On Friday, I reunited with Lisa, and we caught up over Panera and Starbucks (where I copied her drink, only to find out she'd gotten a venti, which blew my stomach's mind). I bought Lindsay a wedding present, and we went to my place to scrapbook some memories of Lindsay for her bachelorette party that night.
At 5:00 we went to the church for the rehearsal, and it was so fun to relive high school relationships. The fab five was reunited. I ironed Nathan's shirt, even though Wendy doubted my domesticity. I passed off the last half of my Starbucks to Emily.
We did a run-through of the ceremony, and I had to be stunningly single because my walking partner's plane was running late. Charles arrived by the second run-through, and it was fun to reunite with him. It was kind of bizarre watching Lindsay and Nathan walk through the motions of getting married. It reminded me of HOPE skits where they would pretend to be a married couple, only this time they were pretending for the last time.
We all went over to the Wineinger's house for a delicious rehearsal dinner of grilled hamburgers and enormous quantities of sides. I ended up talking with Megan the whole time about missions and what it means to serve God, and it was a total answer to prayer. Before leaving Fatick, Kim and I talked about finding people who were also passionate about international missions so that I wouldn't lose my fire. Then a couple days later, Jennie facebooked me out of the blue to essentially tell me the same thing. And there I was, talking about missions to someone who was quite possibly even more passionate than me. It was awesome. I quite like Megan. And I quite like God.
Lindsay found out there were people at her house setting up a surprise bachelorette party, and since she was already tired, we caravaned to Metamora at 9:00. Some of her college friends were there, and we sat around eating more food and talking before busting out the inappropriate (except now appropriate) gifts we'd gotten her. Lisa got her a sex book that is approved by various church ladies, and we sat around reading from it and laughing. My favorite part was when Shelley came in and Lindsay showed her one of the pictures. Lindsay was very embarrassed by the whole thing, so she quickly closed the book. Shelley paused, then said, "Let me see that again."
Around midnight we headed to our rooms to change into pajamas. Megan found me and asked if I would like to pray for Lindsay. The rest of the girls came with us, so we sat in a circle, held hands, and prayed for Lindsay's marriage to Nathan. It was a really cool moment.
I slept with Lisa, and maybe fell asleep around 12:45. I kept waking up throughout the night, the way I do when I know I have to get up early and fret about missing my alarm. That turned out to be pointless, because Lindsay came in at 7:30.
Lindsay: There are sticky buns in the kitchen!
Lisa: There are sticky buns in this bed.
Me: Lisaaaaaa.
It's good to be reunited with my high school best friends.
The whole process of getting ready was blissfully easy, since we didn't need to wear makeup until later, and it was best to go to the hair salon with dirty hair. Done and done. We got to the salon at 8:30, and I found a picture in a magazine of beach wavy hair and French braided bangs. I loved it, but then felt kind of understyled in light of everyone else's heavily hairsprayed updos. Still, I think I was pretty rockin'.
We got to the church at 10:30, and got into our dresses and make up. Katie, Lindsay's second in command, had Starbucks drinks for everyone, which was super nice. Lindsay looked absolutely stunning in her dress, and she walked around nervously, waiting for Nathan to get dressed so they could meet under the lightpost where Nathan asked her out five years ago and proposed half a year ago.
Once they had seen each other and returned all twitterpated, we piled into cars with our walking partners (Charles and I lucked out and got to ride with the happy couple), and drove to the riverfront for pictures. The photographer was really fun and laidback, so it was really fun. I think pictures speak more than words for this kind of thing, so here's a few.
We all went back to the church for a lunch of Avanti's gondolas, then watched as the families got photographed. At 3:15 all us girls were shunted back to the bride's room, where we sat in nervous anticipation.
At 4:00, the wedding began! It was super fun to be all prettified and special, but it was even more fun to see Lindsay and Nathan officialize their love. I actually got a little teary when Lindsay walked down the aisle, and sporadically throughout the ceremony, it would hit me that they were committing to each other for the rest of their lives, and my throat would close up while I beamed at them from the side.
Lisa and Megan talked afterward about how they were all overwhelmed with longing for a romance like that for themselves, and it actually threw me. I didn't feel that at all, not the whole weekend. I have been all about Lindsay and Nathan's relationship ever since my sophomore year of high school when Lindsay pined after him, but he was scared to date an older woman. I just adore them as a couple. I can't think of two people more suited to each other, and I absolutely loved seeing them be in love, and finally getting to be married.
After the ceremony, we all piled into cars and went to the Whip, an ice cream shop in Princeville. I felt so fancy standing around in a gorgeous dress eating an ice cream cone with a bunch of other people in gorgeous dresses and tuxes, let alone the girl in the dazzling white dress. The whole day felt surreal, like we were kids playing dress up. Nope. We're grown up adults now, actually capable of marrying and starting that family thing. Weird.
Then we went to the reception, and prepared to make our entrance. Charles was adamant about not dancing, but he did exchange his jacket for my flowers. And then we walked out arm in arm, me trying to swing my arm or look vaguely happy while he walked in stoically. Oh, Charles. We sat at the head table and got food. Lisa and I made our own rounds as a happy couple. It was super awesome to see Dan Newsum, and Jenna and I stopped to talk about books.
I was summoned back to the head table for toasts. They were hard to understand through the sound system, but I think they were sweet. Then the special dances between husband and wife (!!), father and daughter, and mother and son happened. Charles and I chatted--he is one of those awesome guys who are charming and flirtatious, but without being skeezy or at all serious. At some point during the rehearsal, we agreed that we were going to be the next ones to be married, which led to fun conversations in which I looked like a ditz (I blame being around Lisa).
Charles: I just had a long conversation with my mother-in-law.
Me: Oh. That's nice.
Charles. Yeah.
Me: *stares into space*
Charles: You do know I mean your mom, right?
Me: What? That makes...oooh! Right. Because we are a couple.
Me: Can I try some of your cake?
Charles: You didn't get any icing.
Me: That's okay.
Charles: Get some icing, babe.
Me: Seriously, it's okay. I'm so full.
Charles: I said, babe. Eat the icing.
Me: Fine, fine. *eats*
Charles: Good job, babe. I'm just going to keep calling you babe.
Me: Okay, honey.
Charles: Five years from now, I'm still going to call you babe.
Me: I'll look forward to it.
Charles: Yeah, and we'll be married.
Me: Yup.
Charles: To other people, of course.
Me: *hurt eyes*
I love when my life even slightly resembles witty banter.
And then the real dancing began! It took me a couple songs to get into it, mostly because I tried to commandeer Jake into slow dancing with me until he said it was a song for married couples. He wasn't lying. Instead, I chatted with Nathan after he and Lindsay dropped out for being married less than three hours.
Me: *waggling eyebrows* So....looking forward to tonight?
Nathan: *grins*
Me: Ack! No no no, I can't do this! *runs away*
Anyway, then I got into the whole dancing scene, and I didn't stop until the reception was over at 9:00. That's a good couple hours of solid dancing. I was sweating like a beast at the end of it, but having the best time in the world. A lot of the time I was dancing around to different groups, trying to get non-dancers to bust out of their shells and bust a move. I was really only successful with Emily, although a couple of people vaguely moved their shoulders if I yelled at them enough. I realized that if I am having a good time, I desperately need other people to also have a good time.
The whole thing was just ridiculously fun. There were five or so of us who danced the whole time, through the fast random songs and the line dances and the slow dances. One of my favorite things was dancing up to the littler girls and mimicking their dance moves, then showing them some of mine.
I snagged Jake for all the slow dances, since he was my dancing partner last January. He is secretly awesome, and while I stumbled around and missed steps, he confidently led me through turns and spins. It was super awesome, and Christina (resident church dancer) even complimented us. We even tried the dip, and by the last time I could do it without immediately throwing myself back up into his arms from fear of dying. In my head we looked super smooth, but I don't think reality matched up. Still, it was incredibly fun. There are few things I want to be more than I want to be a dancer.
And then at 9:00 we had to pack everything up and go. I hugged Lindsay and Nathan and told them how happy I was that they were married, and then we all went home. It was sad, because the whole thing was super awesome fun, and I wanted it to go on and on and on.
Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Wineinger!
