Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Here comes the bride...

Whee! Wedding madness. My family flew en masse to Kentucky to attend my cousin C-dawg’s wedding. C-dawg is my dad’s sister’s kid and is 8 months younger than Speedy, so that made things a little bit interesting. The flights were pretty uneventful, which is never a bad thing. I was a little sleepy, having stayed out a bit late the night before running errands (like buying a copy of the new Beastie Boys album. Go do that. Now.) and running over to Marshall’s to give her sunglasses back, finally. She left for Canada with the Biker kids on Thursday for three weeks.

We landed in Louisville, changed into rehearsal dinner clothes and then piled into the rental car, where Speedy and I promptly passed out for an hour. I woke up as we were pulling into a rest stop for whatever reason. Luckily we were not far from Lexington and then headed into town. The restaurant was this incredibly cute little place called a la lucie, which was by an acquaintance’s old apartment, so I recognized the neighborhood. We got there a little late, but it was no big deal as we waltzed in, greeted half the family and met the entire bridal party. We also sat down and ate like ravenous beasts since airplane food is skimpy now, on top of being bad. Speedy and I made some friends with the bridal party and sections of the groomsmen, being that there weren’t very many of them sitting at the table with us. Either way, there was much wine and Cosmos to drink and chicken phyllo with Brie to eat, so yum. After many drunken toasts, we were released from the restaurant.

After dinner, Mom & Dad headed back to the farm, while we stayed in town with my cousin Boardrat and his girlfriend Dr. D. They took us over to the house where their dog was staying, so we hung out there for a little while and then all walked down the street to the bar next to the Hyatt. We drank a bit too much and I gave my number to this particularly attractive young man who declined to call me until I came home. Go figure. Anyway, we wandered back to Boardrat and Dr. D’s house to chill and sleep off the alcohol. Speedy and I ended up sharing the bed, which was not the disaster I was afraid of. It was also an insanely comfortable bed, which helped.

Mom & Dad picked us up the next morning and took me, Speedy and Boardrat out for breakfast. Dr. D had to run about 8,000 errands before showing up to the salon for pre-wedding prettifying. I am so glad that my cousin didn’t ask me to be in the wedding. After a filling and hangover-reducing breakfast, we dropped Boardrat back at his house and drove over to the shop to pick up a wedding present. It was a crane. No, really. A metal crane. But apparently, C-dawg really wanted it, so we bought it and made the proprietor wrap it or some semblance thereof. Fortunately, she was a friend of the family and it was thus far less painful.

After that purchase, we headed back to the farm to nap, since we did quite a bit of that on the trip. Speedy and I Sherpa-ed all of our stuff up the rather vertiginous stairs up to our beds and promptly passed out after turning on the air conditioner. After refreshing naps, we took turns showering, putting on makeup, drying hair, dressing, driving Dad bonkers and basically running around the house being girly as we got ready for the wedding. We finally got done and jumped in the car for the ride back to town.

The church was really pretty and well-decorated. The flowers were insane, as they must have cost a small fortune. The wedding party looked gorgeous, as did the bride. One-half of the ringbearer duo made it down the aisle while the other half panicked and got carried down by his grandpa. Either way, the service was beautiful, the vows were great and my little cousin is now a wife. Crazy.

We released butterflies instead of throwing birdseed. It sounds better in theory than it worked in practice. Let’s just say that butterflies are still bugs and bugs tend to wig people, especially when they move. In small boxes in my hand. Echhh.

The reception was held at the mansion owned by the University of Kentucky Alumni Association. Gorgeous place on 1,000 acres of Kentucky bluegrass. The food was awesome, the bar was open and loaded and we had a wonderful time. As previously mentioned, my parents got a little bourbon in them and we all tore up the dance floor to the dulcet tones of Nelly. Yeah, exactly.

Saturday was spent recovering, eating, eating more, hanging out with family, spraying egregious amounts of bug spray everywhere, fixing the keg, eating, talking, eating and having a wonderful time. Speedy and I stayed at the campfire down on the side of the property until 2:30am, when one of our cousins had the good sense to drive us back to my grandma’s old house, now the guest house.

Don’t ever drink bourbon at 1am before spending the entire day on a plane. Just don’t.

Quote of the Day: “I know I won’t be leaving here/with you.” Take Me Out, Franz Ferdinand

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