An Unfortunate Sequence of Events

The night before the wedding there was a rehearsal dinner at the Napa Rose, a restaurant in a Disneyland hotel (NEAT). Before we ate, Micah and Heather ran through with us what they'd practiced at the rehearsal at the chapel a few nights before.

For the bridesmaid's part, we were to walk down the aisle and line up on the left side of the altar. I was to go first. So much for being able to go without glasses and just follow the person in front of me. We ran through it once or twice, were told about the little yellow triangles on the floor to guide our positioning etc. Then we ate a very delicious dinner.

In talking to Heather a little at the dinner she expressed how nervous she was, and that she was scared something would go wrong or that she'd mess up what she was supposed to say etc. She had the perfect, bridely jitters.

The next morning the wedding was at ten o'clock. We were told that we could practice from nine to nine-thirty. I was glad, as I had never been in this type of wedding, hadn't seen the chapel's layout yet, was wearing those heels (I haven't worn heels since I got married since Greg, um, doesn't like them on me.) and have pregnancy wobbliness on top of my normal spastic tendencies.

We arrived a little after nine and rushed to dress so we could practice. But the bride wasn't there yet. So we didn't actually practice and I just peeked in the chapel once but was mostly wandering the grounds with family.

At five or ten 'til 10 the photographer was taking pictures of my family on the lawn and I was feeling as though it was very late. I ran to the dressing room to ask the other bridesmaids if we should be with them. They said yes.

I ran back to get my sisters and we got our bouquets and all six of us ran around the chapel to the back where we would enter from.

While we were running we started getting in order, me in front. At the back of the church I stood first. There were loud whispers from the wedding planner (I think that was her title) for us to hurry up! Get in order! Etc. I just stood ready and let her take care of the girls behind me.

Sooner than I expected I heard her voice in my ear, "Okay, you can go in now." I was starting to turn my head for confirmation and felt a light nudge on my back. Oh! Better go!

I walked as gracefully as I could down the aisle and turned left at the altar and took my place.

But Anne wasn't behind me. She was supposed to start walking when I was half way down the aisle. She should have been right behind me!!

Whatever. Once I was standing where I thought I was supposed to be (totally forgot to look for yellow triangles) I tried to sneakily remove my glasses and held them with my bouquet. Anne kept not coming. I smiled into the audience and reflected more than I had before on how very empty the front of the chapel was. How very, very empty.

I had no idea what was going on but I tried to smile as if I had been sent there to smile for everyone. To give them a hint of what was to come, or something. I was just hoping that there were more bridesmaids to come. And SOON!

I did not see the wedding planner at all. I kept looking for a sign from her (that I had done something wrong or to sit down or come back or anything). Granted I had my glasses off, but I could see her talking to the harpist (beautiful music!!) but never motioning to me or even looking in my direction. But I saw Anne standing there waiting. (FOR WHAT!!?)

Both my mom and dad kept giving me sympathetic smiles, which I appreciated. I wondered if I should sit down (I was standing right by a pew) until the other girls came but decided against it.

Finally Anne started walking. Hooray! Oh, wait. Then she went back . I noticed movement from the other side of the front of the chapel.

The groom and groomsmen came out of a door in the front and started lining up. So it was them, and me. Cute.

For the record, my level of embarrassment through this whole thing was a zero. I felt pretty confident that something had happened after I started walking so they had to change plans or something. But my level of feeling bad for being the one who sort of ruined the effect was well above a zero. Especially when Heather's words from the night before came back to me of her fears about something going wrong.

Once the groomsmen were nicely lined up the music changed (I think) and Anne started coming. And she looked great. All the girls did as they came in behind her. And I finally felt relief. We arranged ourselves:

See me smiling my relief to all my new-made friends in the audience?

Then Heather and Micah were married. It was a lovely ceremony.

Afterward I tried to find the lady in charge (to apologize/find out what had happened), but I never did. However, from talking to a few different people I learned that some guests had come in behind us while we lined up and were hesitant to go sit down so the lady told them, "Okay, you can go in now." Yeah. Right in my ear. (I swear!)

It wasn't until even later that I found out that the push I got on the small of my back was not from her but from Anne who also heard her and also thought she was talking to me.

Here's what I assumed we were lined up like when I started going in:

Here's what it actually looked like: (notice in the picture above it's Anne at the front of the line and not me. I'm at the front of the chapel). And that's my actual first step of doom. (I was seriously so shocked when I saw this picture, just today. I had NO IDEA we weren't all lined up.)

So there's my story. I already mentioned a couple of posts back that the wedding was wonderful. I never felt like anyone blamed me or really even cared about my big blunder. It was completely lost in the awesomeness of the day. And I got lost in it, too!

Here's another shot of my family, this time with our newest sister!

Wrong Again

The lead up to the wedding was a lot of fun. There was a lot of time between finding out I was going to be a bridesmaid, and then becoming one. Time for thinking and planning.

One of my thoughts was that, gee, my two fellow-bridesmaid sisters and I all three have um, fashionable glasses. Much like how my dad had fashionable glasses in his high school pictures that we love to laugh over. And we would all be in the wedding party. Which would be photographed and remembered for many years to come.

I didn't think Micah and Heather would want people looking at wedding pictures and instantly saying, "Oh! So you guys were married in 2009, eh?" So I discussed with my sisters and we agreed not to wear our glasses (of course). I was glad that I had one pair of disposable contacts left from, like, three years ago or something. I planned to wear them on the wedding day.

Soon after that, I found out I was pregnant. Oh! Well. My mother did a fantastic job of adjusting my bridesmaid dress for me so I was okay there. But another problem arose. My legs.

So I have varicose veins and sort of have to wear medical support hose (during pregnancy, only) which I hate. This was a California wedding and not the kind you wear ANY hose to, much less thick, off-color very MEDICAL LOOKING hose.

First it was my vanity. I didn't WANT my legs to look ugly at the wedding! That wore off pretty soon, since hellonobodybutmecareshowmylegslook, but then I realized how distracting these hose might be. I told Heather and Micah about my plight, just so they wouldn't ever happen to look down and wonder WHAT I WAS THINKING wearing those hose to their wedding! Micah promised not to ask me why I looked like such a freak and I decided not to worry about other people.

Then on the long drive to the airport I realized I'd forgotten to pack my contacts. Crap. Oh well.

So there I'd be in my very rectangular red glasses and not-very-skin-color, very medical stockings. I tried to be okay with ruining my brother's wedding a little.

The thing is, I didn't know that those things would be NOTHING compared to how I would actually ruin the wedding!

That story to come. (and I didn't actually ruin their wedding, but. . . well. . . you'll see)

The Time I Had

The entire purpose of my trip to California was to see these two people

Micah and Heather. All I can say is they're lucky there's no limit on the amount of good looks that can go into a marriage because otherwise there would have been NO CHANCE for them.

get married in this place.

The Wayfarers Chapel. Probably the second* most beautiful place you could get married. IMO.

It's in Rancho Palos Verdes (CA) and the grounds are beautiful and are just at the edge of a cliff hanging over the ocean. It's GORGEOUS. Here's the groom's family, oldest to youngest, with parents as book ends.

This is on the grounds of the Chapel. If we all took about 20 steps to the left (our right) we would, every last one of us, trip over lots of flowers and greenery and then fall a long way down into the ocean. That's one of a few reasons we took the picture here and not twenty paces to the left (our right).

Afterwards the reception was just down the road at the Trump National Golf Club**. The day before the wedding the groomsmen played a game of golf there, presumably for purposes of bonding, or something (bridesmaids bonded at the super fun bridal shower). At a course like this, I think even I could enjoy watching golf.

The reception was in the building overlooking the course (and that incredible view). Every detail was perfect without it feeling at all contrived or stuffy or anything. Formal, yet extremely comfortable and friendly and happy, happy, happy. Seriously awesome. Here's all the family that were there for the groom (I love them, every one) at the reception. Sure wish Greg, Evie, Dave and Aaron were in this shot!

This collage will give you an idea of what a party it was (and especially how much my nieces an nephews loved it, adults were really partying, too, you just don't see it in these pictures so much) (That's me and my sister's on the bottom, me, Su, and Anne)

But there were other awesome parts of my trip! I didn't take any shots, so all that I have here have been borrowed or stolen from my brother's or I got them off my sister's blog (hence the collages, she ignored my request to SEND PICTURES! so I'm snatching her collages.

Here we are at my dad's wife's family's amazing condo which overlooks the beach (notice a theme here?) and which they totally let everyone stay in even with kids (lots of them).

And guess who else I got to see (meet)? This Lady:

And even got to play with her little boy.

Look at that face. I certainly would never accuse Melanie of lying (especially not after meeting her and finding her as down to earth and smart and nice as I expected), but after having spent a few hours with this extremely well behaved and super cute boy I just can't reconcile him with the boy who decorated the walls and bunk bed ladder that she posted about.

The trip was a blast. I will never forget it and I'm so grateful to my dad and Pam for getting me out there. Seriously. Loved nearly every minute, except when I was crying. Even then, I loved most of those, too. Here are some things that made me cry:

* Feeling the baby move for the first time (at the airport on my way there)

* The sight of (certain) trees (I love trees)

* The beauty of the ocean

* My 10 year old niece's amazing poetry

* Things my nieces and nephews said/ their cute faces

* How much I love my famiLee (siblings)

* What a pain in the neck my famiLee is

* Saying good-bye

I wonder. . . do you think I might be pregnant? (eighteen weeks!)

* Or the hundred and somethingth most beautiful, depending on how you look at it

** Wasn't surprised to find from their site that this is the most expensive golf course ever built.