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 Wedding Write-Up
PREPARATIONS
Though the wedding planning process had been a long and involved series of decisions and hard work, the real preparations ramped up the week before the wedding.
MONDAY/TUESDAY
Well... let's see. To start at the beginning I would think that we should go back to Monday/Tuesday, but that's all pretty boring. *grins* We did lots of last minute stuff like book the security guard (which I'm still angry about actually, especially since hearing he behaved very "unprofessionally" at the reception), pay for permits and the like. We bought lots of the "fresh food" like fruits, veggies, salads and meats, as well as the cakes/cheesecakes that needed to be modified into the wedding cake. We also attempted to clean, but that didn't work as well as we had hoped for. *smirks* Although we did manage to mow the back yard.
Tuesday night John's parents showed up, so we spent a little bit of time haging out with them at Denny's and planning the schedule for the next few days. Wednesday I really needed to run errends and John had a few things to take care of, so it looked like it would be better if they took a day to do the tourist thing before it got too totally crazy later in the week. When John and I got home from visiting with them, I started on the wedding cake. I trimmed the two bottom layers into the right shape, froze them slightly, stacked them and then frosted them with a crumb coat. The bottom layer consisted of (from top to bottom) a layer of cream cheese frosting, a layer of chocolate frosting, a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of vanilla cheesecake mousse, a layer of chocolate cake, a layer of whipped cream, a layer of vanilla cake, a layer of chocolate mousse, and a final layer of vanilla cake. The (what was originally going to be the) middle layer consisted of two plain cheesecakes stacked on top of each other. The top layer was going to be Red Velvet cake, which is sort-of cocoa flavored and deep red in color, but when we went to pick them up they only had two red velvet cakes in stock, and the raspberry tuxedo cheesecakes were over $15 a piece (we would have needed 3 to make a layer). We ended up putting the two cakes on the sattalite stands and not having a third layer after all, which I think looked all right in the end.
WEDNESDAY
Wednesday was pretty much errands and more shopping. I got the stuff for breakfast and a few more odds-and-ends at Smart&Final, then headed over to Ross. I was originally going there to pick up more things for the gifts for the girls but didn't find a damn thing. Instead, I found some clothes for the cruise (finally!) like a cocktail dress and a little black dancing dress. I worked on last minute things like the programs, etc. and tried to do more futile cleaning.
THURSDAY
Picked up the flowers at 2GRoses.
John and dad picked up tuxes.
We went to lunch at Chef Lee's.
Came back and started on the flowers. Julie tore petals and Katie started on the guest boutonniers. I wired roses for Kristania's bouquet.
John's parents did lots of chopping and slicing of wedding food.
Dad showed up and helped finish Kristania's bouquet and put together all of the boutonniers and corsages.
Mom and Charlie showed up late and Charlie tried on his tux.
FRIDAY
John took his family and Charlie on a tour of Monterey.
Dad put together and painted arches.
The rental equipment finally arrived several hours late.
Mom and I went shopping to Albertson's for soda, stuff for hostess baskets (which didn't get done) and sundae supplies.
There was a short rehersal held at the park at 4 in the afternoon, somewhat approximating the time we'd be having the ceremony the following day. After that, the Di Maggio park building was opened and we began the process of setting up and decorating.
I was a complete putz and somehow had managed to lose the notebook that contained all of my drawings and to-do lists, so I was pretty scattered. People were really wanting to help and we had these huge boxes full of stuff that we had bought over the months and all I kept hearing was, "What are we doing with this? Where do you want this?" If I had a time machine and could change one thing, I would have found that damn notebook. It was designed specifically so I could just rip pages out and hand them to people. Too easy, you say? Apparently the wedding gods agreed with you.
Finally I started to get into a head space where I could start directing people into specific tasks. Tablecloths were made by tearing white fabric that I had purchased cheaply into the proper lengths. Danny started hanging hooks and mini lights around the perimeter of the room, then Katie and Tracy began hanging the white tulle over the lights and scattering small ivy leaves into the puffs. My mom and Aunt Annette started to put together the buffet tables while Grandma Clausen, Uncle William and Sharon started decorating the tables. Uncle William and Sharon cut the silver gossamer to length as table runners, then Julie and my Grandma put out all of the floating candles with red gems in the vases and scattered red gems along the silver cloth runners. Nick and Kristania showed up about an hour into the night, and they decorated the bridal arches with ivy and silver gossamer. Lots of people, including Kristania and Julie, set the dishes and glases on the tables. John's dad and mom (and I think Katie) put together the wedding programs needed for the ceremony the following day.
At around 6:30pm, my mom and Sharon volunteered to make a pizza run to pick up our order at Costco, and we got out the drinks and salad and accoutraments. Dad went to get ice, because I was a complete fruitcake and forgot to get any for the drinks. We also forgot to put out all of the things that we bought for the sundae bar. So stupid! I didn't remember anything about it until the next day, when I saw that the marachino cherries had mistakenly been opened and put on the buffet table! Erk. We really did have dessert for everyone... I'm just a big stupid and was so busy I forgot! And somewhere there's a bunch of sundae toppings floating around (unless they got put on the buffet table too... I wouldn't know since I didn't really get to see it!)
The rest of the night was spent taking care of little things like putting the tags on the black wrought iron candle lanterns that we had bought as favors. Once again, the seating chart was in that little notebook that had been lost earlier in the week, so I just asked Danny to put people together that he knew, thinking I would get the time to arrange the lanterns before people arrived the next day. Once again, I was WRONG, but some of my industrious friends managed to rearrange their seating anyway.
My mom and Kristania and I retired to my house for the night, with John sleeping at his parent's hotel room and Charlie and Nick sharing my mom's hotel room for the night. We came back and my mom started to do the finishing steps on the wedding cake while Kristania started rolling silverware into the rented white napkins. I was putting together the stephanotis wreath for Julie, but Kristania and my mom made fun of the way it looked so I got frustrated and stopped. I was tired and still needed a shower (I think I took my shower that night).
SATURDAY (THE WEDDING DAY)
I woke up early, got dressed and headed out to pick up some extension cords that I knew we would need that day.
Kristania made a Krispy Kremes and Starbucks coffee run.
I realized that we had taken all of the ivy to Di Maggio the night before, and I didn't have any to start my bridal bouquet with.
We put 4 lazagnas in the stove at home to get started.
Mom put together the meat, cheese and fruit trays. She and Kristania made a run to Di Maggio and got ivy and dropped off the other two lazangnas to start being cooked in the stove at the park building.
I made the lemon chicken angel hair pasta.
The ivy showed up and I could start putting my bouquet together.
I worked on my bouquet while Kristania worked on putting together rose arrangements. The white lilies didn't open (which I was very upset with) but we had plenty of roses and other things to make a few vases worth for each table.
At some point around 1:30 or so, I told everyone I would need to start getting ready. I ducked into the bathroom and started washing my face and putting on my makeup. Kristania wasn't feeling very well and I got worried... I was hoping she didn't have to lie down and miss everything but I would have rather have her feel well. Fortunately she took some Advil or something like it and started feeling much better. I'm so sorry that she didn't get enough sleep the night before; I offered to let her sleep in bed with me but she knows I like to steal blankets and cuddle in the middle of the night.
Makeup and hair went pretty smoothly. Tons of hairspray went into the formation of curls, and my curling iron suddenly got all gummy and started sticking to Kristania's hair, which is a scary thing. She doesn't have enough hair to have some of it burnt off.
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