Written still waiting for the plane (9/25/2006 at 6:22 AM or so, the plane is running an hour late (or so they say)).
So we get up bright and early, Shannon got in the shower first, quickly followed by me. Shannon had to leave first for her and her sister's, mom's and niece's hair appointments (at Blondies). My parents came and we loaded up their car with the items for the reception. They ran off. I was to follow, after I picked up Nathan at the hotel.
Shannon's Mom and crew were running a little behind (but not to much), but I waited for them, just to make sure they got there. And after she was off, I headed over to pick up Nathan and we headed over to the reception.
My parents actually had a problem, but they fixed it before I even got there. For the big picture of us, they had accidently broken the glass of it, but they ran off to a hardware store and replaced the glass. So it wasn't even an issue.
We got the tables and chairs setup and started with the decorations that we could.
Around 10:AM (as promised) the caterer showed up, along with my siblings and siblings in law to help with the setup. It went pretty smoothly. The caterers had the wrong sized linens for the tables, but quickly replaced them with ones that worked and worked well. And then I showed Cara how we wanted the decorations setup (as far as Shannon told me and that I could remember) and then told her that she should use her best judgment with what was there. After a bit of help (hanging up the flower balls, etc), it was 11 and we needed to head over to Candle Lit Way to get ready for pictures. So Brandon, Nathan and I headed over there.
I got dressed up in my rented tuxedo, got the things tightened and loosened and tied and strapped in. I'm not a huge fan of monkey suits. So we got ready...The Photographer was quite pleasant and took the pictures that we wanted both in digital and film, which was kind of nice, but again what I love the most, is that we OWN the negatives, no asking for rights to print off pictures, no silliness with copyrights or anything.
We did the first look outside...with me standing next to the church's tool shed (Which looks like a mini-church). I gotta say that I was stunned. Shannon was gorgeous. The dress (made by Shannon's Mom) was awe inspiring too. It took a long time to get to that point where I saw her like that, but every moment was worth it.
She said I looked handsome too...but you know...
More pictures. Us, us with family, us with wedding party, etc.
Then we all hid, especially Shannon.
I saw a group of my friends outside, so I went out there to say hello. Jenny, Richard and Elena, Cameron, etc. It was nice to talk about. Richard and Cameron went on a very geeky rant about their cameras to each other, talking about the versions and the lenses.
After a while, Dan (from Candle Lit way) came in and got me, because he was gonna lock the back door, because people kept coming in there. So I headed in. I waved at a few people entering the doors. Co-workers, my cousin Mike and other people I recognized.
So the wedding was short and sweet, which is pretty much just how we wanted it. I had trouble keeping it together and Shannon told me that I couldn't cry because I'd make her cry, so I tried my best, but I don't think it worked very well.
We headed out the back to greet people, and the weather was still holding up. I met lots of Shannon's Family (for the first time) and I hope they will forgive me, but I forgot most of them :-( Oh well, I'm awful with names, so, what can you expect?
the line got down, people had their bubbles, and we were ready to go, except for pinning up Shannon's dress. Kim came over to try to help, but couldn't find the hooks, so we sent someone off to find Shannon's mom and then we got the dress all fixed up and good to go.
So we walked through the bubbles, and in trying to get to the Audi, we had to have Elana (Richard's wife) get our of our way so we could get out...but I guess I could've changed where we parked too (since Josh got the prime parking place). And then we headed off.
We drove over to Raccoon River. We went a little slow, and when we got there, a few people were there, so we we parked behind Drew's car and told him to turn on the iPod...we got a call from him later to confirm that he got the right play list with both Andrew Bird and the Gorrillaz on it. So we drove around for a bit more and came back to make our entrance.
So the Reception went pretty well. The cheese was amazing, the food was very good, We even got a comment from one of my friends to say that this was, by far and away, the best food he's ever had at a wedding, which made me feel good. But the props really go to Chef and Kristi Little at Chef's Kitchen/Winston for there wonderful catering ability. It was just fantastic. I told Kristi that I wanted a list of the cheeses that she had on the table, so we'll be getting that here in due time.
We went out and took more pictures around the area of the park.
Nathan gave a speech, much later my Dad did, both were very nice, both made me tear up a bit...
My sister Alissa got the bouquet, Shannon's Nephew got the garter.
The cakes!
The Cakes were freakin awesome! The orange cake was amazing! They looked great and tasted great too, I was very happy with how that turned out...it was great great great!
We stayed later then I think most people do...we even changed back into our regular clothes.
The car got decorated a bit...Nathan told me it was Proctor approved and it wasn't too bad...apparently they were having trouble keeping streamers off the back of the car, so they tied them to my tennis shoes...so when I put them on, I had streamers coming off of my feet.
By the time it came to it, everything was mostly cleaned up, we did have a bit of a problem getting rid of the cake, since we couldn't' take it (leaving on monday) and others didn't want that much cake..we ended up giving it to the caterers to do with as they will.
Then we went home.
(record skips a bit)
So we were sitting up talking and we had all these gifts downstairs, so we decided to open up the cards and keep them all together...so we did that...then opened up a couple presents.
Then we went to bed.
The next day was opening presents, recording who gave us what, getting things setup for the trip, buying a new carryon for Shannon (used most of the Target Gift Cards we had) and some other things. It was just a lot of prep...