ResQgeek

I considered writing only about the Big Day but so much other fun stuff happened (and I've been so bad about in updating) that I figure I might as well dump it all into one big post.

Jason's Bachelor Party

Shortly after Jason proposed, Eick told me that he didn't care if Clinton was best man, but he was calling dibs on the bachelor party. And he sure did deliver. Jason was even starting to stress a little bit because he had no idea what to expect. First off, while Jason knew that I was aware of what was being planned, he didn't know I was actually going to be part of it. Eick had asked everyone to come in costume (with no more specifics - he was actually looking forward to a mishmash of genres, which he got) and I thought maybe I could wear my old renaissance faire garb, but I needed an excuse to pull it out of storage to try it on.

Cue Sophia sneakery! The Wednesday before the party, she came over so we could go out to dinner (which we did), pick up some party supplies at Costco (which we didn't mention to Jason), and then came back to my place for Sophia to try on my garb so she'd have something to wear to faire a month later. This last bit was part of the ruse so I had an excuse to get the garb out, but as it happened, it doesn't fit me anymore but it does fit Sophia so I gave it to her after all. (She gleefully wore it to faire and looked great.)

The day of the party, Robbie was a little late picking up Jason for breakfast, so I had to scramble to get dressed and down to the venue (Eick had rented out a big room at a local community center). We have a lot of cosplay stuff at our house so I ended up wearing the shift from my garb, a random brown Jedi-esque robe, and a plush replica of the ram's horn hat worn by Tim the Enchanter in Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

The party was a live-action D&D session with Jason as the hero (Jason the Dong Slayer, a barbarian), his bride and groomsmen as the adventuring party (I was a druid healer, Clinton was some kind of mage, and Robbie was a vampire bard who played an Otomatone), and a bunch of friends played assorted foes. We had so much fun, rolling huge foam dice and melodramatically acting out the combat. Afterwards, the groomsmen took Jason out to dinner at Texas de Brazil and games at Dave & Buster's, while I went home and collapsed. :)

My Bachelorette Party

The day before the Big Day, Sophia drove Rebecca and me to Sixty Vines, a lovely wine bar in Reston, where I had a scrumptious lunch with Sophia, Rebecca, Ixy, Six, Kate, Beth, Martie, and Lori - and of course everyone got along famously, despite many of then having never met before.

I took this opportunity to give my bridesmaids their gifts: charm bracelets I'd made while visiting Rebecca. I made one for each bridesmaid, plus one for myself and one for Jason. The charms included antique keys (because Jason and I both love them), dice (for all the boardgames and RPGs we play), birthstone charms shaped like cat heads (thank goodness everybody was born in a different month!), one of the same iridescent beads that made up the necklace I wore, luck symbols (because Jason loves luck symbols and also we're just crazy lucky), and dinosaurs (because dinosaurs). As I told them, I'd love them to wear them at the wedding, but otherwise they're just meant as keepsakes.

The bracelets were beautiful but turned out to be rather impractical, as they kept catching on everything. I ended up taking mine off shortly after the ceremony because it had attached itself to my dress just below my left breast. So tacky!

After we said our goodbyes at Sixty Vines, Sophia drove Rebecca and me to the airport to pick up Mom. A quick stop by my house to say hello, then Sophia continued her role as Uber driver and drove Mom and me to chorus! It was unfortunately not at our normal place (and we didn't have risers), but we still had a great time.

Preparations

Jason and I took the entire week of the wedding off of work, which was definitely The Right Thing To Do. Our wedding colors were blue and gray (our respective favorite colors) so when we got pedicures the weekend prior, he got gray and I got blue. I also got a manicure - a sparkly dark blue appropriately named Electric Slide.

We had always planned on having Lego flowers for the centerpieces but had not given a lot of thought to vases, figuring we couldn't really decide that until we knew how many tables we would have and thus how many vases. Coincidentally, Sophia joined Beth and Jeanine in cleaning out the chorus storage unit (the ceiling had fallen in, apparently?!) and discovered a box of vases that were perfect for our needs. Jason had to do a big of Lego maneuvering in order to secure the flowers in the vases, since they were quite top-heavy, then we grabbed a bunch of assorted bricks from our stash to fill the vases the rest of the way. They looked lovely!

Another Lego-related preparation was sorting Jason's minifig collection. He bought several display cases to hang on the wall, which we filled shockingly fast (he loves minifigs, what can I say?), but the process also helped him identify duplicates or older/crappier versions or other minifigs that could be dismantled for the parts bins. From those bins we separated out heads, torsos, legs, hair, and hats. Each wedding guest received a base plate with their name on it and were encouraged to create their own minifig from our parts for our guestbook (another, smaller display case). This may have been the best part of the wedding for a lot of our guests - even the venue staff had fun playing with Lego!

The day of the ceremony started somewhat early - we met up with Eick, Robbie, and Sophia at the venue in the morning but managed to get everything set up in short order. This included putting together the table toppers (that is, assembling the sign holders and inserting the sheets), which I opted for instead of programs, since it meant printing a couple dozen copies instead of 80. The sheet included the order of ceremonies, cast of characters (which my mom especially appreciated, since it listed all the assorted parental figures and how they were related to us - a complicated list in Jason's case), and things to do. My brother Jason gave me a little grief about the extensive to-do list for the guests but I think most folks enjoyed it. After all, it was just making minifigs, taking photos, using the photobooth, writing in the scrapbook in the foyer, helping themselves to the brick flowers on their tables, and (please!) not stealing the vases. I mean, we didn't want folks to be bored!

We had a little time to kill before lunch and the venue gave us free use of some golf carts, so we tooled around in those for a bit. The cart Elliott and I got apparently had more pickup than the others, and he had an absolute ball zooming up and down the paths. Then we joined Mom and Rebecca at Cheesecake Factory for what was supposed to be a reasonably quick lunch, but the service was so slow we ended up having to rush home to shower and head back.

Beth did my hair and makeup and made me look just radiant. My bridesmaids were all in attendance as well, keeping me company and just generally having fun. Jen - one of my oldest friends - also drove out from Illinois just for my wedding, which meant a whole lot to me. And of course she got along great with everybody, because I have all the very best people as friends. ❤

The Ceremony

The wedding party walked in to an instrumental version of "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel (or possibly just the intro on loop, because I swear more happens in that song than I heard). I walked down the aisle to "Head Over Heels" by Tears for Fears. This was Jason's pick; he says it was playing over the speakers at Target when he saw me and first realized he was in love with me. (Have I mentioned lately that I have the cutest husband? Because I have the cutest husband.)

The recessional song was "Oh Yeah" by Yello, followed by a record scratch and then "Get Ready For This" by 2 Unlimited. The first song was supposed to continue until the entire wedding party had gotten to the lobby (since the ceremony and reception were all in the same room), but the DJ jumped the gun and switched the music right as Jason and I got to the end of the hall. The rest of the wedding party had barely started moving! So we just ran back into the hall, high fives and hugs all around. Then I pulled over a chair for Jason to sit, called the rest of my quartet up, and sang "Head Over Feet" by Alanis Morrisette to him. I'd gotten it arranged just for my quartet as a surprise for Jason.

On the schedule, this period was labeled "speeches." No one except Sophia had said they were planning to say anything - all three groomsmen, when asked, replied in the same way: "No but I will if you want me to" - but I needed something in the program to cover the surprise quartet performance. Sophia jokingly groused about having to follow the song, so Jason made a quick speech to thank everyone for coming, then opened up the floor. No matter what she claims, Sophia gave a very sweet toast. Then, unexpectedly, all three groomsmen got up and spoke, one at a time. And Six, who had specifically said she did not want to give a speech, said a few words. Even Elliott and Clinton's daughter Mara Faye got up to speak! Jason and I both got a little choked up by all the sweetness.

The Reception

Dinner was a buffet that was generally enjoyed by all. Jason and I even got a few bites at our table, which was weirdly way off away from everybody else. At one point [brother] Jason and Kris picked up their plates and chairs and sat at our table with us. It was great.

After dinner we took a bunch of pictures, then it was time to cut the cake! Amphora did a great job with our cake, which was shaped like a stack of books with special meaning to us: Dungeon Crawler Carl, Cold Sassy Tree, and The Princess Bride. And it was delicious. While the cake was whisked away to the back to be plated, Jason and I had our first dance: "I Don't Know What We're Talking About" by NSP. We sang along and acted out the story of a man panicking on a first date that's going well until he realizes he's completely spaced out and lost track of the conversation. We even had props to go along with some of the lyrics - Clinton held up a penguin in a costume; pterodactyls on the table toppers to represent Lamar; assorted vampire stickers on the tables and a life-size cardboard standup of Matt Berry as Laszlo for "how many Draculas are hiding in this room;" even some minor choreography for "I'd make an awesome cop if I could stop committing crimes" and my early exit from the room so Jason could lip-synch the last lines alone: "Anyway, why don't you and I go back to my place and, uh, I see you left at some point."

I simply adore that Jason is just as much of a ham as I am.

From then on, it was a free-for-all in terms of activities. The photobooth was a hit, as were Princess Donut and Mongo. (They were on our invitation; of course they were going to be at the wedding!) There was a decent amount of dancing, particularly by BookCrossers. Eick and Jason did an amazing job dancing to "Tunak Tunak Tun". Jen got some funny footage of Jason and I dancing to "You Spin Me Right Round" and doing the stupid finger-shake move from the music video.

At the end of the night, lots of folks helped clean up and load cars, so we made short work of everything despite the happy couple being utterly exhausted. Jason went inside to make one final pass while Jen, Sophia, and I chatted in the parking lot. Jen asked if we got his attention by meowing, which is pretty accurate, since "Rau" sounds a whole lot like what a cat says. He took a lot longer than we expected, but it turned out he took the time to shake every single venue worker's hand to thank them personally. Which is just quintessentially Jason.

All in all, a perfect day.