Weddings!!!!

I think it’s safe to say it was an exhausting whirlwind of a weekend. For when I got home I slept a grand total of 12 hours between 1:30 and 6:30 the next morning when I got up. Not only that, but I can hardly remember driving home. I just know I did, and – praise God! – safely!

I headed to Boston Thursday morning. It was more than 12 hours of travel that day between my car, two airplanes, a bus, the subway and a commuter rail. Now I’ve been on the T in Boston many times, so the whole process wasn’t completely foreign. Doing it from the airport with luggage was different. But I arrived safely, got picked up, grabbed a bite to eat and got into bed about 10:30. Not bad, except it was a new place and a new bed and I couldn’t sleep. So, not only did I start out the weekend with two 12-hour work days behind me, I got only four hours of sleep!

The rehearsal was quite smooth. Anna knew what she wanted and we were done within an hour or so. The rehearsal dinner was a bit long. It was at a very nice restaurant and we had lots of food. People gave toasts. The groom’s party discussed Star Wars. I can’t remember everything we girls chatted about. Then we headed back to Gordon Conwell (the seminary Anna and her new husband David attend).

For a “bachelorette” party, we sat out in a glassed-in room of one of the buildings and painted on canvas. Since it was the first time I had ever done such a thing, my rainbow looked like a picture a 3^rd grader would do. Then we joined the guys (who had been at a shooting range – how come we couldn’t do that?) for dinner. We couldn’t get into the hall where the reception was going to be until 10. (For some reason the donors of the college are more important than we.) So, it was a late night…followed by an early morning.

In all honesty, I think everything went very smoothly. We bridesmaids were ready by 9:15. We drove to the church where Anna finished getting ready. Then we had pictures. The weather cleared beautifully so we could walk Anna outside and around the church to walk the aisle. I didn’t have butterflies in my stomach at all, but I knew no one was looking at me anyhow. And I was too busy trying not to cry. I didn’t manage that, although I held most of the tears back from rolling down my cheeks. This was accomplished by looking at the floor a lot. Anna was a beautiful bride. The service was quite long (Anglican!), but we all remained standing for the full hour and fifteen minutes. More pictures. And then the reception!

The reception was quite nice – good food and dancing (which I didn’t do). Didn’t cry at all there but laughed hilariously when Anna’s grandfather sat down with a plate full of all four different kinds of pies being served (this was after he already had a slice of cake!). He concluded they were all equally good. We saw the bride and groom off about five o’clock, cleaned up and collapsed at their new apartment on campus about 8:00. I guess we bridesmaids hadn’t had enough of weddings because we watched 27 Dresses. Truthfully, we just wanted to watch something that was more-or-less pointless.

The next morning I was up at 4 to catch my flight back to Minnesota. Hence the twelve hours of sleep later. But it was a good trip. I’ve just re-reached my conclusion that there has got to be a way to have a wedding and get married without falling over from exhaustion when it’s all over. Right?