The wedding is OVER!!!!

Vel and Christy (wearing the veil I made her!)

My little sister is finally married!  Despite the groom apparently gritting his teeth in this shot (I think they were just sick to death of photos at this point), a good time was had by all.  On my end, I had such a busy weekend I still feel like I could take a nap for a week!

It all began when the Cobbler got home from Europe on Thursday afternoon.  He had a productive trip and a good flight, but it took us an hour to collect him at the airport because of a Serendipity moment.  Just like in that movie, we missed each other.  As Tom Thumb and I walked into the international arrivals area, The Cobbler walked to the curb.  He called me repeatedly on my cell, but I didn't have service inside the terminal.  After 20 minutes of that nonsense, we finally had the same idea---he came back in as I was going out.  Luckily, we sort of saw each other through the revolving doors as it happened and finally connected.

We went from there to the fast food drive thru, then to pick up Red at her friend's house, and on to the first rehearsal at the hall.  That one was only for the bride, groom, and the kids because no one else was in town to practice yet.  They just wanted the kids to get a feel for the place since we wouldn't be able to see the venue the night before because the wedding was on a Sunday.  Four of our eight house guests moved in that night.  The other four arrived the next day.

On Friday, my sister Andrea and I started working on the cake.  My mother had baked all the tiers, but we had to level them, stack them, and do all the decorating.  I spent three hours making butter cream frosting and then we started the work.  I did all the decorating that covered most of the cake (i.e. the scallops, lace looking frosting inside the scallops, etc.) while Andrea focused on making dozens of butter cream roses.  Here are some of the shots:

Ultimately, we had about 15 hours of decorating into it.  

Then, we had a debacle with the cake topper.  All along my sister had planned to use a Lladro bride and groom figurine that belongs to my parents as the cake topper.  At the last minute, we realized that it was too tall.  The only solutions were to either take off the top tier of the cake or get something else.  Here's what they ended up with:

 The groom is very into sci fi and Star Trek so here we have Mr. Spock (he's a Hallmark ornament.  I ripped the communicator out of his hands) presenting a La La Loopsy doll (meant to represent my sister since she's an elementary school teacher) with his heart.  Thank goodness for hot glue.  Everyone thought it was very cute and very them.  And here's the cake at the hall---

Andrea and her husband transported it in their Mountaineer.  She told me there was a lot of screaming involved on the drive over.  I guess their marriage can take it after seven years.

On Saturday, my sisters and parents went to the farmers' market to get the flowers while I finished up the cake.  Hopefully, I'll get some decent photos of those eventually.  I was so busy all the time that I barely took any photos!  We carried some amazing orange and blackish red dahlias with berries.  We put the bouquets together on Sunday morning.The real rehearsal dinner was at my house on Saturday night, complete with 40 people that my parents invited.  Luckily, my mom made most of the food, but it was still crazy.  Here's a few photos from that night---

The bride and most of the bridesmaids

 The groom and the groomsmen (plus the bridesmaid missing from our above shot)

Tom Thumb couldn't take it anymore and fell asleep in the Cobbler's lap.

 Christy and her ribbon bouquet from the shower 

 The madness continued on Sunday with the making of the bouquets, the transportation of all the stuff to the hall, the decorating of the hall, and just getting ready in general.  I did Red and her cousin Scarlett's hair, my sister Lisa's hair and makeup, and my own hair.  Here are the little girls ready to rock and roll.  I thought they looked darling!

 The ring bearers and flower girls

The flower girls goofing off before the ceremony

The ceremony was a Macedonian Orthodox ceremony (the groom is from Macedonia).  We stood for the whole thing, and it was an hour and five minutes long.  Everything had to be done in threes --- the blessing of the rings, the crowning, and then going around this table in circles while they held some candles and the priest's stole at the same time.  The groom's brother passed out during it (that was exciting.  My cousin said everyone was taking bets about who would drop first up there), but we all survived in the end.  Well, maybe everything excluding our feet survived.  Then it was on to the reception!

 Lots of circle dancing.  I am an expert Macedonian circle dancer now!

 With the exception of the bridal party dances, the CDs with the American music that my sister spent so much time burning didn't work in the Macedonian band's equipment so there was very little American music.  We did dance to Def Leppard's Pour Some Sugar on Me twice. :-).  By the end of the night, we were all toast.  The Cobbler had taken the kids home earlier, but had to come back for me, Andrea, and the gifts because there wasn't enough room for us in the remaining cars.  

And then it was over...  A whole year of work and planning is finally over.  I'm thrilled for my sister and her new husband.  Welcome to the family, Vel!