I guess it’s just not a good rock climbing night if I don’t come away scraped. Either that, or I just had a bad Monday. Yesterday morning I cut my finger while slicing a tomato. Then last night I scraped my elbow falling off a past-vertical wall, and later pinched my finger in a carabiner. Today, I’m sporting three bandaids. Mmm.
The server’s back up, so you can now view the photos I posted from James and Chrissy’s wedding. Chris posted some of his pictures too.
I realize that I never actually said anything here about my trips last week. The AIAA conference (which I mention first because it was definitely the more boring of the two halves of my vacation) was interesting, and Becca’s and my tag-team presentation of our DPS jettison design paper went well. In fact, our session chair even nominated us for best paper of the conference! The award won’t be announced until later, and we probably won’t win, but it was still exciting to find out we’d been nominated.
But the wedding was, of course, the highlight of the weekend. Carter gave a nice summary of events on his journal a week ago, so I won’t repeat what he’s already written for me (I am such a mooch!), but everything about the wedding was lovely. Friday afternoon was lunch at Mellow Mushroom, followed by trips to see where the church and reception hall were, followed by amusement in the hotel room as Natasha tried to figure out how to iron her bridesmaid dress without melting it.
Friday evening was the rehearsal, followed by dinner at Maggiano’s. Good lord, the food was so good. Especially the salmon. Mmm. Anyway, the restaurant was perfect for such an event; they had a second floor that consisted only of private party rooms, each with space for 30ish people and with a small (but fully stocked) bar. The bartender amused me the entire night. At one point, Claire (James’s very cool and very hilarious sister) and I were standing at the bar talking when the bartender turned to us and said “you look like you could use a couple shots.” We gaped at him for a moment. Then there was a moment of wondering whether it was appropriate to do shots at a rehearsal dinner. Looking at each other and shrugging our shoulders, Claire and I said “well, ok.” So the bartender made a random pink concoction, and wouldn’t tell us what it was until we’d downed them.
They were actually really good, and thankfully not too strong. Turned out it was vodka, peach schnapps, cranberry juice, and pineapple juice. In what proportions, I have no idea.
Saturday we awoke bright and early, showered, I put on my new dress, and Carter and Kent were looking really snazzy in their tuxedos. We were at the church by 8:30, where the boys joined the other groomsmen, and I began my job as go-to girl. I adjusted tuxedo vests. I pinned flowers on the boys. I drove rose petals over to the reception hall. I fetched people when needed. At 10:30, I started greeting people like a madwoman. I was on a roll!
One of the fun things about the wedding is that I got to see so many people I hadn’t seen in a long time, people who aren’t close friends, but who I still enjoy talking to. But of course the highlight was watching James and Chrissy get married. When the groomsmen had taken their places, James walked in with a huge smile on his face. Now, James is a guy who always has a huge smile, but the one he wore during the ceremony was even bigger, I swear. Chrissy looked absolutely beautiful in her dress, and as she was walking down the aisle, she had a smile big enough to match the one on James’s face. They both looked happier than I’ve ever seen them; it was awesome. I love weddings.
After the ceremony, Christina and Sara and I skedaddled to the rehearsal hall, where we again greeted all the guests and then got down to some serious post-wedding partying. As James was so fond of pointing out, there was an open bar. 😉 But more importantly, there was good food, and lots of dancing, and really good champagne for the toasts. The reception hall, though unassuming from the outside, was actually really nice on the inside, and the decorations were cool. The entire ceiling was covered in white christmas lights, like stars. Very nice.
Anyway. That is the 15-minute summary of the wedding. Now someone else needs to get engaged and plan a wedding for next summer so I can keep my streak going. It’s been four years now…
