The Wedding and Reception

 Alyse’s wedding went pretty well.  Brad and Joe were ushers and it was funny to see them unroll the runner.  They were far too tall for the rope they had to hold on to and the aisle was too narrow for them to do it gracefully, it gave me a little chuckle.  The kids walked down the aisle no problem.  Joel tried to go all the way up front passed Brandon.  Brandon pointed him to the pew where he was supposed to sit.  Cecilia no longer was wearing her hair bows or shoes when she walked down the aisle, but she happily made it all the way down.  The other flower girl didn’t want to walk all the way once she saw the people.  Then Alyse and my dad walked down the aisle and Brandon teared up and Kasi teared up looking at Brandon tearing up.

During the wedding Joel sat nicely with Ali and Brad.  Cecilia stood next to me or rolled on the little bench you could kneel on near the alter.  She was not about to sit still.  At one point she left me to check on Joel, but she came right back.  As we all walked out of the church the lady who was in charge of weddings at the church told us to get a new car for the bride and groom to drive away in because the limo was broke down and the replacement was there yet!  Brad and Joe went and grabbed our car, moved car seats and brushed a few of the broken pretzels from the day before off the floor.  They threw a few decorations on the car and called it a day.  Brandon and Alyse were a bit surprised when they ran out of the church and saw our car with Joe and Brad ready to drive them around, but they went for it.

While the bridal party was getting pictures Brad and Ali took the kids to the reception.  Joel fell asleep and Ali sat in the car with him.  When the bridal party was announced we quickly had to get Joel out of the car, run him to the bathroom and then Brad carried him down the stairs as he and Brad were announced.  I carried Cecilia because she was barely awake. 

My dad and Jill did an awesome job on their toasts!  I was very impressed!  The venue was beautiful and we had a great time at the reception.  A few things happened that I didn’t expect.  I went to use one of the upstairs bathrooms because I didn’t want to stand in line at the main bathroom and on my way I walked past an Elvis impersonator.  I thought to myself “I haven’t been drinking and I am pretty sure that was Elvis!” It was!  He sang a few songs and got everybody out on the dance floor!  The kids had a lot of fun and Vincent and Cecilia crashed on the floor after a lot of dancing.  But not before getting a couple pictures in the photo booth.  I ended up laying them up by the head table on the carpet and covering them with tux jackets from my dad and Brad.  They were exhausted.  Joel on the other hand danced all night with family, friends, and people he didn’t even know.  He didn’t care!  He was having fun and he looked adorable in his tux!  He stayed awake until we got back to the hotel around midnight.  It was a great night and we could not have managed it all and still had fun without the help of our wonderful babysitter Ali.  She was such a blessing to have along with us!