Wedding Rehearsal

Bright and early Friday morning we all got up for the WEDDING REHEARSAL. This is where everyone takes a deep breath and thinks...jeez, it's really happening! Off we went to Sunnyside where we would meet up with the cast and crew of the wedding itself. Everyone was either driving up from Reno (Or like some, had either just flown in from Vegas, driven from Vegas or flown in from Colorado, Utah, and Wyoming!) and, boy, was it getting warm outside! The forecast was for gorgeous sunny HOT weather. We met with the minister, "Just call me Chip".

At first he seemed ok.

Cue the dramatic music.

Our wedding coordinators, Jessyca and Kristen were there with the timed run down for the ceremony and was explaining it to people. But Just-call-me-Chip wouldn't have anything to do with it. And he wouldn't have anything to do with the coordinators. I thought that it and he were rude. It was his ceremony, people, and it would be his way. Including the fact that the groomsmen would not walk the bridesmaids down the middle aisle. "It's better this way. I've done a lot of weddings and this works for me." Just-call-me-Chip didn't bring the vows that McKenna and Dave had selected from his own pamphlet. Thankfully, I had brought everything I had concerning the wedding with me and I had a copy of the vows...jeez. Finally it got down to Jessyca and Kristen standing there helpless while Just-call-me-Chip ran the show. He was not listening to anyone and was at a point dictactic. I finally called McKenna over and explained to her that her wishes for the look of her wedding was not happening and if she wanted it, she and Dave (the clients) needed to pull Just-call-me-Chip over and explain the facts of life to him. They did and Chip acquiesced to the look. He was still off-putting in how he spoke to people but as long as Kenna and Dave were happy, I shut the hell up.

Here we also met for the first time, Dave's family; Dee, Bob, Courtney, Maria, Jerome, and all the kids. We had met his middle brother, Craig, before when he was in town. They are all wonderful people and McKenna is so lucky to call them her in-laws and to have them in her life. Believe me when I say this, it makes all the difference in the world if your in-laws are great people as opposed to some of the horror stories we've all heard about. I kept trying to figure out who Dave looks like in his parents....I'm thinking Bob now but with his mom's smile.

Jessyca and Kristen got everyone lined up as per McKenna's wishes and down the aisle they came:

Christopher and Lindsay,

Ashley and Jerome,

Shaina and Craig,

Erin and Jeremy,

and finally Meredith and Leo.

(the girls would look different tomorrow in their bubblegum dresses!)

And now, the two that made me lose it AGAIN that day:

This was a moment that you wonder about in your head when you're raising a little girl...watching her father walk her down the aisle and how you would feel about it at the time.

I was so very happy for her and for him....words escape me to describe it to you. My heart was full.

And then? Then Bob came over to me, where we both teared up looking at each other and remembering our own wedding.