2003-08-20 09:52:50

Finally, after 5 1/2 years of courting, Pat and I finally tied the knot. I am finally Mrs. Patrick Reed.

I woke up Saturday morning to thunder. Immediately, I got the AC/DC song Thunderstruck in my head, and started to laugh to stop from crying. I checked the weather report, and the detailed report predicted thunder and rain for every hour of the day. I thought, there goes my beautiful outdoor ceremony.

My girls and I got together at a lovely brunch at my bridesmaid Taryn's house. We had all of my favorite things: quiche, fresh fruit, cinnamon buns, coffee, and framboise. It was wonderful. People kept bringing up the weather though, and I kept shushing them.

Yadda, yadda, yadda, we got our hair done and did all the girl stuff you do before a wedding. We were running late of course, but luckily, nothing really happens without the bride.

The weather had totally cleared up, and I walked downstairs to meet up with my dad. I thought that I would be a huge wreck at this time, but I saw Pat standing there and a great sense of calm came over me. I realized how happy I was, and how relieved I was that this was all almost over, and I just smiled.

I did get to have my beautiful outdoor wedding like I always planned I would. The weather was perfect. Not too hot; not to cool.

It's really hard to try to sum this part up, because the details are a little fuzzy to me as well. I am told that everything was perfect and beautiful, and from what I could tell, it was.

After Pat and I were pronounced man and wife, we walked back down the aisle, and people tossed rose petals at us, and I was overwhelmed with emotion. As soon as I walked out of sight of the wedding guests, I burst into tears. I felt like the happiest woman alive.

Once it all sank in, I walked out and joined our guests at the cocktail hour. It finally hit me for the first time that all those people had come to see Pat and me. I thought it was a big deal to fill a room at Mex, but this was really something else. Actually, even though we had a medium-sized wedding, it was too big. I think between the two of us, we talked to everyone, but there were a lot of people that I didn't get to hang out with enough. It seemed weird that some people traveled from so far for us, and I barely got to say two words to them.

It was great though. Everything, with very few exceptions, was very lovely. We had quite a few guests that were very visibly enjoying themselves. One thing that I didn't expect was the amount of hook-ups. I guess Pat and I are so in love, that it puts other people in the mood for love?? I don't know. The stories are still coming out of the woodwork, and those of you know who you are! Oh well, it could have been worse. At least I didn't make an ass of myself!

At the end of the evening, Pat and I went to our very nice room. Our sister-in-law, Tiffany, had left a beautiful basket of fruits, wine, cheese, crackers, summer sausage, and a six-pack of Genny in our room. We also had a bottle of champagne, and we enjoyed the hell out of that sausage and those beverages. Pat and I hadn't really even talked or barely seen each other in three days, so we had a lot of catching up to do.

Around 1 or 2 am, Pat's best friend called, wondering where we were. He informed us that there was a toga party going on. As it turned out, he was the only one in a toga, but it still sounded pretty fun. We just stuck around our swank room and enjoyed ourselves.

The next day, we went to my parent's house for a brunch with our wedding party and out-of-town guests. We also opened all of our phat gifts and made fun of the on es that were obviously re-gifts of some sort. One point-of-interest, is that the wealthiest couple we invited didn't give us anything. Not even a card! I guess you don't stay rich very long giving gifts out left and right.

We're so thrilled that so many of our friends could make it. We hope you enjoyed yourselves. We'll have pictures soon.

-Fran