post-wedding

okay, this was before the weddingthis is alex's "are you saying this isn't the coolest thing you've ever seen?" face

she used the leftover bead wire to make a (sweet ass) hot air balloon
she was mostly excited that you could hot glue a balloon without popping it
she later wrote "IOWA" on it, of course.

but this was after
we went back to Tim's hotel room to hang out for the evening. we drank the absolut that bryan stole from dan's new year's party (that hadn't yet left the trunk of my car) and watched youtube stuff and the spanish channel on mute. it was perfect.

I drove home on Sunday (convoying with Alex and Tim) but then got back in my car on Monday and drove to Des Moines. Matt was stopping there to see his former roommate Adam Weaver play a show. I was glad for the opportunity to spend more time with Matt (sans wedding craziness/pressure to dance) and I'm always up for live music.

matt ditched his friends and we went for a walk
we found this building
he answered my phone
then we went to the show
the show was really good. it was kind of their "rock set" which was fun. i've heard adam play some (really good) acoustic stuff so it was fun to see him rock out. he's one of the coolest guys ever. mostly because he's from the south. you should probably find him on myspace.

we sat upstairs to get a good view and so the boys could play pool
we got some brews and matt played alone when everyone else went downstairs
it was a good night. not that i needed more of it but driving alone was good, as was the matt time.
ok that's seriously the end of all wedding-related posts. i promise.

the art freak wedding

i meant to post these in a timely fashion. that didn't happen. these are all pictures of wedding stuff. the wedding was a week ago in geneva, il. here's what went down:

this was the head table

the guestbook was this bucket full of vintage postcards
the guests were asked to write a message on a postcard and put it in the mailbox
it was fun. i picked out about 10 postcards to choose from and forgot to fill one out

the favors

Track Listing:
1. Chicago - Sufjan Stevens
2. No Other One - Weezer
3. You're So Square - Buddy Holly
4. You And Me Song - Wannadies
5. Two of Us - Beatles
6. Mint Car - The Cure
7. Saturday Sun - Nick Drake
8. I'll Be Here When You Wake - The Reindeer Section
9. This Modern Love - Bloc Party
10. Such Great Heights - The Postal Service
11. Noah's Ark - Cocorosie
12. Follow You Into The Sun - Sean Lennon
13. If I Ever Feel Better - Phoenix
14. Perfect Day - Lou Reed
15. Langley School Music Project - God Only Knows

the programs
there were 3 designs
this one, one of just a sparkler and one of lightening bugs (like on the inside)
eli drew them

the inside (eli wrote it)

it's almost time!
eli (and his sister) fixing jess's dad

bouquets!
jess!

jess and her dad right before they walked down the aisle

ew! gross!yes, that's an umbrella. it started raining during the ceremony. it was actually kind of great. it was a nice, gentle rain (and the bridal party was under a tree so they stayed dry) and it stopped right away and it was a beautiful evening after that. i think everyone decided that it was pretty cool that it rained. everyone kind of bonded as they ran for cover as soon as the (very brief) ceremony was over. the only sad thing is that trevor cut is talk short and everyone was distracted and not really listening to what i'm sure was a really great message.

marissa changed out of her dress really quickly
i made her hold up her bouquet

pretty

the best part about rain at your wedding?
the rainbows!

at night
check out those beautiful lights!
candles from the tables
the dance
they're married!
shortly after i took this picture they were ready to leave and saying goodbye to everyone. right before they walked out the door jess and i made eye contact and started sobbing. we've never done that before. it was hilarious. i think everyone was a little scared, but that's okay.
that's all.

oh wait, the bouquet, you ask?

(If you could care less about how I made the bouquets you should stop reading right now.)

Basically we bought a whole bunch of beads (about a thousand) and a LOT of 24 gauge craft wire. Then:

Cut off about a yard of the wire
String a bead onto the wire, bend it halfway down (with the bead at the bend)
Hold onto the ends with needle-nose pliers
Hook the bended end (with the bead) onto an electric drill with a hook at the end
Go! The drill twists the wire and makes...well, a twisted wire with a bead at the end.
Repeat (a lot)
Pretend the bead wire things are flowers and arrange a bouquet!

That may not have made sense. I have some pictures of the practice project that I'll post later if people are curious.

the end.

pre-wedding

warning: my blog is about to be taken over by wedding-related pictures. i appologize if you're a boy. or anyone except for maybe holly. and alex, who wanted all of these pictures.

the bouquets are finally done!
months of work! hundreds of beads! calloused fingers!

the rehearsal in the driveway
from l to r: marissa (jess's sister), eli, joh (eli's brother), anna (eli's sister), lauren (flower girl), aunt tina (overbearing)

jess and the kids (iris, lauren & rowan)
and her dad is back there too

the rehearsal went really well. trevor was really organized and had already discussed the little details so there was really no waiting around. i didn't even have to write out phonetic spellings of the groom's name for him like i did for the pastor of the last wedding rehearsal i attended...

matt pulled a misch and got right up the tree to hang lights at the site

hey marissa, how do you feel about decorating for the wedding?

anna and eli taping down tablecloths

tim is a bug's worst enemy
eli and joh setting up the badass music stuff

i think this was supposed to be a "before" picture
i don't have an "after" picture

we picked out 3 kinds of fabric to hang in the entryway of the building for pictures
it turned out to be a cool idea and a good way to add something to that space

tim and alex rocking out the lights
they made a great team because alex knows what she's doing and tim does what he's told

ellen helping with the sign

that's the sign

time to leave and get ready!

everything came together really well. set-up went really smoothly and jess did a great job of making decisions ahead of time so that it wasn't too stressful to get it all done. the place looked great, everything worked and I can't believe it's finally over. more to come, don't worry.

the bachelorette party!

Michelle planned an awesome party for Jess on Thursday night. We met up at her apartment and took the train downtown to Lucky Strike Lanes. I was the only college friend there but I knew almost everyone so it was fun catching up and seeing everyone again. We ordered some tasty snacks, a few adult beverages, and racked up a combined score (between 7 people) of 408.

Claire couldn't make it but she sent along a veil for Jess to wear (for a few minutes)

the evidence

Ellen!

Michelle!

Jess & Anna

Jess's friends are super fun and I love hanging out with them. After bowling we trained back over to Wrigleyville/Boystown to find the dive bar Michelle recommended. On our way back to Michelle's we passed by a group of guys and Ellen was happy to annouce that Jess was getting married. This guy in the yellow took a picture with us with his camera so I had his friends take one with ours too.

please do not disturb

I am currently doing something that I've never done before. I'm spending the night in a hotel room all alone. My mom bailed and isn't coming to Jess's wedding so I'm staying in our hotel room by myself. I think I talked Alex into staying with me tomorrow but for now it's just me. I thought I'd be excited to stay up and watch whatever I want on TV and maybe raid the vending machines but after a week of wedding craziness and 4 nights on an air mattress I'm too exhausted to do anything fun. All I could handle was going to the front desk for a spare toothbrush (I forgot mine at Jess's) and sorting out my suitcase. Oh, and finding the wireless internet connection, of course. I didn't even go put ice in the ice bucket. (My parents always made a big deal out of filling up the ice bucket. I think mostly to get us out of the room for a while)

I can't believe Jess and Eli's wedding is tomorrow. At this point I'm just excited that it'll be over soon, but I know it'll be really fun. We talked to the pastor tonight (Eli's friend Trevor from Colorado) and as I helped them decide about how to word their vows it really hit me that they're really getting married. They're two of the most important people in my life and it's so fun to get to share so much of this with them. There was a rehearsal/open house thing tonight and both families were together and it was so fun to see everyone all at once. I've never seen Eli and his brother and sister all together before. It was so fun, they're so cool. Alex and I escaped to Woodfield to see Dan and help him pick out a suit. It made things a little more rushed later tonight and getting stuff done and driving to the hotel came a little later than I had hoped, but I think I would have totally burned out without the little break. I'm so thankful that I have friends that meet my needs in such different ways, that I knew that going to see Dan would be a total release from any pressure or stress I was feeling.

Oh and the bouquets are done. Finally. I'll post pictures soon so you can see them. Months of work is finally done and after the wedding is over tomorrow I really won't know what to do with myself.

the actual happiest place on earth

As part of their wedding gift my mom offered to make Eli's dreams come true. What did it take? A trip to Medieval Times. It was pretty great. It was supposed to be a surprise but he kinda figured things out when Jess's parents kept asking questions about what we were doing (go figure) and I refused to answer them. Here are the pictures!

the castle!

ellen pointed out that all of the knights are from spain but the accents are from england...hmm

we shelled out the $2 for tickets to the dungeon
ellen couldn't get enoughit's starting!

go blue!
mmmjess was in charge of the action shots
she was especially proud of this one
ellen couldn't help herself
he really was valiant