Weekend Wedding Life

After one of the longest weekends ever… I am home and back to work.  I am a little exhausted and sore(from moving so many chairs and tables around), but it all comes with sweet memories that I’m so thankful to have.  So, let’s start at the beginning!

Thursday – We drove up to my best friend’s parents’ cabin to have her lingerie/bachelorette party.  This cabin is in a fairly new subdivision that sits right on the river and this is also where the wedding is going to be.  They have a community gazebo that sits around a huge swimming pool with an island out in the middle.  My best friend chose this as her venue for two reasons, #1 – it’s beautiful and #2 – it’s free if you own property in the subdivision!  How lucky is she?! J  When I left work on Thursday afternoon I went home to load my car with three days worth of clothes and necessities because I will not be returning home until the early hours of the morning on Sunday. 

My wonderful baking skills!!

The party was great!  All of her friends showed up and we had an absolute blast watching her open all the embarrassing gifts.  By the end of the night only 4 of the 15 girls had a designated driver to come and pick them up so 11 girls piled up and slept in a two bedroom/two bathroom cabin that only has one bed in it!  I wish I would have taken more pictures, but I was a little too tipsy to be thinking of that.

She's a teacher and this is a ruler for "naughty boys".  :-)

This one embarassed her.

She can't seem to figure this present out.

The night is just getting started.

Supposedly beer pong is an extremely fun game.  I don't know if we were ever playing it right, but it was fun.

The bride-to-be has already switched to water in this pic because she started drinking the earliest, lol.

Friday – This day started out with all of us guzzling coffee while we cleaned up the cabin from the night before.  The rental company was planning to be there by noon to deliver all the linens, tables, chairs, and decorative vases, so we had to hurry.  We spent the rest of the day outside in the blistering heat cleaning and setting up 120 chairs and 15 round tables!  Not my idea of a relaxing day by the pool but it had to be done.  We needed everything to be somewhat set up because rehearsal was scheduled to begin at 6:00 and what’s the point in practicing if you’re not going to do it the real way with everything already in its place?!  This was our mission and we would not have succeeded if it weren’t for my best friend's step-father.  This man is a saint!!  He worked just as hard as we did in 95 degree heat until everything was done.  He loves her so much and definitely showed that by standing by and helping until the end. 

The rehearsal dinner was delicious.  Provided to us by Mack's Fish and Steakhouse.  I ate cajun chicken alfredo pasta and carrot cheesecake for dessert. (By the way, it was the most delicious cheesecake I have ever eaten in my life!)  Afterwards it was time to say goodnight to all the family and, of course, to the groom.  This did not go as well as we thought.  I think all the stress of the past days and weeks had finally caught up to the bride because she had a little breakdown.  A few tears were shed and a little frustration was released and for a minute I was a little worried about the next day approaching, but we took our minds off of everything with a few beers and a good movie and then tried to sleep. 

Saturday morning came entirely too soon and once again we spent all day outside in 95 degree heat to set out all the linens and vases filled with flowers and water.  It was such a time consuming task because there were only four of us, just like the day before.  The bride, her two bridesmaids, and her step-father set up this entire ceremony and reception.  About 2:00 came and our clothes were already so wet from sweat that we figured jumping in the pool to cool off wouldn't make that much difference so, fully clothed, we all enjoyed about 30 minutes in the pool before heading back up to the cabin to get ready. 

The ceremony wasn't supposed to start until 7:00 so we had plenty of time to shower and get beautiful before it was time.  By now the bride was as cool as a cucumber and totally excited about getting married.  I, on the other hand, was getting a little anxious.  I still had several things to tend to before we could drive down to the river to get ready to walk in and I was definitely feeling the pressure while I was getting ready.  Once again... I am so thankful for her step-father because if it weren't for him I would have never gotten around to make sure everything was finalized before we walked. 

At approximately 7:30 my best friend and her fiance became husband and wife.

My beautiful sister and me.

To bring this wonderful, work filled weekend to an end, my sister and I arrived back at my apartment around midnight on Saturday only to snooze for about three hours because I was the one asked to drive my best friend and her new husband to the airport for their flight to honeymoon in Cancun.  Their flight left Little Rock Airport at 5:45 am on Sunday morning!!!  We live about an hour from the airport so we had to pick them up and hit the road around 3:30 am.  This was not a whole lot of fun, but I love them and wanted to make this whole experience as easy for them as I possibly could.  Needless to say I was in bed very early last night because of the lack of sleep!

Sweet memories to be cherished forever.