"it's bon jovi, we HAVE to dance!"

~carrie g.

so, the wedding was superfun and SO pretty and nicole looked lovely and the boys kind of rocked the pink! we got there and I got little luke and took care of him during the ceremony. he was a little fussy at first and his manny tried to help me, but luke was really only interested in kicking off his socks and chewing on the bottle, so after he yelped once (and we all saw dave and nicole's heads whip to his direction) little luke and I went on a walk in the courtyard. It was a beautiful afternoon and he fell fast asleep and we got back in just in time to see the kiss!

we hung out for a bit while they took pictures and headed to the reception site--WOW! the centerpieces were festive and cute, and the red walls of the room were great too. we snagged seats at what turned out to be a VERY fun table and I took some pictures before they arrived...

and they got there, danced, we ate and the festivities began. and then we got food. yay for food! and for meatballs. it was kind of funny, matt asked me to get meatballs for him, and I did, and then I went to get drinks. well, he went and got his own meatballs and one of the women at our table was like "she is going to KILL you. she got meatballs JUST for YOU. four of those are yours!!!" so he ate quickly and they all promised not to spill the beans--so much for that! also, I got cool points--while I was waiting for drinks matt told them "if she really loves me she'll bring me a beer" and I brought him two. :)

also, during the buffet/eating time I also scored two more potential portrait opportunities AND chit-chatted with nicole's photographer for a bit--it was funny 'cause she was already taking a picture of me since I had my big ol' canon out.

after the food there was LOTS of dancing--I was carrie g's date for a while, kara and I did our groove thing and there were, of course, a lot of girls dancing too. and I got to see the best groomsmen I've ever seen at a wedding (no offense to you other brides, I promise!) they were cutting up and break dancing and really got the party going!!! lots of times it's up to the girls to keep things up, but at this reception the guys were JUST as motivated! :) they pretended they had a basketball and were dancing with it and did all sorts of crazy stuff. HILARIOUS. seriously.

oh, and other fun:

I caught the bouquet! The fun of the moment was definitely ruined by a snarky comment from another girl--one who wasn't even trying to catch it because she's engaged!--but that's okay, it was still fun. And if the guy in front of matt hadn't snagged it at the last second it would've fallen directly into Matt's beer! ha!

the funniest part was definitely the garter removal though...there was the usual prolonged searching, head disappearing in the dress business, of course, but if you notice in one of these pictures little luke is being put under the chair--Dave pulled Luke out from under Nicole and the room ERUPTED with laughter. too fun!

and here is a fly on fly. that's matt's nickname, if you didn't know.
then there was even more dancing and I took Nicole to get a shot--she said she wanted one, I was getting it for her! we ended up having two (just in case!) and went back to dance, dance, dance until they quite literally kicked us out. :) matt and I took the maid of honor, lauren, by red room (she worked there for 5 years), she scored us some free drinks and we even ran into my old roommate michelle.

from there we stopped at mcdonalds. yes, you read that right. it was that or burger king, so I ELECTED to eat at mcdonalds. matt has only seen me eat it twice, if that gives you an idea of how much I don't like eating it. but it sure hit the spot! we headed to the faby's place for a bit to drop off lauren, see the parents who were still awake and to help finish off the remaining keg. and then it was tiiiiiiime for sleeeeeep. we were doing wedding stuff for more than ten hours (if you count getting ready, too!) I was SO ready to be out of those clothes and asleep.

all in all though, it was a loverly wedding, the craziness was wonderful, the guests were hilarious and the bride and groom were perfect. I'm sure this is just the beginning of their happily ever after. :)