And Now...the Dress

Hair done...

The girls donned their dresses.

And settled in to wait for me to get dressed. 

Sue had been patiently waiting all morning to get some posed pictures when we were all finished dressing, so while I got ready. she took some of the girls.

I love these stairs. Used to play on them growing up -- sliding down on my belly, seeing how many I could skip by jumping over the bottom ones on the way down, trying to get Slinkies to "walk" down them (never did get those darned things to work like they did in the commercials) -- so it's pretty cool to see my gorgeous nieces on them like this.

Outside on the deck, too. Cathy found the dresses online, and made and added the brown sashes.

I think this might have been what the girls loved most about them.

And then Michelle joined...cousins!

Can't beat those smiles.

See?

Sassy!

And, make-up and hair complete (thank you, Faith!), I was finally ready to put on the dress.

                                              
Well, with some help. And a bit of an audience, as the girls were all there.

Michelle had learned to lace the bodice when I went for my final fitting.

It took some skill, I think.

Such concentration.

Cathy checked the handiwork.

And then my phone rang...and it was Bob....

....and he was having stomach troubles because he was so nervous...and then he told me he was just kidding. Not. Funny. But, whew!

Back to work.

I wanted Mom to put my necklace on, but she wouldn't let Sue take pictures of her doing that -- only from the back. My silly mom. How can she not know she's gorgeous?

So incredibly special having this time with her.

Finally, the boots.

 Gotta love the boots. And gotta love Mom's smile. (Thanks for sneaking a picture, Sue!)

 And we were ready.

The Girly Stuff

Nobody was more surprised than me by how much I loved the "girly stuff" associated with the wedding.

I got a taste for how much I was going to love it when Michelle and I went wedding dress shopping. 

And, honestly, it blindsided me the morning of the wedding. 

But. let me back up a little...I think that, when compared to most weddings, ours was pretty low-key. And we wanted it that way. We wanted it to be personal and true-to-who-we-are, individually and as a couple. We wanted the prep and the actual festivities to be low-stress, and basically just wanted to throw a party for family and friends, and celebrate our new beginnings as husband and wife surrounded by all the people we love. And, with the exception of some stressful moments at the rehearsal BBQ when we realized we were NOT READY at all to feed and entertain so many people, the prep was actually quite fun.

If I stressed about anything, I was a little stressed about the hair-and-make-up part. I like to try to look good, yes, but it's gotta really be me. No extensions. No curls. the likes of which have never before bounced around on my head. And no colors on my face that would make Bob wonder what I'd been eating when I was getting ready to walk down the aisle to him.

Michelle and I talked a little about what I'd do with my hair, and she had some ideas for the clip I bought for it. We were supposed to practice with some make-up and the hair styling before we headed over to Bridgeport for the wedding...but life is busy, yes?, and we just didn't get around to it. 

But then it all fell into place, as Missy had arranged for Faith Hysell -- who I didn't even know at that point -- to come up to Mom's house the morning of the wedding and do everyone's hair and make-up. Have you heard me refer to her yet as a miracle worker? Well, she is. 

I really was blindsided by how much fun all the girly-getting-ready and estrogen-chaos was. 

Before I even showered, Faith practiced with my hair. to figure out what she could do with the clip, and this is what she "threw together." 

Yup. I was gonna like this.

So she began doing the girls' hair, one-niece-at-a-time. while I looked on, drank a latte picked up and delivered by sis-in-law Cathy, ate bacon and eggs served up by my big brother, Bill, and sipped on a Mimosa. Seriously. Who knew how great it would feel to be so pampered?

Lacey had all her curls in place first.

Emma got worked on. too. This is the girl who hadn't wanted her ears pierced - ever! - but suddenly asked to have them pierced for the wedding. And was a total trooper through the process.

And softball-star Alyssa. busily playing a game while Aunt Missy took over at the curling iron.

And my lovely oldest niece, Abbey, giggling when having her photo shot while Mom Cathy was putting flowers in her hair, but upright and confident-as-all-get-out when she did the reading at the ceremony in front of 30+ people a few hours later.

Michelle's a little more talented than the rest of us., and when she and Jesse arrived at the house, her hair was already beautifully curled. (I think, anyway...she could have curled it at the house, too, or Faith could have...I was drinking a Mimosa, remember?)

There were moments when you could even see this when you walked into Mom's kitchen.

And then, finally showered and blow-dried. it was my turn. Thankfully, yes, Faith did my make-up. too -- after my hair.

No, I have no idea how she did this. But I really liked it.

And while I was getting tended to, the girls opened the presents I got them...

Each got a necklace to wear in the wedding, and a little extra goodie. Abbs got a Pop! figure of Jack, from "The Nightmare Before Christmas."

Lacey got a little stuffed Halloween Hello Kitty.

Emma got a "Duck Dynasty" bobblehead -- that talks. I think it was Uncle Si.

And Alyssa got a little "voo-doo" doll that is supposed to help get rid of nervousness.

Even grown-up Michelle got a little goodie -- I thought this was fitting in our family.

Eventually, we all looked like this...

...but there's a little more to the story.

And that part is for another day.

Wedding Week

So, when we picked October 11 for our wedding day -- when I'm in school and Bob's super busy at work -- we knew it'd be a bit challenging. We both absolutely love the Fall in the Eastern Sierras, though, so we were more than willing to go for it.

Of course, Bob was a little more realistic than I was. The wedding was set for 2:00 on Saturday. I teach Thursday nights from 6:00 to 9:00. For months leading up to the "wedding week," I truly thought I would teach class Thursday night, as usual, and we'd head over to Bridgeport early Friday morning. After all, we'd have that afternoon and the next morning to get ready, right?

Yeesh. Thankfully, Bob knew much better, and convinced me we needed to take some extra time off work, and head over to Bridgeport on Wednesday morning.

Just packing the truck with everything we needed took quite a bit of time. 

We got to Bridgeport in the evening on Wednesday, just in time to have dinner with family -- including my uncle who'd come in from New Jersey -- and got up early on Thursday to go to Reno to buy all the supplies for the "Rehearsal BBQ" that would be Friday night at Mom's, and all the libations for the bar at the reception. Gotta love Costco.

On Friday morning before the rehearsal, we made our way to the Bridgeport Ranch Barns and Terrace -- site of the next day's reception -- to drop off bar supplies and arrange tables and chairs the way we wanted them. The three youngest nieces helped, and found time to explore the private bar upstairs in the barn.

 Quite the set-up crew.

Later that morning, Bob and I headed to the Mono County Registrar's Office to apply for our marriage license. It was starting to look pretty real.

Later in the day, the girls helped me work on the reception favors.

Naive Bride Mistake #672: Buying glitter tulle to hold the personalized M&Ms that would go into personalized shot glasses. Key word here is "glitter," which, as YOU likely realize, will fall off everywhere, including into the M&Ms that you'd like people to eat.

We spent a lot of time wrapping the M&Ms in plastic wrap before being able to tie them in the tulle.

But, I must say, they did turn out lovely.

So glad we had time!