Monday, March 16, 2009

Mr. & Mrs


It's finally over and they're married! Chelsea and Brennan said their vows on March 14, 2009 at 4pm.

My mom, sister and I started working on the decorating and food on Friday right after we got the call that the cala lillies didn't arrive. We took a quick trip to Sam's Club and were able to get some beautiful cream roses and white daisy. It wasn't what she'd planned, but they were very pretty.

We were able to get the sanctuary decorated and the punch made and in the freezer before the rehearsal started at 7pm.

Have you ever known someone who just carries stress and tension into a room with them? That would be Brennan's sister, Heather.

Let me give you a little background on Heather. She is 25 years old (2 years older than Brennan). Their mother died about 6 years ago, and their father has never remarried. Heather has now taken the role of the mother. When Chelsea and Brennan started dating 4 years ago, Brennan asked me if I could help his sister find a job, since I'm in the staffing business. So, it just happened that our Tulsa branch needed a receptionist for a temp position and I sent her there to fill in, a few months later she was hired as an admin. We've always gotten along okay I thought, until Hayden was born and that was when she decided she was in charge of everything.

So, back to my story...Heather shows up at the rehearsal and everyone is supposed to pay attention to her. I just tried to ignore her and get on with the business that we were there to take care of. At the rehearsal dinner, she asked me what time I was going to get to the church and I told her I had to be there at 9am to finish decorating for the reception. (I couldn't do it after the rehearsal because AA meeting in that room and I didn't want to take the chance of someone spilling coffee on a tablecloth). She told me she would be there at 9am...I quickly told her she didn't have to help us, if she could just pick up the cake at 11 and the sandwichs at 1pm that would be great. Guess what? She showed up at 9am and took over. I pissed her off a couple of times and then my mom pissed her off because she didn't like what we were already doing. Then out of the blue she says she wants a bouquet for her grandpa to carry, in memory of his late wife and she wants to carry a bouquet in memory of her mother. We didn't plan on this and with all the problems we'd already had with the flowers I was a little irritated. She wanted me to take flowers aways from Chelsea's bouquet so she could have flowers for the two bouquets that she requested. It was a nice thought, but it felt like she was trying to make the whole wedding about her mother and not about Chelsea and Brennan and the new life they are starting. But Chelsea decided to run to Wal-Mart and get a couple of bouquets of yellow tulips to keep the peace.

Chelsea got to the church around 1:30 to start getting her hair and makeup done. She was calm and relaxed and they were having a good time getting ready. Heather had left the church around 1:30 to go and take a shower and get ready. But at 3:00 Heather comes blasting into the dressing room wearing sweats and trying to get her daughter, Avery (the flower girl) dressed. I left the room to go get my sister (the photographer) to take pictures of them getting ready and Chelsea getting her dress on. We walked into the dressing room and Heather is standing in the middle of the room stark naked. We are trying to get pictures of Chelsea and keep the naked girl's reflection out of the pictures. That was about the time Chelsea started stressing and the tears started flowing.

The wedding coordinator (she tells you where to stand and when to walk) had the bride's family ready to go to the parlor and wait to be seat. Suddenly I see Heather hurrying around the corner with Hayden and he's screaming his head off. I went to him and she turned him away from me. He was reaching for me and she didn't want me to take him because she wanted him to walk down the aisle with Avery. Ok, that would have been a great idea and he enjoyed walking with her during the rehearsal and picking up the flower petals that she was dropping. But now it was a different story, he didn't want anything to do with anyone there except me or his grandpa. I took him from her and got him calmed down and walked down the aisle with him and my son Davy.

The wedding started and it was so pretty. They had made a slideshow of their lives. It started out with me holding Chelsea just minutes after she was born and went through pictures of her life, then it show pictures of Brennan's life, their lives together and then pictures of their family with Hayden. It was so touching, I cried through the entire thing. Then the preacher pronounced them husband and wife and I started bawling again.

After the wedding, we went back into the sanctuary to recreate some of the wedding pictures that we weren't able to get during the actual ceremony and that was when Heather told my sister that she wanted a picture of her family and Hayden but she didn't want Chelsea in the picture. What the hell is that about? This girl is a psycho. I think we were just a the same wedding and Chelsea is now part of your family. So here's the picture of Heather the matriarch and her family. (excluding Chelsea)


Here's Chelsea waiting while Heather get's her picture made.

Finally we were finished taking pictures and moved into the reception area, where everyone was having a great time.

The happy couple left to go on their one night honeymoon while I kept Hayden. He was so exhausted, it had been a couple of very busy days for the little guy and he was way past sleepy. He woke up a little fussy around 1:30 in the morning and I didn't want to make alot of noise and get him fully awake so I was trying to arrange him and his blanket without putting down the railing. I'm only 5 foot tall and it was a very bad idea. As I was stretching to reach the blanket, I suddenly felt my ribs seperate and the bar of the railing tear through the muscle. OMG...the sound of the cracking was enough to make me want to puke. It didn't really hurt, but I think it was because the nerves had gone numb. Yesterday morning, I hurt so bad and this morning it is almost unbearable to try and move around. I came to work, but all I can do is sit in one spot and type. I can just hardly answer the phone. I went to the dr and they took an x-ray and gave me some drugs so I can sleep tonight.


So that was my weekend.

Monday, March 09, 2009

The countdown begins

5 days and counting till the wedding...

Mom and Dad arrived on Friday night. Saturday we took the dress to Mom and she began the alterations. With a scare here and there and one point when I think I peed my pants it all ended up perfect. We thought for just a few minutes that the lop layer of chiffon had been cut wrong and ended up about an inch shorter than the other layers, but after Chelsea tried it on again it was perfect.

I've gone over the checklist several times today and with Mom's help (thank god for her) we are going to be able to pull this all together. Now I know why people hire wedding coordinators. The groom and his family are just laxidaisy (is that a word) about the whole thing. The bride is shutting down and won't communicate with us anymore, except with shruggs and or screaming. At this very moment, my mother is out getting the last of the decorations and stuff for the reception.

I still have to find shoes that will fit and not kill my feet 30 minutes after putting them on, I've got to get my son something to wear because I'm sick and tired of waiting for him to go get something. If he had his way, he'd wear holey jeans and a holister t-shirt. Thank goodness he's not in the wedding party.

I'll be happy when Sunday gets here!