October 18, 2000

One year ago: The Assman cometh. Like I could resist that one.

Whew! Finally the big day had arrived. I met Mary at our hair salon at 9 AM to get our hair done, and she already looked beautiful. I had to drive her car for her as we went to her parents' house, because she had her veil on, and her peripheral vision wasn't that great. She said she wasn't that nervous, but her stomach hurt. She really seemed fine. I would've been a wreck. I was excited, but not really nervous. Then again, I wasn't getting married. We got to Mary's parents' house and hung out there for a while as the other bridesmaids arrived. Regina and I decided to put our makeup on outside because it was so beautiful out. It was sunny and in the mid-70s here on Saturday, which is nothing short of a miracle for Central New York in October. Regina and I did our makeup and chatted. Suddenly, we heard Mary tapping on the window and telling us to get inside and get dressed, because the photographer was arriving. Oops! We went in and got dressed, which took me like two minutes. After many, many pictures, it was time to head to the church.

Mary's parents live like 5 houses down from the church, so our big limo ride lasted about a minute. We got to the church and waited in the limo until it was time to get in. It was fun to watch all the guests arriving and they couldn't see us, and they were all peering at the limo. I kind of felt like a rock star. Sort of. Soon enough, we all piled out and headed into the church. I'm happy to report that I didn't fall down while walking down the aisle, so my duties were nearly complete. The ceremony was beautiful, and I only cried a little bit. Like one tear. I just kept thinking about how Terry was when I met him (confused, mostly, and very naive), and how lucky he was to find someone like Mary, who is so great for him. And how happy I was for Mary, that she found Terry, too. And how beautiful Mary looked, and how handsome Terry looked. And how in love they both are, and how happy they are together. It's the first wedding I've been to where I can say that I'm equally close to both the bride and groom, and I was just so happy and so proud of both of them. I have to stop now, because I'm getting all choked up. But it really was beautiful, and touching.

In what seemed like minutes, the ceremony was over and we were headed to the reception. The entire wedding party piled into the limo. It was a little crowded, but we were all a little giddy with excitement (and champagne) so it was a lot of fun. There were these mirrors on the ceiling, which is kind of gross, but someone pointed out that there was one right above me and you could see right down my dress! I put a napkin on my chest for the rest of the ride. We got the reception and had some time to mingle (and eat! I was starving) before all the introductions and the first dance. Then, it was dinner, and cutting the cake. Is that not the most beautiful cake you've ever seen? I took like ten pictures of it, but I figured you would rather see a shot of the bride and groom AND the cake, so I used this one. Mary's cousin made the cake, and it was stunning. I've never really taken much notice of the wedding cake before -- they kind of all look alike to me. I guess that's why I was so taken with this one.

Then it was time for me to become a dancing machine. The music was so fun -- all your favorite dance hits. One of the greatest things about the reception (besides the obvious "celebrating the marriage" bit) was that our college friend Todd came. None of us have seen him since graduation, and he lives down in Baltimore now. Mary tracked him down and invited him, and it was so good to see him. He's the tall one on the left in the picture. The rest of this picture is Erik, Jim Gill, Terry making a face, Stimp, and then on the bottom row, Randy and Mark Henry (holding the sign). They even played mine and Jim's song, "Let's Stay Together" by Al Green! That was a nice touch. Mary told me she put it on the playlist, and it was so sweet of her to be so thoughtful when it was really her day. The only downside was that at one point Mark Henry got down on the floor to do the Worm or something, and I was standing behind him, and his foot hit my toe and broke off part of my toenail. That was very, very painful. It didn't bleed though. I was soon back out on the dance floor. Molly and Andy were there (that's Molly in the picture above on the right), and Molly and I spent a lot of time dancing. We even lured Jim out there a few times. Poor Andy had a migraine, so he wasn't much for the dancing. It was just so much fun. A lot of people came up to me and told me how pretty I looked, which NEVER happens to me, so I was flying high all night. The beers I had didn't hurt that feeling.

On the way home, Jim and I stopped at McDonald's for some root beer shakes. Jim made friends with the guy at the window (pictured at left), and he gave us our shakes for free! What a great end to a great night. I don't know when I'll have so much fun again in the near future. Terry and Mary went to the Adirondacks for a mini-honeymoon until Wednesday. Neither could take any more time off, so they're planning on taking a major trip next summer. I hope they are relaxing after their big day, and I can't wait until they get back and I can see all the pictures and everything. Wow.