Wedded bliss

I am pleased to report that the wedding went incredibly well. I can't think of one thing that went wrong the entire weekend. Eva was a radiant, calm and happy bride, nobody got sick, nobody got in a fight and there were no cold feet. *ha ha!*

We left from Ct Friday am and arrived in time for the bridesmaid luncheon. It was the first time I met Josh's stepmother--what a lovely woman. We ate at Chat-A-Whyle, which is a charming little lunch room in Vestal, NY. It's big claim to fame are it's bread bowl soups--going strong LONG before Panera breads made it's appearance in Upstate NY. My aunt (Dad's sister) was there also--I always enjoy catching up with her.

After lunch we picked up Susie and Dan and got to have a couple of hours relaxing before the rehearsal. Even Dan hung in there through the church rehearsal and dinner--luckily there were some other kids there to keep him distracted from throwing a temper tantrum. (My son? Tantrum?) The dinner was so good--it was at the hotel where the reception was going to be, so we got to sneak up and peek into the ballroom while they were decorating. That was fun!

On Saturday all us girls had to get up really early and go get our hair done. I guess if there was any stressful moment it was that the last girl to "get done" (Susie) didn't get done until EXACTLY 9:59am, and the wedding started AT 10:00am!!!! Amazingly, the ceremony started pretty much on time. (as much as any wedding does)

The hair place shares the same municipal parking lot as the church. While the hair was getting done, I was running interference between the church, the various bags of assorted toiletries in the girls' cars and the hair place. During one trip I ran into Josh arriving at the church so I took the opportunity to tease my new brother-in-law: "Hey!" I stage whispered, "It's not too late for you and I to run away together!" He laughed. He's a good guy.

Everyone looked so nice! I do have pics, and will be putting an album together hopefully today. Every time I see the pictures of Alannah and Aidan I get teary--they look so grown up. Maybe it is better that in real life they are still a bit rough around the edges... Not sure the middle school could handle such lovely girls--no one would get anything done. Susie was adorable, and soooo into her flower girl role. Dan was adorable too, but it was more of a sacrifice. The amazing thing about him was that when he went for his tux fitting (about six weeks after he was measured for it) his pants were three inches too short! His shoes, which were a little big a month ago FIT perfectly the day of the wedding. I guess that is how boys grow. Luckily swapping out a new pair of pants was no big deal. He sort of stalked down the aisle--I told the church ladies not to push the act for him too much. Susie was the one who took the show blushing her way sweetly down the aisle.

The reception was very nice, and the girls had a lot of fun dancing. It is always fun to observe the blend of personalities when you get 4+ families and assorted friends together in one place. I was able to catch up with some people that I don't see often, including my foster brother and sister that lived with my family during the time Eva came to my parents as a baby until she was adopted at age five. They are neat kids, and so neat that they continue to consider us family. My favorite part of the weekend was hanging out with my sister Andrea and my brother in law. Not only have they provided me with a niece to spoil, they are just really cool people. Scott and I shared many laughs with them.

Including.... Saturday night after everything was "done" and cleaned up, Scott and I went out after the kids were tucked in to sneak in a rare little "date". While we were downtown I got a text message from Andrea that Christian was craving chicken wings, so we picked up a party pack and came back to mom and dad's with 2 dozen wings, a sheet pizza and a huge soda! (Not like we hadn't been eating all weekend....) We hung out until about 2am, laughing and talking. The next day our mother made the comment that "we were loud" (???!!!who, us?) I think she is sooo ready for this empty nest thing! (HAHAHAHAHAHA!)

Eva and Josh went off on a ten day honeymoon to Colorado where they enjoyed all kinds of hiking, site-seeing, etc.etc. Too bad they had to come back home to all this RAIN.

Hopefully no one is suffering too much from the whole post-wedding blues. Now the pics are pouring in, so I am sure that helps to bring back all the good memories of such a wonderful day.