The valet took the Chris Bus, and the Best Man (who was also the MC) ran off to coordinate with the dj. Which is when we learnt that the DJ was not the guy we were supposed to have, about 100 years old, and didn't have a laptop with his sound-system. It was all CDs. We'd made a data disk with the music, not a regular cd (and by we, I mean Obi and Chris
). Crap crap. It had all our enterance music on it, our first dance song, the song for the garter toss, the "bride and groom running away" archway music... you get the picture. Quickly we hashed together a plan. The photographers had a macbook - I'd seen them dumping photos onto it. So two of the groomsmen ran down to a nearby store and bought a CD so that the most important songs could be re-cut as a music disk. This made us run a little late, but no one noticed.
We (except the best man) had our own private canapes in the fancy bar area (really fancy, blue neon lights everywhere, and behind the lounge we sat on the windows slid into the wall, opening out completely.) and had some sparkling wine. Someone touched up my make-up, sent my bridesman's bag upto our suite so he didn't have to lug it through the night and then I got some pins for Bec and Angie for their dresses. Angie's dress had suddenly gotten really big. Seems like the tailor who took in her dress did a dodgy job, and it re-expanded, so we pinned hers tighter. Bec had the opposite problem, and I had so much fun with that!
Some of you would have seen on facebook how tiny my sister is. I mean, I know I'm thin, but around her generally I feel like a massive cow. She can't actually gain weight, same as my mum, so she eats five times a day, drinks like a fish, whatever she wants, and it never really sticks. She bought her dress at least six months before the wedding, and between then and now she's stacked on the weight. Not that you can tell, because she's still an American size 0. But, her dress kept unzipping itself when she sat down because she'd popped the clasp.
Now, we all know how much affection I don't have for my sister in law... and she's always going on about how good looking she is. How she does modeling, how it's so hard to buy non-designer clothes when your legs are so long and beautiful, because thin women with long legs don't exist. I'm a size 2 American, and her clothes are huge on me so I'd put her at a 4 or possibly more.. so her witnessing my tiny sister (who's done her own share of modeling) having this fat day and spilling out of a tiny dress she herself could never hope to wear? Very satisfying. (That was mean, I know. Please forgive me.)
One we were all fixed, the music was as ready as it was likely to get, so we moved to the ballroom where the reception was to be heald and lined up outside to be introduced. The music we had chosen was pretty funny. The DJ + Best man messed it up a little, but it was still alright.
First two of the groomsmen entered, walking a meter apart, to the lyrics "I still havent found what I'm looking for", then that song morphed into "All by myself... don't wanna be allll by myself anymore." (One of them is sing, the other's girlfriend wasn't there.
Next my bridesman and the groomswoman walked in. They were supposed to get "flaunt it"... but ended up mostly with the tag end of the previous song.
One of the funniest was Obi's parents. They walked in to the refrain from "Jizz in my pants" by lonely island. If you don't know this song, take a moment to youtube it. You know you want to.
Then my two sisters walked in, flanking Chris, to darth vader's march.
As an ode to our LDR days, Obi and I walked in to "I touch myself" by the divinyls (sp). It was funny.
Unfortunatly, people didn't know where they were sitting and walked around a bit looking lost (and as you know already the seating caused some drama later too). The best man thanked everyone for coming and entrees were served.
The wait staff were lovely, and fast. Their supervisor introduced himself to me and said if I needed anything to let him know. I felt a bit special lol. They werent intrusive either, like so many waitstaff can be.
I got the entree I was longing for - pumpkin soup with black truffle oil. Sounds boring, it isn't. OMG <3 Haha. It was alternate serve, so I had a 50/50 chance, the other dish was smoked salmon with seasonal citrus - I love salmon, hate citrus. It turned out to be basically the only thing I ate (that and the bread) so I'm glad it was so good.
I lost my appetite in all the drama so I didn't finish my lamb, but so many people raved about the food, and we tried it all on the taste test anyway, so I didn't mind too much. I'm happy everyone was well fed.
One groomsman was very well fed. He'd been sitting next to the sister in law who'd ran off... so when the waitstaff started clearing the tables, he ate her meal too. She came back while he was finishing it. He didn't apologise. Hilarious
My family were working double time to cheer me up, and then the speeches started, and that was lovely. My cousin (who's in his 40s) went first, seemingly unprepared... He'd been sisting at a table with three Canadians, so part of his speech was about how our new family members are lovely, but they talk very slowly. Funny because it's true. I think dad was a tad offended
but he was good natured about it.Dad spoke next of course, and it was lovely. He spoke about how holding Obi for the first time was the proudest day of his life, and how he's been made proud ever since. And how he thinks I'm lovely, great for him, good for their family etc. Just really sweet.
There was a surprise e-gram from Obi's grandparents who didn't make the trip, as well as a surprise speech from Bec. She nearly cried, and struggled to say what she needed to say, but it was really touching. Later on, when she was in the bathroom, Chris whispered to me about how she had cried and was saying "I'm so proud of her". My sister's opinion means so much to me, so I was way touched. (She's also not sentimental at all, so...
)Then mum got up with her guitar and sung three songs, one for my mum (lightening crashes, by live) one for my pop and as a tribute to our LDR (unchained melody) and a third one as a surprise for me... all three moved me to tears. Lightening crashes was played first. I sat with Bec (she pulled me onto her lap) and we both got teary while singing along. She whispered to me that it was beautiful and tasteful... I know we both whished mum could have been there. Then the surprise song came. It was hard to understand, the sound system wasn't the best, but what we could understand was so nice... It was a prayer from a mother to her son's future wife. I got the lyrics from her the day after, so I can write them in my lil book of love and remember.
Bec and I sang to the last song as well, and Obi moved a chair to sit with us, so I moved to his lap and held my sisters hand.
Mum's singing had been a bit of a trial leading up to the wedding, and something I'd worried about because she's way unpredicatble... but it was amazing. Not because she's the best singer on earth or anything, just because of how heartfelt it was. One of the best moments of the evening!
Then we got up and spoke together. It wasn't too hard. I've always been terrified of public speaking, but when I didn't speak at mum's funeral I really regretted it. So this time I was determined to push through it. I don't know if we did alright, but it was our wedding so people were kind
Then we cut the cake. OMG, the cake actually survived! Obi spent the whole day before making that cake, covering it with fondant etc. Then we'd taken it to the venue and assembled it there. It was a merry-go-round (it's an in joke) and the poles with the horses were tall... when we left it in the giant fridge I was convinced it would topple during the night, but it didn't. Obi worked so hard on that damn thing I didn't want to damage it, but it's a ritual, so we did it. I didn't get any of the cake, I was too busy dancing, but whatever. I did get a little bit of both deserts, and they were delectable!