Summer Vacation II

June 14th

Saturday morning started early. I was up and out of the room by 7:00 a.m. to meet the other bridesmaids and bride in the lobby. I was the first one there so I had time to grab a cup of sweet, life sustaining coffee and a rubbery bagel to stick to the inside of my stomach for the next few hours. Within minutes the bride and the rest of the BMs showed up. I said my hellos, gave the bride a big hug, and then we piled into the car. We were on our way to the hair salon to get beautified.

We made a stop to pick up the Jr. Bridesmaid in Queens. This was my first look at NY living. Well, in Queens anyway. Such a tourist.

The house wasn't too far from the shop where we were headed so by 8:00 we were seated inside and the assesment began. The shop owner looked us over and decided the best look hair do for our faces and got to work. During our walk to the shop I noticed it was a tad humid outside. Uh-oh. This would not bode well for my locks. :/

Here is a before shot of everyone minus me.

I'll spare you the details, but let me just say that the woman who ran the beauty shop was no joke. If your hair was dry and needed help, you would know about it. And don't bullshit her and try to say you'd relaxed it or had it cut recently--she knew better. I escaped the raised eyebrow but not everyone did. Overall she was efficient and got the job done.

I told Hair Hitler I wanted to wear it curly (because the bride liked my hair curly) but it didn't come out quite the way I'd planned. Oh well. Here is our after picture. Actually two. One with me in it and one without. You can kind of see that my hair was curly. I had planned to pin it later or do something to liven it up a bit. Yeah, well...that didn't work out.

From there we headed over to Costco to pick up food for lunch and to Walmart for some incidentals needed for the wedding. Yes, we were still shopping for stuff for the wedding that would be later that night. There was a fight at Walmart in the 10 items or less line. It was unreal. So sad I didn't get my camera out in time!

I will spare you the entire rant I have associated with the guest book that wasn't ready for that evening which was the main reason for stopping at Walmart. What I will say is that if you are ever in a wedding and offer to do something for the bride then you'd damned well better get it done before the day of. Especially if you've been in town since the Tuesday before! And you work at a freakin' craft store!! Son of a...

I'm going to summarize what happens from here because it was a long, unorganized day that would take too long to describe. We got back to the hotel, ate, received our super cute bags with our BM gifts inside, had a quick toast with the girls who were actually in the room, put together the guestbook with the items I picked up from Michael's that afternoon (so it would get done), and scurried out of the hotel to the waiting limo with all of our dresses and shit in tow. We were only about 10 minutes behind schedule which was a miracle considering all the stuff that had to get done. Well, we were off to the wedding location. T minus two hours until wedding time!

Since I was in the wedding I don't have a lot of pictures of the ceremony or of the girls after they were ready. I'll have to cross my fingers that someone else took pictures of all that and will share. I did manage to snap a couple pictures before we walked out for the ceremony. I have to give props to NY Bride here because the ceremony was supposed to be outside near the water-- it was a beautiful set up and was one of the reasons she chose that venue to begin with--but it started raining about 30 minutes before start time. It all had to be moved inside. She didn't get upset or engage in a bridal stomp. "That's OK. Do what you need to do. I'm fine with it." is what left her lips. She was calm and relaxed despite the situation. Kudos!

Hubbs took a few detail shots for me because he knows I like them but I was too busy to do it myself. Thank you honey!

I managed to get a picture in with NY Bride during the night. She and her new hubby were all over the place the entire evening. Later on I grabbed her and hopped into the photo booth for some other fun pics too. The booth was a great hit! Check out the company here. After the pictures were taken the attendant put the photos in a book and people signed the pages as a keepsake for the couple. So.much.fun! If I know you, shoot me an e-mail and I'll give you the info for the event so you can see the craziness that was us. Good times!

At the end of the night we packed up all the newlyweds' gifts and centerpiece parts and piled in the shuttle van back to the hotel. Sad to see the night end! The food was great, we danced, took full advantage of the open bar, and had a really fun evening. (Best birthday party ever! ;) Hee hee) Here is the happy couple at the end of the night. Awww!

Once Mr. and Mrs. NY were packed up and off to their own hotel for the evening we went inside to strip off our fancy clothes and get comfortable. Did I mention how cute Hubbs looked that night? Well he did. Very handsome. :) Anyway, a few of us weren't ready for the party to end and we wound up hanging out and talking for the entire evening. And by that, I mean the entire evening! Next thing we knew we looked at the clock and it was 6:00 a.m. We decided it'd be a good idea to get some shut eye. This was the third late night in a row. I was looking forward to some sleep!