My Brother's Wedding

Friday: I was supposed to meet my brother at about 1:00 to take him around to do whatever errands he still needed to do, but he got someone else to drive him. So I had some extra time to play around and do nothing until the wedding rehearsal. The wedding was out in Fayetteville, which is like 40 or 50 miles away from where I live. I was going to get my haircut Friday morning, but IM's and phone calls had me feeling in a procrastinating mood. Instead, I just rolled out to The Banquet Hall and got there at about 2:30. I was the first one there. I was shocked because I suffer from chronic CP time-itis. Since I was 30 minutes early, I went over to the hotel where my grandmother, mother, and my brother/nephew Nate were staying. My brother came through and we shot the breeze with them for awhile and then we headed back to venue. Again, we were still the only people there until the wedding nazi, er I mean coordinator arrived. There was lots of sitting around and doing nothing, while we waited for the rest of the wedding party to arrive. Moms wanted to get some food for my grandmother, so I volunteered to go for her.

Side Note: My family is extemely indecisive when it comes to getting food. We never know what we want. I personally have been known for driving around the streets of Georgia for hours trying to figure out what to get.

None of us really knew the area, so I threw out some names of places I saw close by. After about 5 minutes, they settled on Quizno's. I asked what they wanted and after another 5 minutes it was decided that I should just call them when I got there. Why did I allow that? When i got there, I called them and asked what they wanted and they started coming with subs that arent even in existence. My grandmother wanted just a turkey sub, which was cool. But my mom wanted some type of veggie sub. But the catch was she only wanted lettuce, carrots and cucumbers. I looked at the menu and I aint see anything like that. Before I could protest, she handed the phone to my niece Dominique who had a similar not on the menu request. Something like a veggie sub with lettuce, mushrooms and brussel sprouts (okay thats an exaggeration, but you get the point.) They then just start passing the phone back and forth to each other and next thing I know I am ordering 6 sandwiches, when I was just supposed to be getting my grandmother something. I was like, "the rehearsal dinner is in 2 hours, can't you wait?" Anyway long story short, I just got whatever was close to what they wanted and told them if they don't want it, then don't eat it. Ahhh, the Casanova family. Gotta love it.

I get back to the rehearsal and by now just about everybody is there. Great, now I look like I was late when I was the first one there. They are doing the walkthrough of the wedding ceremony, and the wedding nazi, er I mean coordinator snaps at me. Something like "glad to see you made it." Woman, I was here before you. I let that slide and go about the business at hand. I find out what I'm supposed to do which basically consists of walking in, standing next to my brother, and then walking the maid of honor out. Cool, no sweat! I can do this. We run through it a few times, but the bride and maid of honor aren't there (still getting their hair did), so I have to do the recessional by myself. The wedding nazi, er I mean coordinator snaps at me again, because apparently I was walking like I thought I was cool or something. I decide to snap back at her and tell her, that I can't very well escort the maid of honor down the aisle if she ain't here and perhaps she should have someone stand in for her if she wants "perfection." She laughed and after that we were cool. I think she was just trying to flex her coordinator muscles on me. Anyway, we got finished and head a minute down the road for the rehearsal dinner.

I drove my nephew Tarik, my niece Dominique and my brother/nephew Nate down to the dinner. We get to the restaurant and I escort them inside and then come back to the car to make a phone call. I noticed one of the bridesmaids just chillin by herself outside. I went over to talk with her, but she either wasn't feeling me (as I thought) or she was just shy (what she said.) Anyway, that earned her the nickname of Shy Girl for the rest of the weekend. Her picture is in the slide show. I sat next to her at the rehearsal dinner and my repeated attempts to engage her in conversation failed. Oh, well. Since my rap wasn't working, I sent some texts and listened to the bridal party talk about their church (apparently I was the only heathen in the wedding) while I waited for the food to arrive. My sister and her man came through with my little nephew Carlin and I immediately said "gimme the boy". I played with and fed Carlin, almost oblivious to everyone else eating their salads. After the dinner, I went home, made some calls, and then crashed.

Saturday:
The next morning, I had to go get a haircut and some batteries for my camera. I woke up about 8, but procrastinated with IM, until around 10. I was supposed to be at the hotel by 12:30 to start getting dressed and get our pictures taken. I spent way too much time at the barber shop, and made it out just in time to take the trek across town again. Trizzy (she's in the slide show too) told me that she knew a way to get me there quicker and I listened to her. Now, anyone who has been reading for awhile knows that I am directionally challenged and prone for messing up the most simple of directions. I should have just went the way I knew and not tried to get fancy but I didnt. I missed my exit, (I still say there was no Tara Boulevard exit) and wound up riding a few miles more. When I finally turned around and got back on track, Trizzy had me going down all kinds of isolated, desolate roads and I didn't get to the hotel until 12:40. Yeah, it's your fault I was late!! LMAO.

When I arrived, I was the only one there again, so I decided to go get my camera batteries. I got back to the hotel and started to get dressed, but my brother needed me to go back to the store which I did. Got dressed, ( a long story in itself. How many people can share one room?), took some pics and then rode to the wedding. I was amazed at how nice the hall was set up. Everything was laid out in the lavender and white and it looked totally different than it did the day before at the rehearsal. I don't really have too many pictures of the set up since I was busy with my best man duties and taking pictures of myself. LOL. The groom was handsome, the bride was beautiful and the best man, that cat was the shit. LOL. Check out the slide show to see how fly I was. LOL

Aiight, so the ceremony started out real short. The pastor jumped into the whole vows thing real quick and I thought it would be a short wedding. Then it turned into church. He prayed for what seemed like 30 minutes, although it may not have been that long. Besides, I was distracted by his blue gators. I couldnt decide if they were tight or country. I finally decided they were country and moved on. Yadda, Yadda, Yadda - you may salute your bride- recessional and it was over. They then set up for the reception and that worked out lovely as well. My brother's church band was playing and they had the Stevie Wonder and Earth Wind and Fire pumping.

This is a freaking long post, so I'm gonna just give some of the highlights and be done with it, as if you are really reading this whole thing. The bride sang a song for the groom and tore the house down. She did her thing. The groom presented the bride with a framed collage of pictures that my mom helped put together. It was tight. My brother and his frats did the Kappa Sweetheart Song. There was a musical "This Is Your Life" thing. Bouquet toss, garter toss, cutting cake; everything was just cool and I had a great time. My mocking was limited to just the Pastor's gators and the flamboyant member of the band who said "oooh, you are sooo beautiful" to the bride and pranced off. Other than that, it went off without a hitch and I'm extremely proud of how my sister in law and brother pulled it off. I didn't even need a drink like I thought I would and only got asked 2 times when I was getting married. Sorry for the lengthy post, but I am actually leaving out a bunch of stuff. Holla at y'all later.

It was written...