Going to the Chapel...

One of my best friends was married this weekend and I had the good fortune to attend the wedding in Nevada City, California, which is close to Sacramento. And my, was it an exciting weekend. Let's start with Friday...

My friend (the groom) is Matt. Now, Matt said he would pick me up at the airport in Sacramento, but we neglected to exchange phone numbers before the arrival date. Dumb. So I arrive and no one is there. No one that I recognize is even in the terminal. I call my husband, who informs me there is another terminal, about a half a mile away, that he might be waiting at. So I schlep my stuff down to the other terminal and low an behold, he's there. So I hook up with Matt and Paul (the best man) and we walk BACK to the other terminal because someone else is coming in that morning, as well. Granted, we dropped off my stuff at the car, first.

So we pick up Teresa, who is also a groom's person and my room mate for the weekend, and we get in Matt's Prius to head back to Nevada City.

Did you know a Prius can run out of gas? Ha. It did, right on the side of the interstate. Matt calls roadside assistance and Paul and I decide to walk to find a gas station. So we cross a field of thistles and three lanes of traffic, jump a fence, and find a gas station about a mile away. We buy a gas tank, fill it, and walk back, jumping the fence once more, crossing traffic, and the field of thistles. We STILL beat roadside assistance, so Matt cancels the appointment and we're finally on our way.

We get back to Nevada City and go to the bride's father's house for a luncheon, but we're pretty late so most of the people head out shortly after we get there. Since the rehersal is at four, we don't have much time to get to the hotel, but we make it, get ready, and head up to the place where the wedding is going to be held.

The bride's mother's house is lovely, with an English Rose Garden in the back where the wedding will be. Matt asked me to do a reading, since his sister Karen (who was originally going to read) just got out of the hospital and was worried about doing it herself. Since Karen is a good friend of mine as well, I agreed. The rehersal went off without a hitch, but it's really hot.

The rehersal dinner was way cool (only Mama Floyd can plan a party like this). We took an open air train to the top of a mountain for dinner and we were 'robbed' along the way. Outlaws stopped the train and 'stole our hearts' (we were instructed to bring small heart shaped gifts for the couple) and later, they shot the engineers and hijacked us. It was loads of fun.

The rehersal dinner itself was served up on the mountain under the pine trees and was quite lovely. It wasn't quite so hot up there!

I decided to go to bed after that, though the rest of the groom's party was going to go drinking. They didn't make it, though, because the rings went missing and it took two hours to find them. It's way too long a story to type out here, but suffice it to say that housekeeping was quite questionable and it was no fault of the groom's party. I ended up in charge of the rings the following day and didn't let them out of my sight until the ceremony. Just call me Frodo, kids.

Saturday morning I had breakfast with Matt and Shannon and Roy, two of his friends, and then went shopping with Karen. It was very nice. We bought pasties for everyone, then went back to where the groom's party was getting ready and I helped with Karen's nails and her sister Anne's hair before getting ready myself. I didn't have to be there early, so I wasn't worried.

Roy was my 'date' since Shannon was in the wedding party, and we got to ride in a limo to the wedding. Never been in a limo before and it was quite fun. We debated skipping the wedding and just going to Las Vegas, but figured since I had the rings, I had to show up. Ha.

The ceremony was beautiful (I cried, as always) and then we were back in the limos to go to the reception, which was just down the hill. Dinner and dancing lasted until 11 PM that night, at which point I was TIRED so I tried to go to bed. I didn't quite manage it, and ended up getting up at 4:45 to go get on a plane not feeling any more rested than I had the night before. Oh well. I slept from Sacramento to Denver and felt a little better.

All in all, it was the best wedding ever. I saw people I hadn't seen in a long time, namely Matt, Brian, Karen, and Anne, met a bunch of new friends in Teresa, Paul, Roy, and Shannon, and had a hugely great time with all the dancing. Great weekend, even if I now feel as if I've been hit by a bus...