This is one of my favorite non-weddingy photos from my camera this weekend.

Gardenia bowls with fish and candles

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Yesterday was so busy catching up with things and then we went to bed early, so I'm up early.  I wanted to write my recap of Lisa and Jon's wedding day while it was still nice and fresh in my mind. :)

We got a lot of things done on Saturday night, so we didn't have to be at the church nearly as early as we were initially planning.  So all of us moseyed a little more than we thought.  E and I got ready and put together all of the things that were still needed to bring (quite a pile again).  We found a set of the toasting glasses that we used at our wedding (they were actually being used as decoration above the link area with a bunch of ivy) and E washed them nicely.  I gathered all of my beauty tools that I hadn't used forever like curling irons because we wanted to be ready if some of the dangling curls in Lisa's hair didn't cooperate on their own.  I only did half of my makeup, so I could do my eyes when it was closer to time.

And then we were off!  I had inticed myself that it would be a good time to get some Starbucks, it had been so long since I'd had some.  Unfortunately, the one we stopped at didn't have fresh breads and crossaints, so that was sad.  We got banana bread that was pretty sad and old tasting.  But my Vanilla Mocha was a perfect start to the day, even if I did drip it on my shirt!

We made it to the church first, and the nice lady was there to let us in.  Lisa and Megan were on their way, we'd talked to them, and Mom and Matthew were right behind us too.  We unloaded and started moving things to the correct place.  The biggest things that needed doing were the flowers: roses for the pew bows, gardenias in the flower bowls on the tables, the bows on the bouquets, and putting the other bouquets where they had to go.  And of course watching the cake be delivered and checking in with dad on food, and finishing the table decorations.

I set myself down with some holding help from Mom and put the bows on the bouquets.  I was so happy for stopping and getting more ribbon, we definitely needed it.  I worked on this for a good hour while the other girls were starting to get ready, but it was definitely a good things, they looked beautiful.

It was kind of a whirlwind, time slipped by quickly, and we finally started getting ready.  Megan had to go and lock Lisa in the bathroom because she'd tell her to go shower and then find her elsewhere.  Funny story, we were all sitting in the room getting ready and Megan had just come back from throwing Lisa in there, and my phone rings.  I'm like "everyone I know is here, who's calling me?"  I look at the screen, and it was Lisa?!?  She was calling from the bathroom to say there was no hot water in the shower.  LOL!  Leonard and dad were there and they said maybe because it was a baptristry shower, they just don't have hot water hooked up.  (now that I think later, I'm fairly sure Annette used the hot water in there to steam out my pew bows, so maybe there was a on/off switch somewhere).  So Megan goes in there and lines up all her bathroom stuff and one at a time squirts shampoo etc. in her hand.  It was so cold, Lisa was screaming and we heard her all through the church. :D

When things got a little closer, and we were in our dresses, Sarah and I started going around putting on boutineers.  Since we'd made the bulk of them with Lisa, we knew which was which. 

It was getting close to time to start and Jon decided that we needed to wait an extra 15 minutes for people to show up.  That was fine with us, we were putting finishing touches on Lisa :)  I went and gave E my camera so that he could take pictures during the ceremony in between his music responsiblities.

The ceremony itself went GREAT.  We all walked in, and then came Leah.  She knew exactly how she wanted the flower petals to be set down, and made an even beautiful row.  We laughed so hard we were crying up in front.  She was perfect.  Lisa and dad looked great (which brought tears to my eyes), she was glowing and Jon was too.  The sermon was really good too, Bill did a great job keeping stories going the whole time.  It went by quick to me, but I think that from someone sitting there instead of feeling all surreal in front, it probably was the perfect length.

Next part of the story: photographer, fishies, reception, and the end of the day...  

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The wedding day is here!

Yesterday ended up being pretty bad for me, I started to get a headache as I was writing my post and by the time we'd sat here and relaxed to watch Stargate SG-1 together, it was really bad.  I seriously thought I was going to have to go to the hospital.  It turned into a migraine later, and so it sucked up my entire morning which I had planned to be productive during!

I slowly made it up and arround, and we were only about 15 mins late getting to the church (we were getting there early, anyhow, but we were slower than Sarah and Leah!)

From that point out, it went really well.  We surveyed everything and started to figure out what had to happen.  Everything got moved in the sanctuary that needed to, and same for the reception room.  I tried to take a bunch of pictures so that we'll know where things go when we are putting things away tonight.

Lisa and her friend Brandy put up the pew bows and fixed the ones that didn't stay on their clips with the hot glue gun real quick.  They look pretty :)

One member of the wedding party was 45 minutes late, so we were late starting the rehearsal.  Eric ended up doing the music, and he did great.  He was going to sit in the front and take pictures for me, but now he has a job :)  It'll be fine, Sarah keeps reminding me that other people will be taking pictures.  But then I think back to her wedding, and the only pictures I got were the not-so-great ones on my camera, so... heh.  It's okay, it'll work out, and E is needed in the music area so much more. 

As I stood on the edge of the stage during the reception, my feet were so tired and it wasn't even the full length of the service.  I really hope I can stretch my feet without the photographer catching me swapping feet around.  Bad thing is, I'm on the edge of the stairs, so if I were to fall down, I'd have a long way to go.  I was still a bit dizzy last night after all those headaches, so it was a worry!  At least I'm wearing flats, not what I made my poor bridesmaids wear!

We had dinner (first food I'd eaten all day, if you don't count a few pieces of candy and one cracker I forced down during the headache) and sat and talked with the Pastor.  He's such an interesting guy, we've heard him speak several times at Leonard and Sarah's (and now Lisa and Jon's) church. 

Today's plan is to get the church around 9:45ish, so I better get hopping.  I need to wrap the present, paint my nails,  try on my dress one last time, and gather together all the makeup and tools that we need to do Lisa's hair from here. 

We'll put together the bouquets and tie the bows on (I went and got some more ribbon because I was worried we wouldn't have enough), and get more of the reception tables figured out (candles in the water, and make it ready to put the gardenias in the water too).  Flower petals will go out later on.  It's going to be beautiful, I'm so excited! 

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So this is the weekend of Lisa's wedding.  She's my youngest sister (21) and is marrying Jon.  They are adorable together and very much in love.  So it will be a fun but busy weekend for our family.

Friday was the day that my talents were challenged. :)  For my own wedding, we did our own flowers (purchased from FreshRoses and arranged ourselves).  Then we did that for Sarah and Leonard's wedding.  And now we did it for Lisa's wedding too.  I'm afraid this may be the last time I'll get to use this fun resource, now that Megan has decided on a real florist for her wedding, and who knows what Matthew will do when it comes time.  But oh, is it ever fun!

The initial fun is to get all of these freshly shipped roses into water as soon as possible, and cut them ends so they can get as much water as possible.  This is fun because you can see the roses opening in front of your very eyes once they start to get water!  It easier to separate out the flowers for their various purposes once they are in buckets this way, too.

The biggest challenge is boutineers and corsages, but they turned out great.  Tiny imperfections won't show from faraway anyhow, and they really do look good.  We did white and yellow roses for some, and just yellow for othes.  The boys had a filler of solidaster (which actually was more pointy clumps than the picture shows), and the corsages had little bunches of baby's breathe.

Then we did bouquets, just grouping gold flowers with baby's breathe for Lisa's, and yellow and white flowers with baby's breathe for the bridesmaids.  We decided not to tie the ribbons on until Sunday, and so I've been sitting here doing a little research on the internet for how we want to do that (probably like this for at least Lisa's, she wants ribbon all the way covering).

After that came the vases for the front of the church and the reception room.  Wow, they turned out SO good, I'm so happy with the results.  White and yellow roses with baby's breathe in TALL vases.  Lisa got these pretty stones to put in the bottom of the vase, and they shimmer so pretty.  Then shorter vases with Alstromeria and the solidaster.  This worked out perfectly, and the alstro isn't even opened yet.  We were very pleased!

Next step in the wedding weekend is tonight, when we have the rehearsal dinner.  We'll get there early and start setting stuff up mid-afternoon.  (I know the church's set up well because it's where my wedding was, too :) )  I think I'll get a few more corsage pins before that, because now that I see the ideas on hand-tying the ribbon and attaching it with shorter pins, I think I want to try that.  And I'm going to take a nap.  For whatever reason I woke up at 6:45 and looked at the clock and started thinking about ribbons so I had to get up.  And that's the story so far, quite exciting stuff!

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