I, Jen, take you, Doug... (part 2)

And onto Saturday.

I had to be at Pelusi's at 11 to get my hair and makeup done. I've never had my makeup done before, but since I have no idea how to recreate eyebrows, I wanted to have a professional do it. 2 hours later and I looked a little funny - tons of makeup, classy Edwardian updo, and jeans and a tshirt. We went back to the Fridy's, where there were 5 bridesmaids, 4 significant others, my in-laws, 2 dogs, 1 cat, and a photographer. Needless to say, "chaos" has never been so well-defined for me. But we all got dressed and all gussied up and looked great!


And then there's the ceremony. Luckily, I rode to the wedding with Lisa and Ian (Jen's high school friend and her husband) and Lisa read me the speech she had written. I almost cried in the car, so I was prepared at the wedding. Joe read a sonnet he had written for the occasion and when he lost it during the reading, so did I. Tears just poured down my cheeks for the rest of the ceremony and even a bit afterwards. My favorite part was during their vows when they said "you are my favorite and my best". This is something that I tell JP on a regular basis, and it was nice to know that the same exact sentiment is voiced by other people in love.


So, the reception. Bryan gave a lovely toast (why are grown men crying just so touching?) and Jess and Jaime (another bridesmaid) presented Doug and Jen with their gift from all their friends - we bought them their honeymoon to Amsterdam. Airfare, a cute loft apartment for the week, and about $500 spending cash. They were overwhelmed and wonderfully excited about it.

The rest of the evening was spent eating, drinking, and being merry.

First of all - the food. It was amazing. Super delicious, not your average wedding fare. I'm fairly certain that my father didn't realize the seitan fajitas weren't actually meat. My brother and all the other vegetarians could eat 90% of the food. Everything was labeled as 'vegan' or 'vegetarian' to help everyone out, and when Ian needed to ask the caterer about what had nuts in it, she told him the only thing with nuts in it was the salad, because Jen had called them to make sure nuts were not featured heavily because of his allergy. The caterers were all great - really helpful when the cupcake lady was over an hour late, lost in Leechburg and without her cell phone. But she did arrive eventually, and we all got to eat Dozen cupcakes instead of wedding cake. Yay!

And the drinking. Like at my wedding, my father-in-law insisted on being in charge of the booze. He and JP tasted wines and ordered cases of them. They pored over the beer list every chance they got and had expert Jess advice to rely on as well. He even got a case of Rodenbach Red for me, one of my newest beer discoveries. Unfortunately, everyone else loved the Rodenbach as well. After I had downed my second and there was no more to be had, I decided to switch to champagne. After I consumed the rest of our table's bottle left over from the toast, I took to stealing the half empty bottles from other tables. I spent the rest of the evening walking around with a bottle of champagne, drinking directly from it.


Since much of our guest list overlapped from our wedding, I spent a lot of the evening wandering around to talk to various co-workers of my father-in-law. They are all some of the coolest adults I have ever met. I spent the rest of the night getting to know my brother's date (who is not a "date" date, but a really good friend from out of town) and talking to Jen's friends. I spent a fair amount of time talking to Héctor, who used to run the gallery where Jen has had several shows (one of which I went to KC to see last year). He is also an artist and started telling me about the comic series he has been working on, Screamland. Check it out on MySpace here, and here is a really great interview with Héctor and Harold that includes some good images. So, why am I plugging a comic book series in the middle of my blog entry about Jen's wedding (you mean, besides the fact that Héctor is amazingly talented and we wish him luck in all he does)? Because Héctor needed a girl about to be attacked by Dracula, cowering in a hallway. A 30's starlet type, he said. And I fit the bill. So we did a mini photo shoot and I'm going to be in one of the upcoming issues! My second 15 minutes of mini-fame!

There were many interesting people there, but none moreso than this person I call "scrunchie guy". I am very intrigued by his choice of hair, as I usually have this same hair while washing my face. At least the scrunchies matched the wedding colors!


Anyways...it was finally time to leave and we managed to get lost on the way to the after party, with 2 other cars following us. Luckily, Erik was one of them and he has a GPS, so we were golden. We all hung out in the hotel for a few hours and then JP, Bryan, Jen, and I all came back home. They had a 5:45 am train to catch, and I needed some sleep.

Overall, I have to say it was quite the lovely time. Not being wasted and making as ass out of myself was great, too! Who knew you could drink in moderation and still have a blast?

Rock on, Jen and Doug, rock on.

(all photographs by Mary Jansen, except for scrunchie guy. He is from a random McDonald relative/friend.)