Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts
By Alyce Wilson
June 28, 2005 - Finishing Touches
This past weekend was the big day for my sister. Her wedding was on Saturday. The Gryphon and I arrived at her place in Bellefonte on Thursday. We wanted to be there early to help with last minute wedding stuff.
We hadn't given her any specific time that we'd be there, and we had nothing scheduled for a specific time. Because we slept in and took our time getting the car packed, we arrived about dinner time.
After getting settled in the guest room, we helped her with some wedding preparation, which primarily consisted of finishing up the packets of bird seed while she and her fiance ran errands. Then, after the men cooked a nice dinner and I helped my sister with a few other things. we all had a couple beers and relaxed a little bit before turning in.
Friday, we had more details to sew up before the rehearsal. It was a crazy afternoon, because we had to decorate the Tussey Mountain Ski Lodge where the ceremony and reception would be held, and still have time to change for the rehearsal.
My brother, his wife and his son were coming in with my dad, since they'd stayed with him the first night. They hadn't been given any specific time to be there other than late morning, so they arrived close to noon.
When they arrived, I was helping to load my car with reception decorations. I ran inside and told people to put the dogs away, because the goal was to introduce them to my nephew gradually, once they had calmed down. I ran back outside and greeted them, saying to my nephew, "Hi, I'm your Aunt Alyce," which he found so delightful that he giggled and stuffed his fist into his mouth. We learned over the course of the weekend that my nephew has very tasty hands, which he can very nearly fit entirely into his mouth.
While my sister was showing my brother and his wife around the house, pointing out the rooms where they could stay, the dogs escaped from the library and rushed downstairs. I was holding my nephew at the time, and as the dogs rushed in, I yelled "No!" at them and kneed them away. Fortunately, it didn't take them long to calm down. They were pretty good the rest of the day, except for the defensive barking they get into when they're trying to protect an entire house from strangers.
By this time, my sister was getting worried about everything getting done on time, so we made sure they had good directions for getting to the place and then loaded cars and set out to get decorations done.
It's amazing how much had to be done, because the end result was a simple, elegant look. We were placing flower pots strategically, hanging paper lanterns, and the like. We were making sure the tables were placed properly, since one of them had been placed in the middle of the dance floor, which was completely unacceptable. Then there were candles to place around, but my sister took care of that while most of us headed back to Bellefonte to get changed for the rehearsal. My sister had brought her clothes with her so as to avoid more traveling around.
We dashed back to Bellefonte in the car of my brother and his wife. Their air conditioning had broken just before the trip, and while it wasn't warm enough yet in Vermont for that to be a problem, I could tell it was really bothering them in Central Pennsylvania. My nephew was getting a little flushed, but seemed good-spirited nonetheless.
On the way, we stopped at Pier 1 to pick up more glass beads for the centerpieces, which were going to consist of flared bowls with red glass beads and floating candles. At the suggestion of my brother and his wife, we also picked up three balloons to mark the turn to the ski lodge, which is not particularly well marked. We got three stars: two in metallic red and one in metallic yellow, which went well with her wedding colors.
As soon as everyone returned, we got started on the rehearsal. We had an obstacle in that we couldn't rehearse exactly where the wedding was going to take place, since there were chairs and tables set up on the patio for a symphony orchestra concert. Instead, we practice on the dance floor inside.
Everybody was in high spirits during the rehearsal, joking around. My sister and her fiance insisted on running through their vows, because my sister was so concerned she'd be nervous and screw it up the next day.
The Gryphon's job was to hit the music for the procession on cue, and he got into a conservation with somebody and missed it. As he scrambled for the remote, I shouted, "You're fired!" to laughter.
We all drove then to Duffy's Tavern in Boalsburg, courtesy of the groom's family. Speaking of which, his two brothers were the groomsmen, and the older of the two, who was the best man, got along really well with my nephew. You see, he could make really entertaining faces that the baby just adored. Of course, my nephew isn't difficult to entertain. Whenever I talked nice to him or sang him a song, he got all bubbly.
He truly is a bouncy baby boy. At dinner, before the food arrived, he was sitting in my brother's lap, moving his hands around on the table. My mom got excited: "He's going to be a piano player!" Who knows? He just may. He certainly should have inherited creative talent from both sides.
I'd never eaten at Duffy's Tavern before. It has a very Colonial feel to it, and the food was quite good. I had the crab cakes, but I was a bit bad and also had a dessert, all the time joking with my brother's wife, who was the other bridesmaid, that we only had to fit into our dresses tomorrow.
Then we all headed back to my sister and her fiance's place to enjoy more time together. Not long, though, before everybody started to fade. My dad headed for his bed and breakfast, my mom and the pastor drove back to their hometown, the grooms' parents headed back to their hotel, and the rest of us retired.
The Gryphon stayed up a little past me to wait with my sister and her fiance for a friend and former roommate of my sister's, who was coming by to drop off her wedding gift, which was a TV stand from IKEA and too large to wrap. It's probably a good thing I went to bed, because my dog usually barked at this roommate, despite all her efforts to be friendly. The last thing we needed was to awaken my nephew and throw the house into disorder. Little did I know their inflatable mattress could achieve that purpose all on its own.
More from the wedding weekend:
June 30, 2005 - The Story of Love
July 1, 2005 - More Wedding Pics
July
6, 2005 - Browsing Bellefonte
Moral:
Babies think aunts are hilarious.
Copyright
2005 by Alyce Wilson
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