Volumes of Love: Flower Power

As mentioned in the last post, our flowers arrived some time while I was either putting on makeup or getting my hair done.  I was still a little curious to see what the bouquets would come out like, but Mr. Library had told me the night before that if he had to rank their beauty, he would give them a nine (where that other point went is beyond me).

Carole, our florist at Pooh Corner Florist and Greenhouse, did not disappoint.  Remember how she had called to say I was getting peonies because she was some sort of genie and made a pact with the flower gods?Man, did the flower gods come through for me or what?  I loved our flowers, and while they weren’t what I had pictured them looking like, they were absolutely beautiful and I was proud to have my girls carry them down the aisle.Dad Library looks pretty good with them too.

The guys had their bouts already delivered to their suite, so we only had to worry about our own.  I made sure I had a tossing bouquet included for our festivities later on, and E made sure her petals were quality throwing material.With our flowers all set, it was time to put on the real deal…

Walk me through this:

Our bridal party began to come together!

We did as UPS does!

We’re cat-walking baby!

We practiced eating!

Our wedding gets Jewish!

The girls and I have a slumber party!

I fell in love with a poet.

Mr. Library runs around.

Wake up call!

Christmas in July

Hairscapades abound

Making us up as we go

The Groom Squad strikes back

Volumes of Love: The Groom Squad Strikes Back

Hello there.

(This is Mr. Library again.)

I forced myself out of bed and down the uncomfortable hardwood ladder from the top bunk at around 8:30 AM, and after throwing on my pre-wedding clothes, embarked on a full morning of writing my last poem for my soon-to-be wife and hating my groomsmen for sleeping.  By 9:30 or so I had completed the final piece in my cycle of verses–a poem riffing off giving her my life in marriage and giving her the Game of Life as a present–and began waiting to have my needed squad.  The master plan was to have three people involved: one to read the poem (Groomsman D), then Best Man K on hand munching crackers and looking confused (the last line of the poem is about being excited to share my life with her, so the ideal joke would have been to have K eating Life cereal and offering that, but I underplanned… Still, K eating crackers sounded like it would be a funny counterpoint), and a third party (Reader Rachel) to come in and berate K for forgetting the gift, the wrapped Game of Life.

So, I played on the Wii and waited.  D arrived about 9:45, K emerged groggily about 10:30, followed not long afterwards by a cranky Rachel, who had slept poorly due to our dear mutual friend’s snoring.  With the squad assembled, I urged them to dress and sent them on their way, all very happy to partake (D, because he loves us and poetry, K because he loves Wheat Thins, R because she loves getting out her anger at K).

I took this time to seek solitude and write my letter for the soon-to-be Mrs. Library.  It must have taken me until between 11:30 and 12:00, because the next thing I remember was trying to call the Bridesmaids to see if now was a good time to send K over again, or if I should wait until my betrothed’s messengers arrived.  Failing to reach anyone’s cell phones, I simply devised a good use for my last gift, a pair of white gold, opal, and diamond earrings: I used them to pin the letter shut, such that the bejeweled part of the earring would hang by my signature on the letter when opened.

I finally sent K, but he was quickly brought back as he ran into the Bridal Messengers (joined by our photographer) in the hallway.

A very fun sequence ensued which has been well-covered in Mrs. Library’s post, although the fun of four of us (Groomswoman K, Best Man K, D, and myself) trying to open a box as a team was unmentioned.  (Brother K only arrived just in time for the mustache photos.)

As the bridal convoy departed, Best Man K followed them, and the rest of us began to get ready–we had our Groom Squad Photo Shoot slated for 2:00, and would need to make for the bridge right after.(Mrs. Library here… this picture makes me laugh EVERY stinkin’ time!  Doesn’t Mr. Library look JUST like the creepy brother from “Wedding Crashers” in this photo?  Don’t think so?  LOOK!)

(Source)

Very funny, Lovely.  That’s merely how I look when I’m told to retie a tie just so it can be photographed. (Yeah right!)

We all assembled in the hotel lobby, only slightly late and still trying to rightly attach our boutonnieres: myself, Brother K, Best Man K, Groomswoman K, Groomsman D, FMIL and FFIL Library (as they are known to this blog, aka my parents), and Ring Bearer J with his father T.

The photographer led us out behind the hotel to a little footbridge, where many photos were taken.  I insisted on getting one-on-one shots with all my squad, and the photographer put together some great group shots.

After that, we were bridge-bound.  That odyssey will form the thrilling conclusion of the Mr. Library Blogs the Wedding Trilogy.

Walk me through this:

Our bridal party began to come together!

We did as UPS does!

We’re cat-walking baby!

We practiced eating!

Our wedding gets Jewish!

The girls and I have a slumber party!

I fell in love with a poet.

Mr. Library runs around.

Wake up call!

Christmas in July

Hairscapades abound

Making us up as we go

Volumes of Love: It’s Not Extra Credit

But it is makeup!  I know… my jokes kill me too!

Once our hair was complete, it became time to put our faces on.  Well, first I had a ridiculous phone call from Walmart to answer (they wanted to know if I was coming for the photos they had messed up two months before and I had told them to destroy),paint my own toe nails because it was just something I forgot until last minute,get Mom Library into the hair chair for her pampering session with Jess, and organize the tossing petals for the ceremony to hand over to Soxmeister.Oh, yeah, and somewhere in all of that, our flowers showed up.  Guess what?  They weren’t red!  Hooray!  But they do deserve their own post, so that will be coming shortly.Flower girl E thought it was time for a muffin break too.

With all of that hullabaloo over with, we all invaded the bathroom to start the makeup application process.  I never really posted anything about my makeup plans, probably because they were not finalized until exactly a week before the wedding.  I made an appointment at the MAC counter in Macy’s in Portland to do a trial.  I brought some pictures of what I wanted to look like, and I had asked Mr. Library to look through some magazines to see what he wanted me to look like too.  Thankfully, our wedding visions for my face matched exactly:  natural, polished, and glowing.  The woman I worked with accomplished that without even looking at what I brought!  While the price tag for the makeup made me sick to my stomach, the colors, products, and instructions helped me feel confident enough to do my own makeup for the wedding.Somewhere in there, the girls put their dresses on, and more came into the bathroom to get ready.  I can remember thinking that it was so much fun to get ready together, but it was time for me to put on my dress!  Hurry up ladies!  I want that gorgeous creation on me now!

While we were finishing up in the bathroom, the life of a bride’s suite continued in the other room.  Soxmeister stopped by, dressed up and ready to go, and picked up his petal basket for the ceremony.  Apparently he was in the pool about a half hour before he was scheduled to meet the chair rental people, which I still think is pretty hilarious, but Miss Sox didn’t find it so amusing.  Needless to say, everything was on time and Soxmeister knew he needed to look sharp.Check out Patrick Dempsey in the background.  Even he is celebrating with the petal man!

Charyl, the mom of our three adorable minis, came in with Bird Bearer A.  Once A saw what Sister Library had done to E’s hair, A had to have curls just like it.  A already has curly hair, but Charyl threw in a few curling iron curls to make her happy.  They all looked beautiful!E made sure the flower petals were up to standard,I gave Soxmeister one last hug as a single lady to thank him for all of his super work running around for us,and Dad Library checked in with our wedding coordinator Meredith for one of the last times before the ceremony.Oh wedding dress…. I’m coming for you!

Walk me through this:

Our bridal party began to come together!

We did as UPS does!

We’re cat-walking baby!

We practiced eating!

Our wedding gets Jewish!

The girls and I have a slumber party!

I fell in love with a poet.

Mr. Library runs around.

Wake up call!

Christmas in July

Hairscapades abound

Volumes of Love: Hair I Am

…and it was my turn!  Sister Library had gone before me while I got my nails done,and Bridesmaids Al and A got theirs done before that.Finally, it was my turn!  I hopped into Cousin Library Jess’s chair and set up my laptop to show her what I was trying to go for.I was under the condition of not being allowed to have curls, so when I found this as a way to have some texture and some pretty detail.  Plus, my hair would be off from my neck, which would be cooler.  To get all of my hair into the ‘do, Jess had to make two hidden bun braids underneath the rest of the design.  While it looks like I would feel them a lot, I couldn’t feel their wait at all and forgot about them until Mr. Library helped me take my hair out before going to bed.We considered going with this look, but ultimately, it was seen as a little too slap-dash for a formal event.Halfway through my session, Bridesmaid Al, Sister Library, Miss Sox, and our photographer Greg returned from delivering Mr. Library his gifts with Best Man K in tow.  (Remember the mustaches I gifted Mr. Library and his crew?  They were a hit with everyone!)  K then bestowed upon me my second gift and my letter from Mr. Library.  He wrote me a beautiful letter expressing how much he wanted to make me see and feel his love for me, and while these gifts were tokens of that, nothing could really show how he felt about me.  I worked very hard not to start crying while getting my hair done just because I didn’t want snot running down my face without tissues within reach.In the middle of the letter were two beautiful opal and diamond earrings.  The opals were shaped like hearts.  While Mr. Library knew I had already picked out my wedding day jewelry, he wanted to give me something that I could wear to remember the day (besides my amazing, sparkly, lovable wedding ring).  Jess put the final touches on my hair and everyone got to look at the nearly finished product.  It was a success!This is my “Oh my God… my hair is done… I’m becoming the BRIDE” face.

After some more hairspray, it was time to put in my veil.  My veil had been a quick decision in the beginning of the year.  I wanted a fingertip length, white, slightly embellished veil.  Sister Library and I walked into David’s Bridal, found one I liked, and called it a day.  There wasn’t much fuss about this one because I wanted the back of my dress to be shown off, not covered up.This excited face was definitely seen a few more times during the day…

Walk me through this:

Our bridal party began to come together!

We did as UPS does!

We’re cat-walking baby!

We practiced eating!

Our wedding gets Jewish!

The girls and I have a slumber party!

I fell in love with a poet.

Mr. Library runs around.

Wake up call!

Christmas in July

Volumes of Love: Gifting Each Other

Part way through our relaxing morning, there was a knock at the door.  It was Groomsman D, Best Man K, and Rachel, there to give me my first gift from Mr. Library and read the poem he had written for me that day.  They also turned it into a theatrical production where Rachel pretended to be mad at K, though it wasn’t hard to fake since she really was.  He had kept her awake half the night with his bear-like snoring.

Mr. Library and I had decided to give each other wedding gifts just to commemorate the day and the occasion.  We had put a price limit on it ($50, though I’m pretty sure both of us went over it) so we wouldn’t feel the need to do something really big.  We were, after all, giving each other the best gift later in the day, our love for the rest of our lives.Groomsman D read the poem, which, I have to admit, was a little embarrassing.  I’ve never had poetry read out loud to me before, and since it was my soon-to-be husband’s writing, I felt like I should be the only one to read it.  However, everyone in the room seemed to like it, so it was just me being neurotic (go figure, right?).I still don’t understand why Best Man K was eating Wheat Thins, though the box was supposed to be a box of Life cereal?  Maybe it’s a theatre thing…Rachel came in and handed over the first gift.  Because my nails were just painted, I had someone else open it for me.  Ahh, the life of a bride…Mr. Library had purchased the game of Life off from our registry and had totally lied about who he thought had purchased it.  He told me he bet Bridesmaid C and boyfriend A bought it for us because we played the game during one epic camping trip in college.

It was my turn to send gifts to Mr. Library around noon.  I had told him he would have to wait for some of his gifts, but I would be sending a couple to him during our getting ready time.  I sent Miss Sox and Bridesmaid Al to the Groom’s Cave, and Sister Library decided to go along as well.The first gift they handed Mr. Library was an unwrapped box of Cheez-its.  I tend to steal crackers from Mr. Library’s plate (a lot!), so I wrote him a note that said “For all of those times you shared but didn’t want to.”  Mr. Library’s reaction?  “She owes me more boxes than this.”  Classic.The second gift was marked for Mr. Library and his Groom Squad.  They seemed confused as to why I was sending a gift to them, but I made it pretty clear in the letter I wrote to them and Mr. Library.  I told them that I was so thankful that they were part of Mr. Library’s life and that they are all wonderful people.  I also wrote that I wanted them to be witnesses of what was about to happen.  No, not just the wedding, but the fact that I was giving Mr. Library what he never thought I would be okay with:  A mustache!Needless to say, they were a huge hit.  They were also enjoyed at the photo booth later in the evening (and in another wedding!).

The final gift of this exchange was just for Mr. Library.  We had agreed to exchange letters to each other that we wrote during the day, so I sent my letter and a small gift for him to enjoy during the day.  I wanted to get him something that was very him, so I came up with theatre mask cufflinks, as Mr. Library studied and has a giant man-crush on everything theatre.We weren’t completely done with the gift giving, but we were pleased with how both sessions had gone thus far.  Plus, the best present was yet to come!

Walk me through this:

Our bridal party began to come together!

We did as UPS does!

We’re cat-walking baby!

We practiced eating!

Our wedding gets Jewish!

The girls and I have a slumber party!

I fell in love with a poet.

Mr. Library runs around.

Wake up call!

Volumes of Love: Wakey Wakey, Orange Shakey!

Our alarm clock went off around 7:45 AM the next morning, but I had been awake since 7:00.  Not too bad for the bride!  I got about six hours of sleep, which, I was told, is pretty darn impressive.  I woke up with Bridesmaid Al still asleep beside me, though not for long.  Once someone’s cell phone alarm went off, it was only a matter of time before long yawns became squeals and giggles.  I was getting married today!

One of my favorite memories of the preparation time was how almost every single one of my bridesmaids came to snuggle in my bed with me.  While Cousin Library J was setting up shop to do our hair, my girls came in and one by one plopped down in the space between Al and I.  I loved it.  It was the perfect start to the day.

With the hair station underway and Groomswoman K already in the chair, the rest of us got to munching on the platters Mom and Dad Library had brought over from their room.  We had decided to order food platters from Hannaford for breakfast and lunch that day, a move that ended up saving us around $120 since we didn’t order it from the hotel.  There were grapes, muffins, pound cake, and bagels.  We munched, turned on some bridal movies, and just relaxed.I was totally relaxed and ready for the day.  Meredith, our wedding coordinator, came to visit and check in around 9 AM, and our nail person Marie and our photographer Greg got there around 10 AM.  People were going in and out of our suite all morning with nothing but well wishes.  Aunt C, Uncle D, Cousin B, and her daughter C ran a mercenary mission for us and went to Dunkin’ Donuts.  While I don’t drink coffee, the bridesmaids did.  They were all very thankful for their lattes and iced coffees!As I had mentioned before, I wanted to pamper my girls with some manicures.  We had Marie, who worked with Sister Library, come to the hotel and do our nails for us in the suite.  It was so relaxing and very sweet of her to go out of her way to do it for us!While Marie did nails and J did hair, the rest of us just relaxed and watched a ton of bridal movies.We didn’t shut the movies off until the absolute last minute before we rushed out the door for pictures and, oh, to get married.  Nothing gets between us and our chick flicks!  There was a point in the day when we were watching The Wedding Date where everyone in the suite stopped what they were doing and came into the living room to watch.  What was so important?  It was the sex scene, and I guess people just couldn’t miss it!

For as excited as I was, the day went by pretty slowly before the ceremony.  This is, until it was time for me to get my hair did…

Walk me through this:

Our bridal party began to come together!

We did as UPS does!

We’re cat-walking baby!

We practiced eating!

Our wedding gets Jewish!

The girls and I have a slumber party!

I fell in love with a poet.

Mr. Library runs around.

Volumes of Love: Meanwhile, In the Man Cave…

Greetings, readers of Mrs. Library’s blog.

This is Mr. Library speaking.

Well, writing.  I guess it’d be pretty weird if you logged in here and heard my voice, since that’s really not how blog’s work.  But I digress.

Mrs. Library has been “sweetly asking” me to contribute to the blog for half a year now.  I regret not pitching in sooner, but with her unable to rightly share my half of the post-separation pre-wedding festivities, being as she wasn’t there and all, I must step up to the plate.

SO.

After we finished decorating the ballroom, I gathered my groom squad–Best Man K, Groomsman D, Groomsman/Brother Library, Groomswoman K, and Reader Rachel, who were all chatting on a conveniently nearby couch–and brought led them back to the other wing of the hotel, to the Groom Squad Suite (aka The Groom Cave).  Brother Library and his girlfriend E were staying in the suite next door with our parents, D had gotten a room for himself and his boyfriend, and the rest were staying in the two-bedroom Cave.

On the way, of course, I had an errand.  Father Walter had left his gift at the Drayman, so I had to pay him a little visit.  The visit proved more memorable than anticipated, when he answered my knocking fresh out of the shower, with a towel about his waist.  With profuse apologies, I pressed the gift bag into his hands, and hustled back to the Cave.

Now, the chronology is a wee bit hazy, but I recall I soon found myself rushing back to the Bridal Suite (a solid 5-minute walk within the hotel) for the marriage license, so I could deliver that to Father Walter as well.  After a quick hello and a few kisses, I was back on my way to the Cave, slipping the license under our priest’s door on the way.

I had hoped the night before might serve as my quasi-bachelor party, being as I’d never had one, but the time for fun wasn’t yet upon me; I still had one more project to complete before midnight.  For the last three weeks before the wedding, I had undertaken a project: a poem a day for my bride to be.  And, in the wedding prep rush, I had no verses pre-prepared for the day before.  Therefore, while my Squad partook in a rousing game of Apples to Apples, I sequestered myself in one of the bedrooms to write.See how much fun they were having?

Feeling short on inspiration, I settled on writing a set of haiku, entitled “Tomorrow”:

Tomorrow I take

You in my arms at long last

As husband and wife.

Tomorrow we swear

A love we’ve long felt before

Our dearest of friends.

Tomorrow we seal

Our sacred vows of love with

The holiest kiss.

Tomorrow I’ll weep

As you walk the aisle, because

I’m The Luckiest.

Tomorrow we’ll dance

To the song of our first dance,

Now made a new first.

Tomorrow at last

Our Mexican stand-off comes;

Who’ll make the first smush?

I don’t remotely consider it my best work, but not bad for the time crunch.

I finished composing and transcribing these right about 11:40 AM; so, I had to hurry back to the other suite.  Summoning Best Man K so he’d know the way in the morning, I once more trekked up to the Bridal Suite, where I delivered my poems and picked up my own Cyberoptix tie, a silver one featuring a Rorsarch Inkblot pattern.

(source)

This time, the soon-to-be Mrs. Library led me out into the hallway, and, while K made small talk with the bridesmaids, gave me my last kiss as a single man.  A couple minutes later, we kissed goodbye, and K and I went back to the Groom Cave.

By now the Apples to Apples Party had died, Brother Library and E had left, and D and Rachel were both bed-bound; Best Man K very soon followed suit.  So much for a nice long night of quasi-bachelor-party-dom.  (I later had a proper bachelor party before Mrs. Library’s and my second marriage, but that doesn’t apply here.)

Groomswoman K sensed my disappointment, and she, her date, and the couch-surfing Soxmeister stayed up playing Mario Kart and Wii Sports Resort with me ’til about 1:30.  At that point, we all retired, and I climbed into the bunk above my best man’s bed, there to sleep ’til morning.

Walk me through this:

Our bridal party began to come together!

We did as UPS does!

We’re cat-walking baby!

We practiced eating!

Our wedding gets Jewish!

The girls and I have a slumber party!

I fell in love with a poet.

Volumes of Love: He’s a Poet

Mr. Library has always had a way with words when you really let him think about it.  One of the first gifts he ever gave me as my boyfriend was a poem about how he was so excited to be dating me (it came in a heart box!).  I still keep it in my special things box and read it every once in a while.  His poems are beautiful, funny, and completely melt-worthy.

Being the romantic-in-the-rough that he is, Mr. Library decided to take advantage of the two weeks we had before our wedding and set a goal.  His project was to write me a new poem every day about how much I meant to him.  I was surprised that he was going to try to write a new poem for every single day, especially with how crazy our schedule was liable to get (and did get), but I was excited to see what he could come up with.

Each poem was unique.  They all had something to do with what had happened that day or the day before, depending upon when Mr. Library wrote it.  Even on days when we were stretched to the limit, like when we were off to Friend A’s wedding in Portland, he found a way to create a special poem for me.Each poem is dated and I have put them away in my “to-be-scrapbooked” basket in our apartment.  I want to put them all together in chronological order so I can keep them together forever and show our possible future children how adorable their father was before our wedding.

Mr. Library truly outdid himself with this project, and I couldn’t be more thankful for it.  True to his word, he wrote a poem every single day before our wedding and even had Groomsman D deliver one and read it out loud on our wedding day.

That Mr. Library… he’s a catch!

Walk me through this:

Our bridal party began to come together!

We did as UPS does!

We’re cat-walking baby!

We practiced eating!

Our wedding gets Jewish!

The girls and I have a slumber party!

Volumes of Love: We’re Twelve Again

With our ballroom set and the Groom Squad tucked into their gigantic suites at the other end of the hotel, the girls and I decided to shlep it back to our room.  We had originally planned on going to the hotel bar to hang out with early guests, but by the time everything was said and done, I had zero energy for it.  I wanted to curl up with my girls and watch bridal movies.  Bridesmaid C and boyfriend A hit the hay in their room, calling it a night too.  Sister Library made it down to the bar, but the rest of us stayed in the suite.

After taking our giant stack of movies out of our bags and plugging in our laptops, we all snuggled in to watch Mama Mia and The Princess Diaries.  And when I say snuggle, I mean it.  Everyone but Bridesmaid Al was freezing (she lives in Washington state, so she must be used to the cold), even though we were all sweating our tails off just hours before.  The AC in our room was on megatron high, and it didn’t occur to us to turn it down until we were done with the first movie.  We just used blankets and sweatshirts instead.We decided it was also a good idea to eat the goodies from our Out of Town bag.  I may or may not have hoarded all of the delicious granola I made for myself.Miss Sox decided to catch up on some Weddingbee while we watched our movies.Our friend the moose was watching over the booze for us.  Good job Moosey!Bridesmaid A was reading.  Seriously, A?  Reading?  When did you become… me?

Mr. Library made a few stops into the room before midnight.  We needed to get the marriage license to Father Walter for the next day, so Mr. Library came to collect it and slip it under his door.  He also came to give me my poem for the day (a project I will write more about later!) and my last single girl kiss.  Trust me, it was a good one!  But, good to form, my girls made sure he was gone by midnight, as we couldn’t have the groom seeing me on my wedding day before I walked down the aisle!

After a while, we all got tired and decided to divvy up the beds.  Miss Sox took the cot (which was a double!), Bridesmaid A and Sister Library took the murphy bed, and Bridesmaid Al and I snuggled in the regular bed.  A had some issues getting the bed to behave though…Tah dah!  One complete murphy bed!  But we needed quality control to make sure it was safe.Check and check.  With everyone’s teeth brushed and the beds on the ground, we fell asleep.  Hard.

The groom’s suite, however, kept rocking…

Walk me through this:

Our bridal party began to come together!

We did as UPS does!

We’re cat-walking baby!

We practiced eating!

Our wedding gets Jewish!

Volumes of Love: Poof! You’re Jewish!

We returned to the hotel and changed into some regular clothes before tackling the monster in front of us:  decorating the ballroom.  Sunday River had asked what time I would need the ballroom the night before the wedding, and they had it ready and waiting for us.

Although I knew exactly what needed to go where, it was difficult setting up because I was the only one who knew.  I wanted to be in charge of a few things and let others help me out, but with ten people asking questions every thirty seconds, I wasn’t able to focus much.  Finally, the teacher side of me kicked in and I made large announcements of what needed to be done and how many people needed to do it.  It seemed to work out okay until all of the little jobs I could explain were done.  And then MIL Library showed up forty-five minutes late to help and kept bugging me to “give her a job.”  Sorry, MIL Library, if you wanted quick answers, you should have shown up on time.Chaos, thy name is wedding.

I asked everyone to help set up the tables after I showed them what I wanted them to look like.  Bridesmaid Al and Miss Sox were super helpful at this because they are as anal about placement as I am, and I knew they would be all over quality control.  As I went to set up the kids’ table, I heard Rachel and Best Man K talking really loudly about something to do with the centerpieces.  Groomsman D joined in, but when I went over to see what needed to be done, they wouldn’t tell me what was up.  It turns out that the white candles MIL Library had gotten a really good deal on for the centerpieces were Jewish funeral candles!  The Hebrew on the top was a prayer for the dead!  At first I was a little annoyed, but then I just burst out laughing!  Our wedding was going to be a Jewish wedding after all, and we had the candles to prove it!  I furthered learned that it was bad luck to burn out the candles, so they used all of the regular white ones Mom Library and I had purchased instead.  Let’s not have anything to do with bad luck on our wedding day!

From then on, the candles became our running joke.  We began using Yiddish slang for different things, and essentially, our wedding became an honorary Jewish wedding.  I loved it!

Once the tables were set, the last big project I could give the masses of helpers was the job of poofing.  Remember all of the tissue paper flowers I made on New Year’s Day?  They needed to be fluffed out of their folded states.  When I handed over the box of 97 and showed everyone how to do one, they all looked at me like my eighth graders did when I told them to write a research paper.  You could have heard a mouse squeak (probably in protest, too).  No one had any idea how to do it, even with the tutorial.  They were all proclaimed non-crafters for this mission.  So who came to the rescue?  Our flower girl E!  Not only had she done these in school the year before, but she had also made them at home with her family!  She became our poofing savior and did quality control on everyone’s napkin rings.  What would we have done without her?

As the 97 napkin rings were poofed, I put up the family photo tree on the wall.  I really should have had a level or something, but that’s all in hindsight.  I just wanted to be done.  We put up the 3M hooks, waited an hour for them to set, and stuck the photo frames up.  Despite being crooked, I thought they looked pretty good.  BIL Library even brought his girlfriend E over to say how cool it was to see his relatives.  With our photo strings situated, the tables set up, and the last finishing touches being done in the morning, we called it a night.  It was time to go our separate ways (but only for about an hour) and hang out with our groups.

Walk me through this:

Our bridal party began to come together!

We did as UPS does!

We’re cat-walking baby!

We practiced eating!