After many months of stressing (and a week that could only be described as Bridezilla week), Claudine and Dan got married last Saturday. Of course, even though you plan and plan and make a minute by minute schedule of how the day is going to go, something is not going to go right!

I got over to the house with li'l Benby at around 10 to pick up Marilyn so we could get our hair done. I had some time before my appointment so I decided to eat some breakfast first. Claudine was already at the salon and Fatima was waiting for the makeup lady to come.

Marilyn and I headed out to the salon, which was a place I had passed hundreds of times as I walked home from highschool. It was weird to finally walk into the place. I had my hair done up since it was going to be in the upper 90's that day. My stylist did an incredible job, pinning my hair up in tight little coils. Sorry, I don't have a good pic of it!

We got back to the house, where Marian and Fatima had just finished getting their makeup done. They looked glamorous in their smokey eyes and fake eyelashes. I wasn't going to get my makeup done because I knew that Ben would get fussy and I didn't want to pay for something that I could do just fine on my own. However, I was starting to get eyelash envy. I've only had fake eyelashes once before, but I don't remember when it was. I finally gave in and let the makeup lady put some one me. I was officially part of the fake eyelash club!

We then helped Claudine get ready into her amazingly long wedding dress. For such a tiny girl she had a such a long dress. She looked amazing once she had it on, and I got teary-eyed just looking at how beautiful she looked. We took a ton of pictures outside the house and the neighbors came out to watch the show and take pictures, too. We were right on schedule and we just had to wait for the limo to come get us - it was going to pick up the guys first from the hotel, drop them off at the church, then come pick us up.

My aunt then came and told me that the limo bus wasn't coming. I thought it was a joke, but it wasn't. Turns out that the limo broke down. We didn't have enough information to figure out when it broke down or if the guys ever got to the church. Claudine was outside taking pictures and we were scared to tell her, so we waited til she was done taking pictures. Surprisingly, she wasn't too upset - she told us she was more nervous and stressed about having to move to Michigan the next day.

Luckily, we lived only 5 minutes from the church and a lot of the relatives were still at the house and at Melanie's (who lives next door). We were able to get all the gals into cars and to the church with no problem. The bride rode a blue minivan to the church! Good thing Jerome has a nice white shiny car - it was used for the pictures of Claudine getting out of the car, which the photo framed to look like she was getting out of a white limo.

When we got to the church Dan called and gave more info - the limo had broke down on the highway, leaving them stranded. The company was going to send another limo, but the company was way on the south side. Dan was able to call a friend who was still at the hotel to come and pick him and the best man up. The poor rest of the court had to wait in the heat for the limo to come by.

Dan got to the church with enough time to spare, and the rest of the guys came just in time. The wedding started on time, no one fell when they walked down the aisle, and Claudine looked like a princess as she walked down the aisle with my father. I had to control my tears because I didn't want to be a blubbering mess in front of the whole congregation. I was so happy for her!

Fatima and I did a kick ass job in our train and veil fixing duties, even though some people said we were slacking in our job (screw you! :-P) It was hard work having to follow her around and fixing that whale of a train - we actually broke out in a sweat!

After the mass we took a bunch of pictures, and were there so long that we had to kick people out because the 5pm Sunday mass was going to start. The limo company had sent over a new limo (though it wasn't a limo party bus) and we were off to the reception!

It was lively in the limo, even though the alcohol in there wasn't cold and there wasn't enough champagne in there to quench our thirst (though there was enough beer, it was pretty warm). We made the best of it, even though were were hot and melting. Many toasts were made to the happy couple, and we had a great time watching people stick their heads out of the sunroof.

The reception hall looked beautiful. We hung out for a bit then took pictures outside. It was hot and our feet were killing us, but we managed to get through the picture taking. Those are going to be some interesting pictures!

Since the Chicago Wolves are one of the reasons why Claudine and Dan got together, they managed to get Skates, the team mascot, to come to the reception. It was AWESOME! I'm sure many of the guests had no idea why there was this big furry mascot at the reception, but it resulted in a lot of laughs as he surprised a lot of people and charmed the ladies. It was definitely something that you wouldn't expect at a wedding!

The reception was great. I was a little nervous about my speech. I had been thinking of the things that I wanted to say, but didn't actually put anything down on paper until we were in the limo on the way to the reception. I had asked John if he wrote his speech and he brought out a couple sheets of paper. I laughed at him that he wrote it all out. Fatima hadn't written her speech either, so we were writing it at the last minute. For me, I just put down some keywords - I had done speeches in high school and could never just read the whole speech of notecards, I worked better spouting off ideas from a couple keywords. So the time came for speeches and John went first. His speech kicked ass - it had the perfect mix of emotion, comedy and wit. I was impressed. Fatima has a cute speech where she talked about being like twins with Claudine and exposed the name of Claudine's first boyfriend. My turn came up and I was shaking a bit from nervousness. I started off with talking about how people always thought that Claudine was older than me, then how out of the three of us, she was the best - the smartest, the most loyal, the perfect child. Then I talked about how much Claudine hated Dan when they met, then how they finally fell in love and how as unlikely as it may seem at first, Claudine and Dan were perfect for each other and Dan will treat her like a queen. There was a lot in the middle of my speech because you know I like to talk, but I don't remember what else I said!

The food at the reception was delicious - herb chicken and medallions of beef in mushroom sauce. Marilyn and Tall Steve thought it was too undercooked but that's the way I love my meat. Turns out every one else thought it was great, too!

Maui had a great solo where he sang Jamie Foxx's "Heaven". The dancing was started off with the first dance, sung by Fatima - "Bless the Broken Road" which I posted below. It was such a touching moment to see Claudine and Dan looking lovingly into each other's eyes and to think about how their relationship had matured over the last several years. It was beautiful!

The father-daughter dance was a very touching moment. Fatima and I sat there wondering if my father was going to cry like he did at my wedding. We started to cry when we saw him and Claudine breaking down. Then they both motioned for us to join them. So Fatima, Benjamin and I joined them (I was holding Ben at the time). We all stood there on the dance floor, dancing together, laughing, crying, gasping for air, feeling love for each other in our little circle. A lot of the pain and sadness that had plagued us since our mother passed away seemed to lift from us. It was never spoken but I know it was in all our heads, that our mommy was there with us and sharing our moment. For that moment, for that one minute that we danced, things were the same as they were 3 years ago. *sigh* I guess we brought a few people to tears in the audience, too.

The mother-son dance was great. Dan's mother seemed to know all the words to the song that was played - "A Song for My Son", which is a beautiful song of advice from a mother to her son on his wedding day:

Be kind, be sweet
Be a gentle man
Care and share
And always be fair
And remember though you now
Have taken a wife
You will always be my son
My loving son

The rest of the reception was awesome. I took it as my duty to get people on the dancefloor and to dance the night away, even if it meant rolling around on the floor during "Shout". There were too many memorable moments to count, from when Dan did a lapdance for Claudine before he took off the garter, Jillian pulling people to help her pick flower petals off the floor only to throw them up in the air, dance battles, the popularity of the chocolate fountain, and Dan's dance to "At the Carwash". Good times! You know it's a great wedding when the lights are turned on but there's still a ton of people left over wanting to party. From what I've heard, they headed out to the hotel bar and partied some more. I was exhausted and I had little Ben to take care of so I headed home.

It's been a crazy week, and I know Claudine has been really stressed out about the wedding and moving to Michigan. She worked so hard on the wedding, I'm happy that she was able to really enjoy the day even with the little mishaps here and there. It was an amazing day and everyone had an awesome time. It couldn't make me happier to see her live the happiest day of her life, sharing it with her soulmate.

Posted by Yano at June 20, 2006 10:00 AM

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