A wedding and a sleep over

Recently I traveled to a part of the United States I had previously not been too before. The strangest part about being in Nashville, TN was how surreal it was. (I love that word surreal, I learned it in high school. My english teacher described high school as a surreal hell. Yes he was my favorite teacher!)

It was surreal because I wasn't even sure I was in a different state. It was significantly warmer then Idaho and it was much greener. As green as it can be in the winter but you get the idea. Maybe.

I arrived after a very long flight from Las Vegas which apparently never has smooth landings. We actually fish-tailed on the runway. I kid you not. I mentioned to the lady next to me, "That was the bumpyest landing I ever had." Everyone was sitting up straighter in their sets as we hit the pavment. As if to magically move themselves as far away from the plane as possible. I could just see the thought bubbles going over their heads, "If I sit up straigher the crash won't be nearly as bad." Which in fact the corraner at the morge will be able to announce that every person in the plane had amazing posture.

The lady next to me made a comment that it was the atmaspher between the plane and the pavment. That it gets so hot the heat rising makes the wings shake pretty bad.

o_O

The flight from Vegas to Nashville wasn't so great either but seeing Motter at the baggage claim was AMAZING! She hadn't changed a bit except her hair was longer. She looked exactly the same. I swear I could have been on the mission again. (Except my clothes are sooo much cuter now then they were on the mission). We went back to her place and stayed up until 2 in the morning remembering the mission and how fun (and horrible) it was.

The next day I met the family (I arrived close to midnight so everyone was asleep when I got there). The house is still under a lot of construction. Most of it little details that needed to be finished up like triming and well the rest of the stairs.

When she said her house was huge I didn't really get the scope of it until I actually saw it.

O_O

Oh my gosh!

It is beautiful and they have so much property left over they could build three more houses like it. Maybe more.

I met the groom who I liked right a way. He's not charming in the "I'm so cool" sort of way but charming in the "I'm real" sort of way. I loved it. I think I would have gotten along with her mom really well given the chance but since we had a wedding to throw in less the 48 hours that options was not available to us. I spent most of my time balancing between getting to know the family and being a good guest and hiding away to keep myself saine. (Meeting new people is difficult for me especially a whole bunch of them, it's my introvert side showing.)

We went to lunch with the in laws and later we got ready to decorate the cultural hall.

This is when things started to get a little sticky.

Wedding plans are...difficult at best...but when you don't have little details worked out it can lead to...well a very crazy day.

Friday night wasn't bad just stressful because unfortunatley the groom, all be it charming, was also on crutches from a sprained ankle and couldn't help with the decorating. Motter, who plans things very nice and neatly, was stressing over the back drop where the wedding party would be stationed. Also where the pictures would be. It was a laddous with columns. Very pretty but lots of work to make it look gorgous without being tacky.

We had garland and lights. Four white christmas stress with blue christmas lights. A look that Motter fell in love with in California on her mission. Eventually we were able to get her to go home so myself, her photographer and brides maid (o_O please help me figure that one out people), and in laws stayed to finish up.

Ummmm...aren't the in laws suppost to drive the bride crazy not the brides friend from Idaho who's really just there to see her friend get married????

Yeah they took over and between the four control freaks in the room (myself included I will admit it) we came up with a slightly stylish but could have been better finished product. I felt like there were too many cooks around the pot.

But all in all it was a pretty finish and from what I understand Motter enjoyed it. And that is all that's important.

So we arrived back at her house (which is a half an hour away from the church. It is also and hour away from temple they were getting married in. This is important you'll come to find later)

That night I'm talking to Motter's mom and I ask some questions, "Do we have a guest signing book?" That was a negative. Ok that's fine that's something very easily fixed. I came up with the brilliant idea of using her mission book. Usually the guest book only takes up a couple of pages and it's something she actually will feel a strong desire to keep because of ALL the memories in it and not just one event in a string of events of the best day of her life. (I mean come on who really looks at the guest book later in life. Really?)

She went for it and then I asked a very important question. There was mention of make up there was mention of a dress, and there was mention of shoes. But no mention of who was going to do her hair in the morning.

So I asked Motter, "Who's doing you hair tomorrow morning?"

"We haven't really thought about it,"

Me: *blinkblink*O_O *blinkblink*

One of her brides maid (who was also the photographer, still not so sure about that one really) had the same reaction.

We of course decide to get it done the next day.

The person who was helping her with make up was an aunt from Utah. She does Mary Kay. Please let it be known that I love the Mary Kay product. I love how they sell there product. And I even love the little facials they give because they teach they do not apply it themselves.

But that's the problem! THEY TEACH!!!

Ever heard the saying, "When the time to perform comes the time to prepare is over."

The day of the wedding is the day to PERFORM especially when you have a tight schedule. All preparations, all rehearsals and/or practices are shot dude it's time to get it done a move on.

So when I saw her aunt trying to teach Motter how to put on make up I just about died. We still had to do her hair.

So I was getting ready. Put things in the car, make sure the flowers were there, make sure we had cameras and batteries, and memory cards and shoes, dresses, hair stuff.

But since I did not prepare for a hair dilema I didn't think about bringing two very important things that normally are in every house hold especially on the wedding day.

1. A curling iron
2. Hair spray

I don't use hair spray my hair doesn't need it and if I do I use my moms. I left my curling iron 2000 miles away in a different state.

We sent the family on the hunt for hair spray. Guess who had it. The uncle from Utah. Not the aunt but the uncle. The only person in 16,000 square foot house and it turned out to be a man.

Now I'm in a dress. I look cute and adorable. But I will tell you it was not the thing to wear that day because dresses do not straddle car seats very well when you are sitting backwards up front.

Yes, on the way there we met up with groom and best man who drove the two separate cars while Whitney and I worked on Motter's hair. We finished it seconds before arriving to the temple.

We get to the temple and no one is there.

No one.

No mom

No mom-in-law

No anyone.

But the temple was packed. Apparently there were stake temple days, baptisms, weddings, living endowments, and everything else you could think of going on that day.

Good grief. And I still had to put on my back up.

Of course I'm spending most of my time teasing Motter about what is going to happen to her after the wedding, (come on people newly weds with six hours to kill between marriage and reception how could I not?)

So the happy couple go off to meet with the temple president and I get all pretty for pictures. Eventually I make it back to Motter and we are in the brides room. I'm helping her get into her temple dress (she decided to do the wedding dress later for pictures, so practicle she is) and in the middle of it all I say, "Where is you mother? She needs to be here."

I mean come on! This is what the mother does for the daughter on the wedding day right????

So I go find the mother and when I tell her to go back to Motter she gets this, cool-I-need-to-go-back-there-for-some-reason nonchalant sort of thing.

Again me: *blinkblink*O_O*blinkblink*

Do these people know nothing about tradition!!!!

The wedding itself was beautiful.

There was a lot of personal reflection I got to experiene that I'll talk about later but just know it was amazing.

For now I'm going to end here and update about the rest of the wedding. Which is just as crazy let me tell you.

O_o

http://www.myheritage.com

And I posted the one without the old man on it!!! Can anyone help me put these kinds of the things are the sides of my blogg instead of in a post? So you can see it always?