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withdiamonds at 12:12pm on 13/08/2012
withdiamonds at 12:12pm on 13/08/2012So, the wedding...
Adam and I got back to Pgh last night. I was completely exhausted and wished we had stayed in C-bus until this morning. Larry said he felt lonelier than he ever had after everyone left, and it would have been nice to have had the time to process, also I had a hard time staying awake while I was driving, but Adam has friends here to see, and things to do before he goes back to Japan on Thursday.
Anyway, wow, you wait and plan for over a year for something and then bam, it's done.
It rained on Saturday, so we had to go with the inside option. Erin was upset but didn't let it affect her enjoyment of the day. Ashley and I were very proud of her. Most people I talked to loved the inside option, and I had to agree, it was beautiful.
The ceremony was supposed to start at 6:30 and it was sunny briefly at 6, but Franklin Park's wedding coordinator, Abby, said radar showed rain at 6:15 and so Larry and I had to make the decision whether to have the ceremony inside or out. Abby had already decided on inside for the dinner, which wasn't what Erin had planned, but there's nothing one can do about the weather.
I took a grand total of four pictures - I was busy - and this was the best one of the Palm House. Not bad for a backup plan.
Of course, Abby, who wasn't really so much on the ball, didn't change the signs, and there were two weddings going on at once in two different rooms, and I hadn't been able to bring Erin's second dress (she never got around to selling the first dress she got, so she wore the poofy one for the wedding and the comfortable one for the reception) in from the car yet because it was pouring down rain, and when the rain let up, every time I tried I was waylaid by people telling me they needed towels to wipe off the seats and I'm like, "It's been moved inside!" and then Phil wanted me to pin on my flowers and I was trying to find Abby to tell her that no one knew where to go - at least two people ended up at the other wedding - and Erin's hair was falling out of her headpiece and Lori (our hair person/friend) was waiting for the shuttle from the hotel that never came and then she got a cab and the driver didn't know where the Conservatory was, and she came running into the hallway in tears just as we were lining up to go in, and at one point I was still wearing my flip flops and I went bursting into the bridal ready room to find my shoes and Ashley told me it was a stress-free room and to get out. Someone else finally went out to my car to get the dress, even though it took me a while to realize that the reason I couldn't find my car key fob was that the hotel valet parking guy had tucked it away somewhere in the car, and we only started fifteen minutes late.
Okay, so Nic wrote the wedding ceremony, and his friend Phil officiated. It wasn't a religious service at all. I was telling my SIL, who is very Baptist, that Erin's friend was going to do a reading, and Pam said, "Oh, from what?" She seemed a little confused when I said, "The Princess Bride."
Nic loves new agey concept music, which is what they walked down the aisle to. I was supposed to stand when I heard Erin's music, but it was all a big mush of tones and humming, so I was afraid I'd miss it. I didn't, luckily. And he loves to use big words that no one else knows the meaning to. Ashley was standing up there, holding her bouquet and Erin's - which were a gorgeous combination of huge pink roses and jade plants and other succulents - trying to keep a straight face. At one point, when the prose was particularly purple, Erin turned and winked at Ash.
And then suddenly Phil was comparing the gestation of Erin and Nic's relationship to the gestation of a child and Larry looked and me and said, "Everyone's going to think she's pregnant."
Then Sarah came up and did the whole "Mawage. Mawage is what bwings us togeva tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam… And wuv, twu wuv, will fowow you foweva… So tweasure your wuv." She did it perfectly, and everyone laughed and applauded.
Then Nic's friend came up and read a poem from "All the Pretty Horses" about a girl and a train and a suitcase and sadness in her eyes which made Erin cry, for some reason.
Then Phil listed some things that were forbidden in their marriage, starting with no making fun of family vacations at corporate sponsored theme parks (Nic's not a Disney fan), no laughing at inexplicable loyalty to Columbus' major league soccer team, and ending with "What happens at Beatlefest stays at Beatlefest."
The ring bearers gave Erin's ring to Meredith to hold (Ash couldn't, because she had two bouquets and Erin's dirty tissue after she cried at the poem - that's true twin love, although Erin had to reassure Ash it was only tears, not snot, before she'd take it) and Nic's ring to one of his groomsmen - he didn't have a best man because he didn't want to play favorites. So there was some confusion during the exchange of rings, during which I could hear my stepdad say loudly, "I don't get it, what's going on?" (Nic wasn't going to wear a ring, then changed his mind and bought a silver ring off Etsy that was advertised as a "decoy ring," which I guess is for when you either want to pretend you're married when you're not, or are afraid of being mugged.)
And then we were introduced to Dr. Nic Poppe (he's very big on his PhD title being used) and Mrs. Jones-Poppe.
It was all very them.
(On the RSVP, people had a choice of checking "Be there" or "Be square." There were pink roses and table lines, food served family style, lots of stuff bought off Etsy, not just Nic's ring, piles of macaroons instead of a cake, invitations, programs and menu cards Erin printed at Kinkos, an endless open bar, two dresses: it was just an interesting combination of DYI and lavish.)
During the toasts at dinner, we managed to keep the mic away from my stepdad, who wanted to talk about my mother, after dinner Larry and I actually danced together more than once - we did the twist, we really did, and Nic and Erin only had one fight, in which she (accidentally, maybe) broke his commemorative champagne flute.
The fight was about the music, of course.
The DJ was an old friend of Erin's and chose to ignore most of Nic's music requests, because, as Ashley said, people don't dance to concept music. Nic and I "discussed" it at least three times. He wanted his music, because it was his wedding and he wanted to enjoy it and it was unprofessional of Drew to ignore his choices, although he did play some of them, blah blah, and I pointed out that people were ~dancing and enjoying themselves and that was a good thing. He and I were dancing at the time of our discussion, and then when the music switched to "Baby Got Back" he said that was inappropriate for us to dance to. I turned around and pointed out that Larry and Ash were dancing to it. Nic is so weird. For the mother-son dance, he refused to slow dance with his mom, insisting that it was inappropriate. They did a two-step to some song about Texas.
Anyway, after the "Bye Bye Bye" group choreography and "Living on a Prayer" singalong, he decided maybe it was okay, but then he got upset again at the inclusion of the VengaBoys. By the time Drew played "Sweet Caroline," I was ready to concede that maybe some of the choices were a little questionable. Nic said that he and I are a lot alike in that we refuse to let things go, and then ~he finally conceded to my request to stop calling me Mrs. Jones, although he kept calling me Mom instead of Donna, just to annoy me.
Larry's choice for the father-daughter dance was Loudon Wainwright's "Daughter" which contain the words "everything she sees she wants, everything she wants, I see she gets," which kind of sums him and Erin up perfectly.
Anyway, it was all awesome. Yesterday morning Larry and I drove them to the airport, and they left for a week in Estoril, Portugal.
And now I'm waiting for other peoples' pictures.
Adam and I got back to Pgh last night. I was completely exhausted and wished we had stayed in C-bus until this morning. Larry said he felt lonelier than he ever had after everyone left, and it would have been nice to have had the time to process, also I had a hard time staying awake while I was driving, but Adam has friends here to see, and things to do before he goes back to Japan on Thursday.
Anyway, wow, you wait and plan for over a year for something and then bam, it's done.
It rained on Saturday, so we had to go with the inside option. Erin was upset but didn't let it affect her enjoyment of the day. Ashley and I were very proud of her. Most people I talked to loved the inside option, and I had to agree, it was beautiful.
The ceremony was supposed to start at 6:30 and it was sunny briefly at 6, but Franklin Park's wedding coordinator, Abby, said radar showed rain at 6:15 and so Larry and I had to make the decision whether to have the ceremony inside or out. Abby had already decided on inside for the dinner, which wasn't what Erin had planned, but there's nothing one can do about the weather.
I took a grand total of four pictures - I was busy - and this was the best one of the Palm House. Not bad for a backup plan.
Of course, Abby, who wasn't really so much on the ball, didn't change the signs, and there were two weddings going on at once in two different rooms, and I hadn't been able to bring Erin's second dress (she never got around to selling the first dress she got, so she wore the poofy one for the wedding and the comfortable one for the reception) in from the car yet because it was pouring down rain, and when the rain let up, every time I tried I was waylaid by people telling me they needed towels to wipe off the seats and I'm like, "It's been moved inside!" and then Phil wanted me to pin on my flowers and I was trying to find Abby to tell her that no one knew where to go - at least two people ended up at the other wedding - and Erin's hair was falling out of her headpiece and Lori (our hair person/friend) was waiting for the shuttle from the hotel that never came and then she got a cab and the driver didn't know where the Conservatory was, and she came running into the hallway in tears just as we were lining up to go in, and at one point I was still wearing my flip flops and I went bursting into the bridal ready room to find my shoes and Ashley told me it was a stress-free room and to get out. Someone else finally went out to my car to get the dress, even though it took me a while to realize that the reason I couldn't find my car key fob was that the hotel valet parking guy had tucked it away somewhere in the car, and we only started fifteen minutes late.
Okay, so Nic wrote the wedding ceremony, and his friend Phil officiated. It wasn't a religious service at all. I was telling my SIL, who is very Baptist, that Erin's friend was going to do a reading, and Pam said, "Oh, from what?" She seemed a little confused when I said, "The Princess Bride."
Nic loves new agey concept music, which is what they walked down the aisle to. I was supposed to stand when I heard Erin's music, but it was all a big mush of tones and humming, so I was afraid I'd miss it. I didn't, luckily. And he loves to use big words that no one else knows the meaning to. Ashley was standing up there, holding her bouquet and Erin's - which were a gorgeous combination of huge pink roses and jade plants and other succulents - trying to keep a straight face. At one point, when the prose was particularly purple, Erin turned and winked at Ash.
And then suddenly Phil was comparing the gestation of Erin and Nic's relationship to the gestation of a child and Larry looked and me and said, "Everyone's going to think she's pregnant."
Then Sarah came up and did the whole "Mawage. Mawage is what bwings us togeva tooday. Mawage, that bwessed awangment, that dweam wifin a dweam… And wuv, twu wuv, will fowow you foweva… So tweasure your wuv." She did it perfectly, and everyone laughed and applauded.
Then Nic's friend came up and read a poem from "All the Pretty Horses" about a girl and a train and a suitcase and sadness in her eyes which made Erin cry, for some reason.
Then Phil listed some things that were forbidden in their marriage, starting with no making fun of family vacations at corporate sponsored theme parks (Nic's not a Disney fan), no laughing at inexplicable loyalty to Columbus' major league soccer team, and ending with "What happens at Beatlefest stays at Beatlefest."
The ring bearers gave Erin's ring to Meredith to hold (Ash couldn't, because she had two bouquets and Erin's dirty tissue after she cried at the poem - that's true twin love, although Erin had to reassure Ash it was only tears, not snot, before she'd take it) and Nic's ring to one of his groomsmen - he didn't have a best man because he didn't want to play favorites. So there was some confusion during the exchange of rings, during which I could hear my stepdad say loudly, "I don't get it, what's going on?" (Nic wasn't going to wear a ring, then changed his mind and bought a silver ring off Etsy that was advertised as a "decoy ring," which I guess is for when you either want to pretend you're married when you're not, or are afraid of being mugged.)
And then we were introduced to Dr. Nic Poppe (he's very big on his PhD title being used) and Mrs. Jones-Poppe.
It was all very them.
(On the RSVP, people had a choice of checking "Be there" or "Be square." There were pink roses and table lines, food served family style, lots of stuff bought off Etsy, not just Nic's ring, piles of macaroons instead of a cake, invitations, programs and menu cards Erin printed at Kinkos, an endless open bar, two dresses: it was just an interesting combination of DYI and lavish.)
During the toasts at dinner, we managed to keep the mic away from my stepdad, who wanted to talk about my mother, after dinner Larry and I actually danced together more than once - we did the twist, we really did, and Nic and Erin only had one fight, in which she (accidentally, maybe) broke his commemorative champagne flute.
The fight was about the music, of course.
The DJ was an old friend of Erin's and chose to ignore most of Nic's music requests, because, as Ashley said, people don't dance to concept music. Nic and I "discussed" it at least three times. He wanted his music, because it was his wedding and he wanted to enjoy it and it was unprofessional of Drew to ignore his choices, although he did play some of them, blah blah, and I pointed out that people were ~dancing and enjoying themselves and that was a good thing. He and I were dancing at the time of our discussion, and then when the music switched to "Baby Got Back" he said that was inappropriate for us to dance to. I turned around and pointed out that Larry and Ash were dancing to it. Nic is so weird. For the mother-son dance, he refused to slow dance with his mom, insisting that it was inappropriate. They did a two-step to some song about Texas.
Anyway, after the "Bye Bye Bye" group choreography and "Living on a Prayer" singalong, he decided maybe it was okay, but then he got upset again at the inclusion of the VengaBoys. By the time Drew played "Sweet Caroline," I was ready to concede that maybe some of the choices were a little questionable. Nic said that he and I are a lot alike in that we refuse to let things go, and then ~he finally conceded to my request to stop calling me Mrs. Jones, although he kept calling me Mom instead of Donna, just to annoy me.
Larry's choice for the father-daughter dance was Loudon Wainwright's "Daughter" which contain the words "everything she sees she wants, everything she wants, I see she gets," which kind of sums him and Erin up perfectly.
Anyway, it was all awesome. Yesterday morning Larry and I drove them to the airport, and they left for a week in Estoril, Portugal.
And now I'm waiting for other peoples' pictures.