miz_anneliese | well then!

Well, I've been through this engagement thing once before, but what do you know, this time it stuck :)

I don't have any pictures yet... not sure when we get the proofs from our photographer, but I'll put up at least a few for people to see. I definitely want to show off the amazing things that were done to my hair and makeup :) I barely looked like me!

So. The week before the wedding was filled with all the last minute items.
I like lists, and I'm not afraid to use them:

Saturday: Bachelorette party. I know I'm not supposed to post gory details (even though by now N has pretty much heard them all), but I'll talk about it just a smidge... we had a nekkid boy (I'll bet you didn't know you could touch nekkid boys anywhere you wanted to. Can't with nekkid girls, ha ha!), a limo, lots of alcohol, the luck of stumbling across a very nice bachelor party, live music, and a girlie strip club, which included a delicious British dancer with very long hair. The aftermath included a very nasty hangover and a hickey on my boob, the giver of whom is unknown. All in all, a screaming success.

Monday: Trial run of the makeup. And a whole lot of enjoying my freedom. (I took 2 weeks off work.)

Tuesday: Insanity level low. Picked up my altered dress, and the trial run was completed on my hair and my maid-of-honor's hair.

Wednesday: Insanity level high. MOH had forgotten to get her shoes dyed, and had not yet picked up her altered dress. As she was not taking time off like the lazy bride, the lazy bride was then in charge of taking care of that. That particular problem was dropped squarely in N's lap, as I had a few other responsibilities ~
I met my ex-roomie, who came in from Minnesota and who I haven't seen in AGES and missed A LOT, for breakfast at 10:30. That was just lovely. We spent about 3 hours chitchatting and catching up. Then I had to bolt for an appointment with my optometrist, as I wanted contacts for the wedding, but my old pair was shot. (I wound up getting 30-day Night and Day contacts, and those are working out quite nicely.) At 5:30 my MOH and I were scheduled to have some waxing done, and after that, we went to my friend Rian's workplace, so he could try a couple different things with our makeup. (Yay for friends who do wedding makeup!)

Thursday: Insanity level at "Rum makes a good breakfast, right?" I'd originally scheduled a car appointment for 9 AM. Bad idea. That got canceled, because........ I'd realized that I wasn't sure if my father (who lives in Seattle) had a hotel room starting Thurs. or Fri. General consensus was thinking Fri., in which case N and I had to haul ass to the airport to pick him up (at 11:20) and find him a room. So we did that, only he never showed up, and we paged him, and we made sure he was on the flight, and we called everyone we could think of... no father. OHSHI, we lost my father! Not knowing the hotel he was going to eventually be in didn't help either. Eventually we gave up and went to Lazarus to buy earrings for me. (yes, this is a day before the wedding. I LIVE for the last minute.) at 5:30 I had a manicure and pedicure done, and right when I get home... my father calls. He's fine. Flight was early, he caught a shuttle to the hotel where he did, in fact, have a reservation, wandered around downtown Cinci for a while. SIGH.

Friday: "Cool, I'm getting married today. Huh. Feels like any other day, only I'll probably be a little more stressed by the end of it. Huh. Married."

"HOLY CRAP I'M GETTING MARRIED TODAY!!!"

The whole process started at 1:30 with the VERY elaborate hairdo, continued right into makeup, then the MOH and I grabbed our stuff from my house, headed to the Bell Event Centre, changed (which took longer than that one word implies), talked briefly to the minister about the order of events, took pictures, and then *poof* next thing you know I'm walking down the aisle next to my father.

The ceremony was very short, but the words were meaningful. I took everyone off guard with the "You may now kiss the bride" portion, since while N was shooting for a nice chaste smooch, I'm not quite so decorous and went for the prolonged tonsil-hockey. Our exit song was the Indiana Jones theme... we got an appreciative laugh out of that ;)

The reception was a blur, mostly. I tried to stop and chat with everyone, but there were a few people I know I didn't make it to. Plus we had all the other things to deal with... food, cake cutting (and both of us managed to restrain ourselves and NOT smear cheesecake on the other), first dance, etc. I remember I had fun, and it seemed like everyone else was having fun, but I don't think I could give you very many details beyond that :)

Following the reception was the bride's opportunity to get drunk, at a small afterparty held by 2 of N's friends. Euchre was played, DDR was butchered, drinks were consumed, boobies were displayed. We wound up making it home about 4 in the morning. Somewhere I seem to have re-discovered my night owl tendencies.

I can't wait to show off some pics... hell, even *I* admit I looked stunning ;)

Next up is Montreal... I'll get to that later. I have just a little bit more slacking to accomplish, this is my last day of vacation. :P