A Post About Weddings Because I Ran Out of Time

This week, I was going to do the exploration that required you to create a survey and then create an infograph based on the results of your survey. However, I found myself unable to do this because my uncle got married this weekend, and I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid in the wedding.

Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. From the moment I got home until the time the dinner started, I  was busy. I ran around with my grandma buying a glue gun and glue sticks, flowers, wreaths, and anything else we could think to use as decorations. I helped babysit and preoccupy my three year old cousin, who had several meltdowns throughout the day (he had a tantrum and was put in time out, he missed part of his movie - we were over halfway through - and wanted to start it over, he had boogers on his nose from crying, we finished emptying bags of potatoes). I helped set up tables and decorations for the rehearsal dinner. At the end of the day, rehearsing for the wedding only took about 15 minutes, and having dinner and cleaning up after everyone at the end consumed the rest of my night.

Saturday, I was up at 6 to shower and meet the rest of the girls in the bridal party so that we could get our hair done. I sat in the salon and ate breakfast while I waited for my turn to get my hair curled by the assistant, who just happened to be the mother of someone I graduated from high school with. During the 30-45 minutes it took for me to get my hair curled, we talked about college roommates, her son, American Horror Story, how horribly I used to treat my hair, how much hair I actually have (answer, a lot), and DSU.

By the time my hair was (finally) curled, it was only 10 o'clock, but everyone was a bit frazzled because we had to be at the church by 11:30, and there were still four girls who had to have their hair styled (including me - the curling process was only part 1 of two parts we all had to go through for our hairstyles). While the others were panicking, I did my makeup at an empty station and then started looking up hair styles on my handy-dandy Hair Styles Pinterest board.

Once everyone had their hair done, we all piled into cars to go to the church. At the church, we were led into a room far enough away from the boys that we could wander around without worrying about Serena - the bride - being seen by Kyle - the groom.

The next couple of hours are sort of a blur. We got dressed, switched into our wedding shoes, and took pictures. So many pictures. And let me tell ya, there's only so long I can fake a smile before I start to feel like I'm grimacing at a camera. Pictures took at least three hours, and then we had to go shoot some footage for the wedding video, which (thankfully) only took about fifteen minutes. By the time we were done with pictures and videos, our bouquets were looking a little wilt-y, so we put them in water and headed back into our room to wait because it was almost time - it was just before three and the wedding was due to start in half an hour.

Kyle, Serena, &Logan just before pictures

Serena sat down in a folding chair to cool off, and had just rubbed at her nose when disaster and panic struck - her nose started to bleed. Looking back, I should have grabbed the box of Kleenex that was on the other side of the table, I really should have. But in that moment, all I could find it in me to do was shriek and stare in shock. Serena quickly held her hand under her nose to stop the blood from getting onto her dress, and her mother, Shala, and sisters, Sam and Stacy, rushed to offer her toilet paper and Kleenexes. With the help of the personal assistants and her Maids of Honor, Serena wiggled out of her dress and made a beeline for the bathroom. I found a hanger and hung the dress so it wouldn't wrinkle while I waited for them to come back into the room. Not five minutes later, Serena came back in, followed by Shala, Sam, and Stacy, and they helped her reapply her makeup - all while she needlessly apologized over and over again for crying.

After we'd all settled down and Serena looked gorgeous as ever, we made our way to the doors to wait for our entrance. Again, what happened next kind of slips my mind. I was just so focused on walking down the aisle without tripping over my dress, or walking too quickly. Vows were said, tears were shed, and before I knew it, we were getting on the bus for the reception.

Before we got to the reception, however, we stopped at the Outdoor Campus for more pictures - because we hadn't already taken at least 100, right?

I thought I could probably make it through the whole night without tripping. But I was wrong. As we were making our entrance into the reception, I totally somehow missed the fact that there was a giant step right in front of me, and as I was doing the Carlton, I felt myself step right onto thin air and for a second I thought to myself, this is it, this is how I die. Not really, but I did panic for a half second before my foot finally connected with the ground. The food was fantastic, Stacy made a cute slideshow with pictures of both Kyle and Serena growing up, including family photos (two of which I was in, but no big deal or anything (coughcough)), and I actually got up and danced like an idiot in front of a room full of strangers and my new family.

Bonus picture of my cousin cause he's a cutie    

If I could go back to Saturday, I totally would, except now my ankles are super swollen and when I woke up today my hair was a disaster. So maybe I'd cut those parts out.