My sister's wedding

After too little sleep we arose and started getting ready to put on a wedding!  The wild animals around my parents' house sensed it was a special occasion and came out to wish Krista good luck.

Note the wedding turkey by the bush and the wedding deer in the field

Wedding day...wooo!

I had some steel-cut oats with a banana, but my parents make oats with water and no milk.  Thus the reason oatmeal used to make me gag when I was a kid (same thing with tomato soup....water vs. milk makes SO much difference!).  I really need some milk in my oats, but I was so distracted I just scarfed this morning and my protein-less breakfast didn't last me very long.

 We arrived at Shade Trees and Evergreens at a little after 9 in the morning and except for a trip to go pick up Emily at preschool we didn't leave for over 13 hours.

I was feeling tired and woozy, but some food and caffeine helped.  I spent the morning feeling run-down and worried that I wouldn't be able to make it through the day, trying to accept that I am just getting older and that I'm going to feel like this on big demanding days, but once I got focused on other things I did just fine.

Sometime during the setup process this moth landed on Kathleen's hand, and since it matched Krista's color scheme it was christened the wedding moth and taken as a good omen.

I snacked on a hard-boiled egg during setup.

Then these guys because I was still hungry.

Boudoir photo of my snack 

The beautification process started mid-morning.

Once Emily was retrieved lunch was consumed out in the beautiful sunny day.  I brought a salad base with me and added some carbs and protein from the offerings my mom had brought for us.

Then things went from relaxed to rushing around.  Soon everyone was dressed and ready.

At one point Krista remembered that she wanted to do a picture like this and sent me out to get the groom and the photographer.

I found it hilarious that all Krista had to say to the women in the area was that she wanted a picture of she and Ryan on either side of a door, like on Pinterest, and they all said "Oh yeah, I've seen pictures like that before".  When I tried to explain what she wanted to the male photographer and Ryan, they had no idea what I wanted and it took about 3 tries before they got the idea!  

We managed to start right on time, and both girls made it all the way down the aisle!  It was a long way, and they ran out of flower petals pretty quickly and didn't exactly know what to do.  Emily decided to just continue down while waving and smiling at everybody.

Charlotte kind of straggled behind and eventually ended up getting all the way to her goal.  I was worried since Emily had left her behind that she'd be too scared to walk through the crowd with everyone watching her, but she did just fine!  When she got to the front she walked over to me and whispered "Mommy, my flowers are all gone!" and I had to assure her that was fine and she had done a good job.

Will snapped some shots of the ceremony in the few seconds before Charlotte got bored and went over to sit with him.

Will was such an amazing Daddy this weekend.  He always is, of course, but he spent A LOT of time with the girls while I was busy this weekend and he did picnics with them, took them downtown to see ducks and play at the toy store, and made sure he had interesting new toys and snacks all set up on their chairs in the front row to keep them distracted during the ceremony if necessary.  What a guy <3

It was a (mercifully) very short ceremony, and soon we were headed back up the aisle.

Again, the girls headed straight to the dance floor.

After pictures and introductions, it was time to eat!

My empty cup of shiraz with a cheese/veggie/fruit plate

Dinner plate (didn't quite eat all of this)

Chardonnay

I also had a cup of Asti, which was was PAINFULLY sweet, but it's Krista and Ryan's favorite and the bartenders didn't bring the rest of the normal person champagne so we toasted with what was available!

Charlotte ran out of steam pretty shortly after dinner, and poor Will had to leave to take her home :-(

He missed most of the fun and dancing, but he got one dance with Emily in before he left.

 Krista and Ryan, though they like REALLY sweet wine, do NOT like cake.  So they did a dessert buffet instead of a formal wedding cake, and just bought a bunch of desserts and cookies from Costco.  The only problem was that as soon as the caterers put the desserts out, the guests just descended and started eating.  They had to quickly tell everyone to sit down so they could do the ceremonial feeding of the cookies.

Note the already half-consumed tiramisu in the foreground

After that Emily and I danced pretty much every dance until the very end.  I had been worried that I'd run out of energy, but I even outlasted Emily.  She danced with more different people than I did though.

At one point the poor girl was so exhausted that she took a rest on my lap and then crawled back onto the dance floor to keep going.

When the party was over at 9:30 I deposited my sleepy little girl on the fainting couch in the bridal suite while I helped pack up.

She doesn't look sleepy at all

 We got everything cleaned up and carried to the cars and were pulling out at 10:21PM.  9 minutes before the deadline!

There were the usual little hiccups that every wedding has, but overall it was a wonderful day and everyone had a great time.  I will eventually have 4 brothers-in-law, and now I'm up to 3 :-)