before the rehearsal the following afternoon and I was already getting sentimental and starting to miss him. Luckily there was no time for that, as Mom and I had a million and one stops to make. A quick kiss goodbye and a cheeky reminder to “behave himself” directed at Mr. L (as his bachelor party would be that evening) and we were on our way.

Mom and I headed north first to pick up the table linens and load them in the already stuffed van. Hilarity continued to ensue every time we referenced the van. Looking back, I’m not sure why we found it so darn funny…

Anyhow, once the linens had been accounted for and we grabbed a quick bite to eat, we were back on I-35 headed south for SA.

And then it started to rain.

There was no time to pout about the rain, though. We had family and friends flying in at various times throughout the day, many stops to make to drop off sundry wedding items, and a dinner party to prepare for that evening (because we are insane).

Once in San Antonio we hit up the club, hotel, and FMIL’s home, depositing moss balls and bins and out of town bags (oh my!). All the while the drizzle continued. I did my best to buck up and started my first glass of pinot around 2PM. By 3 I was feeling MUCH better. By 5, I couldn’t have cared less about the damn rain.

That night my parents and I hosted an informal dinner party for all of my mom’s sisters and their respective husbands and kids (there are 6 sisters total!). It was just what I needed to get out of harried errand running mode and into a festive and celebratory mood. I hadn’t seen some of my aunts in years and it was a real treat to be able to just chill and soak it all in.

Meanwhile in Austin, many of our friends and family of the male variety were arriving in town for the big bachelor soiree. The event was hosted by our best man and mutual best friend, Ryan, who was under strict orders to ensure no one ended up in jail or with alcohol poising. Ryan had a few rules of his own for the night, including a ban on photography of any kind. Thus, only one picture of the debauchery survives: a grainy camera phone pic snapped by Mr. L’s step brother:

FIL, Mr. L, GM Seth clearly NOT enjoying themselves whatsoever

From what I hear it was legen—wait for it—dary and I am happy to report that everyone survived and arrived in SA the next day ready to practice gettin’ hitched!

Up next, a monsoon hits South Texas and a near disaster ensues…