Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Little Brother Gets Married!!

On March 20th my "little" brother committed to love, honor and cherish his now wife. We left for PA on Thursday, driving all day to arrive at my childhood home. Upon unpacking the car we realized that Hubby had forgotten to put the garment bag with our clothes for the wedding in it in the car.

So Friday, we ran errands (ie finding new clothes and shoes) and then drove to the hotel where the ceremony and reception would take place. I learned that I was to decorate for the ceremony (Uh, yeah, thanks for the notice Little Brother), and then after the rehearsal we went to a humongous dinner buffet. HUMONGOUS!!! We ate, getting to know some of the bride-to-be's family, and then we drove back to the house.

Saturday morning we woke, packed, ate breakfast, and then my Mom and I ran errands. First we went to Jo-Ann Fabrics, and then we went to the memorial gardens to visit with my Pop. Then it was a quick stop at Target to pick up the Twilight: New Moon dvd (one for me and one for my soon-to-be new sister-in-law). Then we quickly and efficiently got to the house, waited about 5 minutes for my Mom's wedding plus one Steffi to arrive, and we all began the 45 minute drive to the hotel. We arrived around noon to check-in early and so I could help decorate. Hubby played with the boys in the indoor pool. I was pleasantly surprised to find that my sister and her wedding buddy Amber had tackled the ceremony venue earlier (before they headed out for some wedding duds). I headed to the room where the reception was to be held and helped(setting the tables, votives, cd favors, candy favors, etc).

Helping out kept me busy until shortly before the cocktail reception began. I quickly showered and fixed my hair and headed to the private reception...


We enjoyed wine, cheese, crudites along with passed sausage stuffed mushrooms (I don't remember what the other passed selection was, but I had 4 of those mushrooms, they were fabulous). I had 2 glasses of wine during the reception which was a good thing. Because when my brother came down looking all "damper" (damper=dapper, the substitution is a family joke)...standing with the four of us where there should have been five...well, we may have looked good on the outside, but Pop not being there was hard. HARD. What I did try to think about was that Pop had been able to meet Kaitlyn. Know her...hell, he even got her name right, which, if you knew my Pop, you knew that meant he cared enough to remember. I thought of that, thought of what he'd be saying had he been there, and it made it a little easier...not much, but just enough.



And for as hard as it was, it was joyful to watch my brother glow with happiness. He was so happy you could feel it bouncing off of him. His attention to small wedding details amazed me, his desire to put a smile on his bride's face filled me with sisterly pride.

The kids (Little Man, the best man's daughter

Jenny, and my nephew sitting here) behaved

and had a good time celebrating.


The ceremony was beautiful, personal...lovely. To watch my brother, who has struggled with finding happiness so happy, well, it made me love Kaitlyn in that moment for making him that happy.

















The bride with her daughter, my
brother and nephew.




We enjoyed a sit-down dinner, dancing and cake. The kids danced like it was going out of style (I may share some video of Little Man dancing in another post, EVERYONE thought he was great). We were all wowed by the bride and groom's first dance...they looked so good gliding around the floor. Who would have guessed they had learned less than a week before the wedding?

The next morning we had breakfast before the happy couple headed to a honeymoon in Atlantic City. We hit the road around noon, and my Mom headed home with my nephew and new niece. My sister and her friend followed and then headed on to CT before my sister headed back to FL. We got home after 10 PM that night, and it was rough getting to work for 7AM the next morning (and especially hard for Little Man to get up after going to bed so late) but we were so happy to be there. So happy to be a part of it. So happy for them both.

3 comments:

Connie said...

I love the outfit you wore at the wedding..beautiful. It looks like you all had a grand time!

Anonymous said...

I think we all looked good! Your synopsis of the event summed it up just right..it was great to see the groom beaming with happiness. As the proud Mother of the groom...I was happy to be with all my family..for such a joyous occasion. We all needed that after a long rough spell.

Sinéad said...

Your outfit was lovely! You sure can shop well under pressure!
It looks like everyone had a great day.