WEDDING NIGHT STORIES

To preface- John and I currently live in Missouri, and the wedding was in Nebraska. We did a lot of things ourselves. I left early, John had to work, and thus the week ensued. Wednesday, I left to travel to Nebraska. En route, I picked up the fireworks for the reception. Late, looong day, I got to my hometown about 10 that night, drove to the house, only to find that my parents, my sister, and the best man had gone to dinner, so back into the van to meet them in town. But the flowers were done and in the van, so were the vests for the guys.

Thursday- we did the shopping for the cakes and salads, and started on the baking of the cakes. As some of you may know, we decided we wanted to offer a variety of cake flavors, so all 2 layer cakes on a 3 tier stand and other cake stands, all iced white except for the german chocolate and carrot cakes. On a note for anyone else that wants to do this, the white cakes were leftover, then a little more lemon, a little bit of angel food, and just a little of the devil's food. I didn't get a chance to try any of the carrot or german chocolate, it was gone! The best man's mom does cakes in Florida, so we were making calls to get frosting recipes from Florida at 9 that night. The church ladies were doing the meat and potatoes, so someone stopped by after Maundy

Thursday services for the potatoes.

Friday- The aunts started pitching in, doing the salads, while my sister finished the dresses. We went to the ceremony site with my dad to help set up the arbor on the platform. Once the arbor was set, we headed for the fairgrounds. We started hanging the icicle lights, (the reception was in a metal building at the fairgrounds, it needed some ambience) broke for lunch, then went back at it. Uncles showed up to help move tables, and the best man headed back to the house to start on the cake icing. We set up the tables, put down the tablecloths, and put out the table decorations. I left at 4 to shower and get ready for rehearsal. John had left Missouri with another aunt and uncle that morning, and they rolled in around 4:30. We headed up to the farm for rehearsal. Things went fairly well for the rehearsal, considering that the sound guy couldn't be there until later that evening. We did a full walk through on the rehearsal, then a quick go through again to hit trouble spots. Rehearsal dinner was ok, the site had not prepared with enough help to serve such a large private party. Toasts were fun, though it was getting late, and everyone was tired. We still had to fit the shirts and vests to the guys, since the shirts were made in Lincoln, and I had made the vests in Missouri. John's daughter was one of his attendants, so we fit her shirt and vest first. While she was driven to where she was staying by John and his dad, I went to the best man's room to fit his stuff. Thank god for Pete, the best man. He got me laughing, though by the time John got back to fit his shirt and vest, I was tooo tired to move out of the chair in his room. We joked that what a scandal is was going to be when the bride didn't leave the best man's hotel room.. John finally got me out of the chair, but the buttons were on the vests, the shirts fit fine, and we were REALLY ready for bed. In amongst the other activities for the day, I also arranged the silk flowers for either side of the arbor.

Saturday, Mom yelled up the stairs about 8:30. She had been up since about 6, and she apologized for the rude awakening, but there was stuff to be done!! Cakes were still getting iced, the angel food was cooling downstairs, and I headed up to the reception area. I put the finishing touches on things there, draping garland on the serving tables, supervising what was happening with the cake table, etc. Mom had things well in hand there, so I was off to the farm to finish off the flowers there. I put the prearranged flowers in their places, then did the flowers on the arbor. About 3 I finally jumped in the shower, and we started getting ready. Nails, makeup, and hair were done, but we were supposed to be at the farm at 4 for pictures, we ended up making it at 4:30. My attendants and I got ready in the basement of my parent's house, trapping Dad in their room, but it looked like a locker room before a dance down there when we were done. My aunt Yvonne said it looked like a tornado had gone through. We did pictures, and people started arriving. We hung out in the house until it was ceremony time. It clouded up just enough that it wasn't too bright for the video cameras or the people attending. It was a beautiful day, everyone thought the ceremony was beautiful, and it was a great event. The reception was fine, though a lot of people were thrown that we had a sweetheart table instead of a head table. Toasts, the cake thing, (no smashing) and then it was announced that it was time to move outside for the fireworks. This was done a bit soon, the sound guy came up just as everyone was on their way, and said that the show was going to be delayed. Luckily, the evening was as beautiful as the day, and though it was a bit cool, no one was really uncomfortable in the stands. The fireworks ended up going off an hour late, and we did lose some people with little kids and some others that had a long drive. The fireworks didn't go quite with the soundtrack, but we had some awesome specialty shells that this little town just doesn't see, so everyone loved it. We ended up staying and beering with about a dozen people that were hanging in there. We finally left around midnight, went back to my parent's to change clothes, and drove an hour to the hotel. We were too tired to do anything, but we hot tubbed the next morning before heading back down for lunch and presents. Secrets about Men!

Submitted by Marsha.



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