So for those of you not aware, I was lucky enough to be a bridesmaid in my friend's wedding this past weekend! It was in a small town near New Orleans, the bride and groom are currently living in England, so most people had a bit of a commute to get to the event!
This was an early morning start! Luckily I was off the day before, so I actually got a few hours of sleep! My flight was at 7:05am and since I live near the airport and our airport is very travel friendly, I didn’t have to get up until 5:30! My dad dropped me off just after 6, I dropped my bag at curbside check in and breezed through security with just my dress and my purse! Once I located my gate, I located a Quiznos and ordered a "Hotzi" breakfast sandwich and an OJ. The sandwich wasn’t bad, but it was super greasy! I almost took a picture but I caught a guy giving me funny looks and chickened out!
Soon it was time to board! I had A33 as my boarding number. I headed towards the back of the plane hoping it wouldn’t be a full flight and I might score an extra seat for my dress, but unfortunately it was indeed full. I held the dress on my lap and read my book. I am not very social on flights, for fear I might be stuck talking to a crazy person, or someone with bad breath for the whole flight. I know, it probably seems rude, but I like my peace and quiet time on my flights.
We had a stop in Nashville, but no plane change, so I took that opportunity to move to the third row (easier exiting) and to find a safe place to put my dress in the above storage.
Ok, so some of you are going to roll your eyes when I admit this, but I seriously thought that Louisiana was on Eastern time… so an hour ahead of me. So naturally I set my watch ahead an hour, which led to a lot of confusion, but I just figured that I was just tired and didn’t think much of it. We landed in New Orleans right on time and I called my ride, who was the best man and his girlfriend. He said his girlfriend would come find me my baggage claim!
Of course, this is when my bag would take FOREVER to get unloaded… I seriously waited at least 15 minutes, which I am not used to. Finally it came and I found my ride and we piled into the car for the hour long ride to our rental house!
So this house was crazy. Evidently the owner ran a construction company, and when the weather was bad and his crew couldn’t work, they would come over to the house and just add on rooms. Seriously. Consequently there were bedrooms scattered all over the place, 3 kitchens, random living rooms etc. I was sharing a bedroom with a girl from California who was super sweet.
I was just grateful to have a bed, it was pretty crowded! The whole wedding party and some extra family was staying there, so it was a party atmosphere, but very fun. I had met most of these people in the past, so it was like a mini reunion!
Once we got settled we headed around the corner to the brides grandparents house. We chatted a bit, ate some lunch (red beans and rice) and then headed out to run errands!
The bride was basically doing all the wedding stuff herself. The decorations, the food, everything was planned and delegated, so it was super low cost, but still exactly what she wanted. Our first errand was to go to the grocery store to pay for the kegs for the wedding and pick up adult beverages for the game night we were having in lieu of a bachelor/bachelorette party that night.
Then we headed to Wal-Mart for some last minute decorations for the bridal shower the next day. Next was the Harley Davidson store to get something to use as a topper for the Groom’s cake. We also had to stop at the cake place to pay off the cake too.
Once we got back to the house we got to work making tissue paper flowers for the shower. I am not a creative person, luckily the girl from California knew exactly what she was doing. All this time more and more people are arriving. We finished the flowers just in time to start putting in the frozen pizzas!
The bride's little sister was the Maid of Honor (there was a maid, matron, and me). I have known her since she was a silly little girl, and now she is all grown up! She is only 19, but I had a great time hanging out with her and her friend despite the age difference.
The evening was a pretty big success, there was a lot of mingling and chatting (and drinking) as we learned how to play Bunco (I have NEVER played before). Everyone had a good time, and we all went to bed later than we should have!
Friday was an early morning. We had to leave for the Swamp Tour by 8 am or so, so I had taken a shower the night before. I figured with all of us only sharing 3 bathrooms, we needed to space out our showers as much as possible.
I woke up, rolled out of bed and threw on some clothes. I managed to get a cup of coffee before we all took off for the swamp!
I really enjoyed the swamp tour. I think I was worried it would be smelly, but it was a beautiful day, low 70's and sunny and not buggy or anything! The man running the swamp tour was really informative and funny. It was like a Jungle Cruise, but with fewer corny jokes (note, I said fewer, not none!) I had the chance to chat with some people I hadn't talked to much the night before, and we girls talked about our hair etc.
After the tour we went back to the house to get changed and then headed over to the grandparents house to get ready for the bridal shower.
The shower started right on time at 1 pm.
We played some classic shower games, and then the groom made a surprise visit in the middle to bring all of us ladies yellow roses.
He sat down and told everyone the story of how he met the bride, and then he left and we finished opening presents. We were on a tight schedule because we had to be back at the house for rehearsal. We cleaned up and rushed back. I decided to wear my actual shoes to the rehearsal, just to make sure I could walk etc in them. Everything went pretty quickly, but there were some last minute changes, which would be confusing later...
Then it was time to rush to the rehearsal dinner! It was a place called Big Al's, in which the Al is short for Alligator! For apps they had fried alligator and fried onion (whew) and then for entrees we had a choice of fried catfish, crawfish or shrimp, boiled crawfish, and chicken. I do not eat water dwelling creatures... I don't have any moral issues with it or anything, I just don't like seafood. So I had the chicken and french fries, as well as two peach daiquiris, which were delicious!
After dinner we all went to a place called the Jolly Inn for dancing, cajun style (and more drinks!) I got dragged onto the floor more than I anticipated, but it was fun.
We headed back the house and I actually managed to get to bed at a decent time, which was essential since the next day was... Wedding day!!!
We actually got to sleep in a bit later this morning! We had nail appointments for 9:40 am, which is before the place actually opened. On the way we stopped at Wal-Mart for a few last minute things. I decided to get silver flip flops for after the official wedding stuff was over. After all, I knew my 4 inch heels would only last for an hour or two!
Then we headed over to get our mani's/pedi's. I had gotten my nails done with a new gel thing called shellack (sp?) before I left, but I had messed up 2 of them, so I had them just fix those. We all did french pedicures, and my toes have held up surprisingly well!
The girl I was sharing the room with had brought these apples from the weekly market in California. They are dipped in chocolate and covered with heath bar pieces! They are delish! One was dark chocolate, one was milk, and we cut them into slices and ate them while we got our toes done.
Once I was done I went off insearch of a clip the bride needed for her veil, and picked up a few cheap silver bangle bracelets from Claires.
We all headed back to the big house to pick up our stuff and then we went to the grandparents house to get ready! There was a girl coming in to do hair and makeup, but we were obviously only going to get done one at a time, so the brides sister and I went to pick up some lunch from Sonic, double sided tape to hold down the table cloths, and some Daiquiris to pass the time
When we got back it was time for hair!! Even the brides brother got his hair styled!
After we all had our hair done, she did our makeup. We bridemaids were not thrilled, in fact we "lightened" it up a bit ourselves, it was way too dark. She only did our eyes, we did everything else thankfully!
After we were all beautiful (or more beautiful than usual) we had some pictures taken, then we headed over to the house for the ceremony!!
It was a bit of a rough start, since after the rehearsal the bride and groom decided to rearrange the chairs... with the music and everything, no one was sure exactly when to start processing down the aisle, so eventually we just went. We ended up out of order, but it all turned out ok.
The ceremony was short and sweet and beautiful. The flower girls ended up standing next to me the whole time and they were adorable.
After we went a little farther out into the trees for pictures. And naturally, I stepped in an ant hill. Thankfully they weren’t fire ants, but my feet started to feel weird and I looked down and sure enough, there were ants everywhere. We only had to do a few pictures and then I ran inside to change into my new flip flops. So my shoes only lasted about 40 minutes.
While the bride and groom finished up with pictures we mingled around a bit till it was time to be announced. All of a sudden, the groom's son, one of the groomsman, said "It really sucks we have to dance for this..." Umm what? Dance??
Now don't get me wrong, I am a pretty decent dancer. But I am NOT a waltzer. And I haven't been in any other weddings, so I didn't realize we would be dancing as a bridal party... and no one else did either. We quickly started to practice, and my escort and I decided on a box step (since that was all I could accomplish on such short notice). Then the wedding coordinator said he thought we would be dancing later, so we all breathed a sigh of relief. Then we were announced right after the bride and groom. My escort and I came out, and stood awkwardly in the corner till the bride whispered and asked us why we weren't dancing as well.We quickly got our act together and of course, he tried to make me waltz. I almost killed him. It probably wouldn't be so bad except he is like 6'5" and I am 5 feet tall, even. Finally he gave up and just started spinning me and "fun" dancing which was much better. From what I hear, none of the couples looked very good anyways
The dinner was great, buffet style with plenty of Cajun classics. The cake was one small cake on top and carrot cake cupcakes below.
We all danced and had a good time, and plenty to drink. It got pretty buggy so someone produced a can of Off for everyone to use which really came in handy. Later on in the evening someone also made a daiquiri run
I finally went to bed about 1 am, and got up at 4 to help drive people to the airport. Luckily there were plenty of other people going, so I took that quiet opportunity to take a cold shower (it was super hot and muggy) and take down my hair. Then I went back to bed for a couple more hours. I got up in time to say hi to everyone in the morning and scarf down some pancakes before heading off to the airport!
I got to my gate with about 10 minutes to spare. I was still tired, and I read the whole way back. Of course, due to weather, our flight was an hour and 25 minutes longer, so I was late getting in, and consequently late to work, but oh well.
All in all it was a fantastic weekend. It was so nice to see so many people I knew, but hadn't seen in a while, and I was super excited to share in my friend’s special day
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