Mawwiage. Mawwiage is what bwings us togever today. (part 1)

Many months, hundreds of dollars, hours of work, and 5 blisters later, it's done. Kathleen is married now.

On Friday, I drove up to State College to start my responsibilities for the wedding weekend. The drive sucked (does anyone remember a time in which there wasn't massive construction on 22?) and took about an hour longer than expected. This left me with enough time to check into the hotel, change into my dress, and get down to the lobby to meet everyone else and go to rehearsal. Rehearsal was semi-chaotic, but we figured things out and went to dinner. Dinner was uneventful, but involved a fair amount of drinking. Drinking always leads to more drinking, so we all decided to head back to the hotel and meet at the Mad Mex that is in the lobby. This is when things got interesting.

At this point, we had all the bridesmaids, 2 groomsmen (brothers of the bride), an uncle, a cousin, the father of the bride, various significant others, and the bride. I spent most of my time at Mad Mex talking to Kathleen's uncle, Fritz, about business models of for-profit vs. non-profits. Even when inebriated, my inner geek cannot help but shine through. At one point Fritz looked at me and said, "If I'm boring the hell out of you, just tell me." I think he was surprised when I reassured him that I was not bored in the slightest. Intelligently enough, the bride left around 10:30 and the rest of us decided to continue to the Saloon, where I was promised pitchers full of girly drinks.

I don't believe in paying a cover to get into a bar in which I then pay money to drink. I find it to be ridiculous and insulting. I don't believe in waiting in line to do this, either. We had to do both at the Saloon, and I had to go along with the crowd. The pitchers of girly drinks were beyond my expectations. I watched the guy grab 3 bottles of liquor and just start to dump them in...a couple blasts of soda/juice and we were set. I drank a glass and a half of this and danced my ass off before I realized I was going to be in bad shape if I didn't get myself back to bed soon. I tried to walk myself home, but was flatly denied and told an awful story of some girl who disappeared and was never found. So Jon (Kathleen's brother) and Dawn (a bridesmaid) walked me back. Jon got me ice once we got back to my room and once I convinced them I could make it on my own, they left. I drunk dialed Josh and have no idea what I said or what we talked about. Then I called JP and repeated the same scenario. I fell asleep.

We needed to meet for breakfast around 10, and I woke up at 8:45 unable to fall back asleep, but decently hungover. I managed to shower and get myself downstairs to meet everyone, who was in even worse shape. They had closed the bars. Breakfast was uneventful, followed by the rest of the bridesmaids getting their hair done. Since I wasn't, I hung out for a moment at the salon. Long enough for Kathleen to tell us that she hadn't written her vows yet. Her cousin Brooke looks at her agape, and I purposely keep my face expressionless. Kathleen looks at me and says, "Brooke, look at Freya. That's what I need - the calm face."

So I go back to the hotel to get ready. Kathleen called me frantic, Brooke needed something from WalMart, could I go? Of course! I manage to also buy myself an adorable Guinness tote...and some cava on the way back to try to ease myself back into drinking. After drinking half the bottle, it was time to meet everyone to go get ready in Kathleen's mom's room. I'm walking out to Anne's (another bridesmaid) car, holding my dress and all my other crap. Anne looks at me, stricken. I asked her what was wrong, and she told me her dress was a different color.

?!?!?!

Victorian lilac, right? she asks. Lilac, I say. Just lilac. Kathleen is watching this whole scene unfold, and I'm trying to keep 'calm face'. Nothing we can do about it now. At least Victorian lilac is a shade of purple. It's not like her dress was yellow or anything.

Getting ready was fairly easy. Since Kathleen's mom was staying in a shmancy hotel, I managed to convince dining services to send us up champagne flutes and a platter for all the cheese and crackers I bought. So we munched and drank and put on makeup and dresses and all that. Time to go!