Going to the Chapel!

Jess: This past weekend was my mom’s wedding, so most of our week has been consumed with the planning and festivities. I headed out to Ohio on Tuesday night, where my mom and her best friend forever, Linda, picked me up from the airport. I quickly filled Mom in on all the stuff that had happened that day (I had a summer job interview, we’re in an interesting financial situation for school in the fall, etc., etc.). By the time we got to the house to see my Aunt Colleen, it was well after 11, and we all started heading to bed. Then, as is typical when we get together after some time apart, Mom and I spent forever talking and didn’t get to bed till waaaaay later.

Wednesday, we went exploring the national park area around Ohio. Despite my general hatred for all things Ohian, I have to admit that the national parks are really awesome. Also, Ohio is the birthplace of more presidents than any other state. And there ends the list of good things about Ohio—unless you count temporary things, like certain people who live there.

Anyway, Wednesday was just a fun, relaxing day for us four girls; we had a picnic, we walked around, we talked, and I found out that my mom’s friend is much cooler than my mom is. :-D Then we had to go pick up Chris, Mom’s fiancée, from the airport. Now, the Cleveland airport is all of 30 minutes from the house, but Mom insisted that we leave an hour early because of rush hour traffic. She’s clearly crazy, but at least we got to spend some time listening to good country music and talking some more. Then we got Chris and headed back to Hudson for dinner at Yours Truly, which just so happens to be one of my favorite restaurants. We had some awesome food, and once we were almost done, Chris’ son Storm, daughter-in-law Gabrielle and granddaughter Alaina came to spend time with me. So we let them eat while we got acquainted. Two-year-old Alaina and I were fast friends, and she spent the rest of the weekend asking for “Jess-E-ca.” Kids love me. What can I say?

Thursday was the bachelorette party day. Being the awesome daughter/matron of honor that I am, I booked a spa day for the four ladies. We all had pedicures and massages, and AC and Mom had manicures—Mom’s first mani and pedi. It was awesomely relaxing and we had—you guessed it—more girl time. Then we had dinner at the Winking Lizard, another pretty awesome Ohio restaurant, and had a good time with a bunch of Mom’s friends from church, work, etc. Wes finally decided to show up that night, and Mom’s house started to get pretty crowded. For those of you who are counting at home, we’re now up to four people in Mom’s two bedroom townhouse.

Friday was a pretty chill day, with us meeting the rest of Chris’ kids, Courtney, Ryland, and Ryland’s husband Marc. We basically spent the day hanging out, and then came the rehearsal. Since I can now see that this blog is getting pretty long, I’m going to let Wes take over. We’ll make sure to post the wedding sermon/matron of honor toast in an upcoming blog.

Wes: By finally decided to show up, she means that I drove the 7 ½ hours from our house to Hudson by myself while she was out partying it up and getting massages. Jerk.

I occupied my time on the road by listening to a wonderful book on tape (and for anyone born in the new millennium, that’s an anachronism for audiobook). It was The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Very engaging, and it kept my attention the entire drive. Here’s the problem, though. The book was 10 hours long. The trip was 7 ½. So when I got to Hudson, I had about 2 ½ hours left. Luckily, the house was empty, so I did a little dance, jumped into the lazy boy, and went to town on those last few chapters. Great book. In fact, I’ll go ahead and say it. Highlight of the weekend. There.

Friday started my “work” part of the working vacation. I don’t really remember what we did up to the rehearsal, but that is where I took charge anyways, so let’s jump there. First, I put on my new bright yellow shirt, so everyone would know where to look. It was a good move. I commanded attention. It might have been that people were staring and pointing and laughing, but I had their attention. I was a little nervous about this, seeing as it was my first wedding to officiate, but everyone was great, everyone listened to me, and before I knew it, we were donesky and on our way to Marcelita’s for margaritas and fajitas. (Side note: I’ve come to notice that there are a lot of words on Mexican restaurant menus that end in “itas”…).  Hanging out with Jess and Josiah and everyone at the dinner was a lot fun, and teaming up to bother their mom was a great way to kill time.

Saturday’s festivities were over before I knew it. The wedding went off without a hitch. I had a lot of fun with the homily (which is posted on my blog) and a great time joking and laughing with Karin and Chris at the altar. One of my favorite parts of the service was when Chris answered a question by saying, “As I heard someone else say at his wedding, ‘Oh yes!’” It made me laugh and reminded me of when I said that and made everyone laugh. The reception was a lot of fun as well, and this DJ was easily the best of any wedding I’ve been to. He not only did a great job with the music, but he kept the bride and groom’s glasses full and even helped bus tables when there wasn’t anything else going on. I was very impressed. The only thing I didn’t like was he didn’t play “What is Love” after I requested it. No “Night at the Roxbury” for us…

Sunday was great. Jess did a wonderful time with the children’s sermon at her old church. I enjoyed the service up until the last song when they completely butchered “Mighty to Save.” Now, I realize that I am spoiled by having been a member at a church where Mark Swayze leads worship, but that does not give other people the right to speed through a song that is not meant to be played double-time. I really missed UUMC… The present opening party was fun until Kelly Smith had to go and say mean things to me. It was just not nice…

Our ride home was fun. We stopped at a roadhouse diner to eat and had really good steak and “4-gun chili.” Whatever that means. And now we’re home. And life goes back to normal. It was a great time, though, and I was blessed to be able to be a part of the ceremony and festivities.

Well, thanks for journeying with us from NJ to OH and back to NJ! Tune in next week for a discourse on Vatican II and dinosaurs!

You stay classy, World Wide Web!

Love,

Jess and Wes