The Wedding

Don't you just hate changes. I got on our blog today and it was different. I knew it was going to change , they were warning me but I was hoping I would fall through the cracks and it would stay the same.

This week has been so uneventful with not having to think about graduation - open house - shower - wedding events.  Don't get me wrong, I loved being involved in everything and even tho there was a few stressful times (why wouldn't there be) it was fun and Brandi and I had a lot of laughs.

Brandi got the flash card with the wedding pictures but I probably won't get a copy for a few days. But I took some off of Brandi's FB and down loaded them to our webshots if you want to take a look.  Of course I have to share a few here.

And Two families become One

Dad was pretty happy too

 Anissa and I were able to catch a few minutes alone

OK, so the rest you can go to webshot and later when I have more I'll upload them there. 

I mention there was a few stressful moments that would eventually become funny stories. Lets start a few days before the wedding. 

We decided to order the tuxes from this new bridal store here in our little town. I'd stopped in there several times to look for a dress for myself and the girls and was impressed with the owners. A young couple who grew up in GL with a small baby following a dream they both shared. So even tho we weren't able to find dresses we did order the five tuxes needed. Now this place just opened this summer and I'm not sure if we weren't the first time tux renters. I was a little concern with the sizes we would need for our future grandson  Dar-Relle.  I mean there's not a big market for size 16 shoes. Tuxes in on Wednesday but because of football practice for both boys they couldn't try them on until that night. Well boys were good but dads was a little too tight, like he could move but not to fast or it might rip the shoulder seams. Quick call to Emily that next morning and luckily she had a size larger Friday by noon. Stress #1 over 

 

Brandi wanted a popcorn table instead of a candy table. Great idea for a after dinner snack during the dancing and as it turned out the group watching the football game.

Here's the center piece of the popcorn table. There were six other flavors to choose from.

This is the Fruit Salad Flavor and the biggest hit

We ordered the popcorn from this place called Pop Corn Wagon in Frankenmuth Mi and it arrived the Wednesday before the wedding. The minute I opened the box I knew there wasn't enough. Panic call to the company to double the order and was told would be shipped the following day as UPS had already left, but it would arrive that Friday. Hmm, the young man promised me it would be here and since I couldn't do anything else (other than the threat of a mother of the bride jinx on him) I hoped he was right. About a hour later I got a email from the company saying they had processed my order, taken it to the UPS store and it would be at our place before noon the next day. Wow, talk about service. A huge thank you email was returned to them. (will always wonder if the mother of bride jinx wasn't taken seriously). Stress #2 over

For two weeks before the wedding I tried to convince the kids they really shouldn't let Darrius go to his football game the morning of the wedding. I kept telling them he would break a bone and they would be having their ceremony in the local ER while their guests watch it on Skype. But Darrell assured me they are old hands at this and if this happened Darrius would be all fixed up by noon. Ya right. So no there wasn't any broken bones with Darrius but Dar-Relle had a game Friday night and he walked in the house on crutches with a sprained ankle.Stress #3 over - even tho it wasn't the one we figured. (oh and Dar-Relle is doing good, more of a precaution)

Wedding Day: For most of the week before the big day it was calling for cloudy - rain - cool temps. But the day turned out picture perfect for our kids. Stress #4 over

Noon: While Larry and Brian went and got the liquor for the reception Renee' and I finished up on some last minute table decorations. Luckily Renee' went in to check the flowers that we picked up the night before and put in the refridg. Too our horror ALL of the wedding parties flowers were totally wilted and looked like they were two weeks old. Did I mention that this was the day of Lansing's annual Bridal Show and this was the reason we had to pick up the flowers the night before. Our florist was working totally on that show. I called Amy at Delta Flowers and told her what had happened. Now this is 4hrs before the wedding but Amy and Delta came through and within a hour we had all new flowers. This one was beyond a stressful and more of a full fledged Panic Attack #5 over

The "plan" (which we all know goes out the window on wedding days) was for all the family members to arrive a hour before the ceremony to do pictures. Hmm, ok 1-hour ahead - no groom/groomsmen, 45minutes -still no groom/groomsmen, 30-minutes, nope not yet, 15 minutes -  and they have arrived.  Talk about a real stressful hour #6 over.

Finally the wedding began and I was sure we were done with anymore stress events. The ceremony was beautiful with happy tears a flowing. Later I found out that not only did Brandi  have a death grip on Larry but he kept tripping over her dress and was afraid they'd both go down.  thankfully unknown stress #7 over

Nope we're not quite done yet but getting close.

Shortly after dinner Brandi motioned for Renee' and I. She has this problem that when she's cold she breaks out with something almost like hives. Well the air conditioner must have been stuck on high cause it was cold in there and she was starting to break out with a red itchy rash. Not good. So Renee' made a emergency run to the local drug store for some antihistamine. Since Renee' lives in Cleveland and had no idea where this might be in the store she said she went straight to the counter and announce something to the effect "Quick- Bride - Breaking out - Hives -need antihistamine. She was very impressed with the speed the employee had on getting her in and out of there. Stress #8 over

The last and final one wasn't really a stress or panic event. More of a funny one but unfortunately our poor Darrius was the bunt of it. Seems he was standing watching the MSU game with the men and when he turned around his cousin jumped in front of him. The full glass of lemonade Darrius had ended up hitting him right in the face. Of course it didn't help that all the men bust out laughing when this happened.   When he came up to me he was dripping lemonade down the front of him. Poor guy, afraid this was about all he could handle for one night. First he not only had to put on this monkey suit but he had to stay clean, than he had to walk grandma down the isle to her chair, which wouldn't have been so bad but he had to walk all the way back by himself, so he could walk back down again with his sister. Than all these people kept telling him to "smile" for the pictures. Even tho he was thrilled that his mom and dad were getting married this was not what any 8 year old enjoys.   Someday even tho he still won't believe me he will laugh about his lemonade bath.  

That's it for the wedding story. The rest of the evening was uneventful, fun and exhausting.  We got to spend a very special time with family and friends plus a chance to meet several of Darrell's family who live out of State. The last song (loud) was played and the dancers did their best to wear out the wood floor and now it was time to clean up. But with the help of Darrell's family this was done in short order.

There was one kind of neat thing that happened that night. Brandi and Darrell had a anniversary dance where as the DJ would call out the number of years married the couple would sit down. Well we were down to four couples and three out of the four were us with our siblings Larry/Stint and Bob/Diane (who won).

The following three days we did "nothing". Both of us felt totally exhausted. But it was a good feeling and with that I'll say    Till next time.......................