Fruitcake Wedding: The Pre-Game

The morning of the wedding was a TOUGH one.  Because of some pre-wedding jitters and the fact that we had a bunch of friends coming in from miles and miles away, we had gone out to the Flora-Bama the night before after the rehearsal dinner.  Thoughful (thoughtless???) friends made sure we had drinks, shots, and other nameless concoctions to celebrate our wedding, and Fruitcake was a RumCake that night.

Blessed Mary, I have wonderful friends.  M and A got up before the buttcrack of dawn to go to Chick-fil-A (did you know that they open at 4 am?  Seriously?).  So when I woke up (grumpily to the sound of an alarm), they had hot coffee for Mama Fruitcake, a ginormous Diet Coke for me, and chicken biscuits all around.  Happy Fruitcake.  Except that because of a scheduling problem (the girl that was supposed to do my hair, and Niecey's hair (my niece) went into premature labor, and we had to rearrange our day), I had to be at my hairdresser at 8 am.  (Did I mention that the wedding was a 6?  That night?)

Mr. Fruitcake, in keeping with the tradition that we wouldn't see each other after we parted ways at the FloraBama, agreed to bring his 8-year-old niece back to the hair salon on his way home from his sister's.  However, on the way to the hair salon, I get this picture from SIL Fruitcake:

Mr. Fruitcake, still on the couch at his sister's condo.  Oops. Running a wee bit behind schedule.

Thanks to one of my very best friends, I only had to worry about climbing in and out of her car.  Mrs. A took care of the rest.  And thankfully, SIL Fruitcake threw some cold water on Mr. Fruitcake and got him up and moving, and my niece came around the corner just in time to hop into the stylist's chair.

Because of the rather awkward location of our wedding (I LOVED the Lodge.  Getting to it was another story), we had to go around the world and back the morning of the wedding.  Not to mention that the ONLY MAC counter is in Mobile, which meant driving 30 minutes in the opposite direction.  But lordy-loo, it was so worth it.  First of all, MAC makeup is incredible, especially for special occasions where you know you're going to be photographed.  Secondly, their makeup artists are incredible.

Suddenly (ok, it was really like 2 hours, but whatever), I went from plain-jane Fruitcake to feeling very much like a bride on her wedding day. And a very real set of butterflies set in!

(And yes, I totally rocked the fake eyelashes.  I love them, since mine are naturally blonde and straight as a stick, which also means invisible.)

Did I mention that my makeup artist (Sharon) rocked? (If you're in the Mobile area, go check her out.  Get a free makeover.  I promise that you won't be sorry).

Niecey was getting bored and cranky, so Mrs. A took her to the Disney store while I finished up.  And somehow, Niecey managed to finagle a promise for a milkshake.  Cue a drive-thru stop at Checkers for a strawberry milkshake for Niecey and a loaded order of fries and another giant Diet Coke for moi. (I should add the Mrs. A was freaking out inside, but did a beautiful job of hiding it from me.  "A freaking milkshake.  Everything we have to do, and we have to stop for a freaking milkshake.")

While Mrs. A, Niecey and I were being prettified, Miss S, Mr. J, Mrs. M, and a horde of other people were working their hineys off getting the Lodge ready for our ceremony.

Flowers:

(Mr. J with our daisies)

The ceremony site:

The pinwheels:

The tent:

 Our favors:

 Our guestbook:

i LOVED our guestbook.  Instead of doing something that was ultimately going to end up in a box in the attic, my dad gave us a copy of The Best of Life, which highlights the best photographs taken over 75 years of Life magazine.  We provided a basket of Sharpies, and our guests signed the pages. We have some hilarious and touching pages, and it's something that we can now display on our coffee table.

And suddenly, it was time to boogie on to the Lodge to finish up our last minute preparations and get this show on the road!

Did I mention that we had a photo booth?