Friday - Pre-Wedding Antics

The week began with furry and ended in joy. While you read about my moms surgery; which went well and she recovered in time, the fridge that was dead and then replaced with a new, pretty one and you undoubtedly heard about the horrific tornado that swept through my beloved college town. What you haven't heard about is all the fun, hectic craziness, laughter and even exotic animals that started off our wedding weekend. So with that, now that you're on the seat of your chair ... right?! ... I give you my view on what happened as my final day and hours as Ms. Evans and my transition to Mrs. Morris. Sit back, relax, get some coffee (or wine) and enjoy the entertainment

Pre-Rehearsal/Rehearsal Dinner

Little favor boxes with chocolate for the luncheon

Friday morning started bright and early as I headed to my favorite workout spot, Blast900 to get one last good workout in before I dawned the big white  ivory dress on Saturday. Post workout and what seemed like half a gallon of chocolate milk, soy of course, I got showered up and ready for my bridesmaid luncheon at Swan Coach House.  My bridesmaids, flower girl, mother and (now) MIL along with my college BFF and wrangler enjoyed a very southern ladies lunch, fully equipped with swan pie and frozen fruit cocktail. While we were there I gave our the gifts I've had stashed at my parents house for months! Each girl got a basket of goodies, somehow that all developed the kitchen/cooking theme and a few personal things/inside jokes. I was happy to finally give them out because I'm not one for keeping secrets. Post lunch, we headed to pick up my pretty dress from it's final press and to get the girls dresses steamed. By this point it was mid-day and my mood was good. The down spiral of good happened shortly after we left on our way to the hotel.

ladies who lunch ... Morris Wedding style

Brit and Kerri with their aprons!

freakout/issue #1

The conversation went something like this:

Hubby: "Hey, so um, Pastor Britt called...he can't make the rehearsal tonight, someone at the church died"

Bridezilla: "WTF. Are you kidding me?! Is this someone who attends the church or is like a Deacon?"

Hubby: "unsure, he said he'll communicate and be ready to go on Saturday"

Bridezilla: "Oh, great. Just what I need. Isn't this what he has associate pastors for?!"

Now, before you go and judge me here on my reaction, let me just preface this with the fact that I think that a pastor/whomever is performing the ceremony is a KEY PART to the rehearsal for a wedding. I mean gracious, he's the master of ceremony for Pete's sake (who's Pete anyways?!). With having a reading and a unique twist to the "unity candle" I needed him there to feel confident about what would take place Saturday. Needless to say, he didn't show and (thankfully) things went off without a hitch on Saturday. Seems as if he did know what he was doing and that the Big Man upstairs was looking down on us.

Thank God Lauren stopped at the store and stocked our ... sink?!

freakout/issue #2

On top of the pastor now not attending the rehearsal, Mike informed me, due to lack of clarification, that the slideshow will also not be working/able to show at the dinner. Needless to say, I wasn't happy. Thank God Lauren brought wine and champagne to the hotel room or I think someone would have gotten hurt. On the upside, the slideshow was able to also go off without a hitch after they (the people at 173 Carlyle and Mike) got some clarification. Again, someone upstairs was looking down! 

groomsmen/ushers with their coolers

Rehearsal/Rehearsal DinnerRehearsal at Flint Hill went pretty good. Most of our attendants have been in weddings before so it went pretty smooth (minus the no-show of the pastor). Thankfully, our director set up meeting for our reader and pastor to make a game plan. Post Rehearsal, we headed on over to the 173 Carlyle House to enjoy some dinner, drinks, laughs and a slideshow full of embarrassing photos! The food was good and everyone was having a jolly time. It was great to see all of the Morris clan as well as some of my extended family and friends! The slideshow was great and got some good laughs (sidenote: if i can load it on youtube and send the link, I will). Once the last of the beer and wine were drank and the dessert was gone, it was time to head back to the hotel...which is where the crazy part of the weekend began.

with my lovely friends

last night before husband and wife! 

my side of the family

Post Rehearsal Dinner
Mike and I said our goodbye's and everyone went their separate ways. The girls jumped in the cars and headed back to the hotel for the night. After a quick wardrobe change and plan to meet at the hotel lobby bar, the nights plans were looking good. Once at the bar, sweet Larry (a groomsman), ordered a round of shots and 3 bottles of wine (oy, can you say headache). The bridesmaids, Larry and my sweet friend Alison who flew all the way from LA hung out in the lobby hotel bar. Not only were the guests of our wedding staying at the hotel, so were some exotic pets. Yep, you read that right. There was a pet convention going on at the hotel and you know I had to get some mindshare on this.

First off, we met Gidget. A sweet and sleepy little pup who not only had on a designer dress, but also a 3-strand pearl necklace. People. I can't make this stuff up. She was being pushed in her personal doggie stroller to which her 'mother' told me was just for her and that's why it's such a lovely pink.

with Gidget

in her stroller

Also at the pet party were the owners of a little monkey. I kid you not. It was then my mission to find this furry exotic thing and meet it. And so I did. Right after I got my hair and makeup done the next day. Sidenote, this is not me in the photo with the Monkey, whose name is Punky.

totally crazy, right!?

Now that was entertainment enough, right? Wrong. A few minutes later after most of the wine had been guzzled and the shots passed round, we get a phone call from the front desk telling us that our white car had blown up. Again, I wish I could fabricate this stuff. They proceeded to tell me that they couldn't identify the car but that we needed to come down. I'll have you know that car was 100% identifiable as a BMW which nobody that was with us had. While the hotel was certain they called Mr. Jones in my room block, they weren't quite certain how to dial a phone. You see, we were in room 412. Mr. Jones, poor guy lost his car, was in 421.

Needless to say, we finally got in bed right around midnight. Us girls need our beauty sleep! It was a pretty eventful day before our wedding, I promise to post about our actual wedding and honeymoon in just a bit!