The Final Installation in the Wedding Trilogy

We get the stupid flower petals replaces, and Flower Girl (who is beyond adorable, btw) gets pictures taken. The rest of the people show up, and the rest of the pictures are done. The guests start arriving, and Bridezilla goes to hide by the vintage fire engine. We start the ceremony, which goes off with the minor hitch of an usher trying to jump in and lay down the aisle runner (a clear plastic last minute addition), and knocking over a chair in the process. But that did not draw eyes away from Bridezilla, who looked gorgeous. The ceremony went off perfectly, and I was even able to nab a few minutes to nurse N, who was extremely hot, cranky, and nurse-y. I was wearing a button down dress, and the benefit of a wedding ceremony is that all eyes are on the bride, so no one pays attention to me with an open dress. LOL So anyway, N is fed, and goes off with Daddy to be amused for the rest of the evening. The friends she has designated to set out the food are watching the entire ceremony, per her request, so the food is not being set up. Anyway, ceremony over, and Bridezilla's so carefully arranged order of recessional gets a little mixed up between the bride's family and the groom's, and Bridezilla doesn't see one bit of it. Darn. The pastor directs everyone toward the food tables, which, are not set up. The food girls rush over and frantically start to set up the food table. A couple of the guests observe this, and rush over to help us. Okay, I have some rather strong opinions on weddings, and one of them is that it is rude to invite people to a party, then force them through circumstances to help set it up. JMO. The cake was already set up, but because she wanted to get married outside in July, the frosting's starting to shift, and the coconut (ew) cake is starting to melt a bit. We hope she doesn't notice. Anyway, the food gets set up, everyone eats, and because Bridezilla wanted to skimp on the drinks ("I don't want people drinking too much, so I didn't get tons and tons, but it should be just enough.") we have one bottle of generic Sprite left for the punch before the evening's over. Someone goes to get water, so there's at least a little of that to drink. The toasting and dancing gets started. I mention to the MOH that due to the fact that it's now nearly 90 degrees, and we're outside, and the cake's been sitting out for close to an hour and a half, it's starting to melt, and she needs to get over here, and cut the thing ASAP. Bridezilla's very understanding (point for her), and I sincerely hope she doesn't try to get out of paying the bill for the cake. The baker does not control the weather anymore than I control goose-poop on the sidewalks. The cake is cut, served, and rejected by most of the guests in favor of the leftover chocolate cake from the rehearsal dinner the night before (yay Macaroni Grill). The dancing and general party goes beautifully. Bridezilla gets a little cranky when her friends with kids start to leave (um, if she'd rather have screaming children at her party, then that's fine with me, but my kid needs his bedtime), but is too busy dancing to be too disappointed. A few park-goers stop to watch the couple dance, with happy smiles on their faces. I hope she doesn't bitch about them when she gets back. I think it was touching. I don't know if she saw them. Anyway, it's now 9:30 at night, I've been out here, at the park, in the sun, since Noon and 3:3o respectively. My sunscreen went AWOL, so I've had no sun protection, I'm feeling tired, crampy, woozy, and just plain exhausted. So, at the insistence of the baker, the MOH, the other bridesmaid, the father of the bride, and the best man's wife who had been assigned to help me, I went ahead and left, hoping that everything was in good hands. Since the FOB had arranged for a clean-up crew, I wasn't too worried. Now, if I can just track down the deejay and get my cds (used for the ceremony) back.