Weekend

So, this is a long awaited post. I had a great weekend at home (Tri-Cities) for my friend's wedding. Here is a breakdown of how my weekend went.

Wednesday:
I headed home on Wednesday morning for the bachelorette party starting that night. Jackie wanted a simple girls's night out. No drinking, no bars, no bachelorette get-up, just girl's night in (or out, whatever). What she got...

Sarah rented a limo to take us to dinner, and then around town for a while afterwards.


We went to Bella Italia for a nice dinner. It is a small restaurant with real Italian food. There is hardly anyone ever in there, so it was nice.



This is us enjoying our dinner.



This is her sister, and bridesmaid...Sarah. She lives in California, and has a twin brother named Jeremiah. They are older than Jackie by, I think, two years.



After dinner, Jackie wanted to head back to her place and settle in, watch some movies, pig out on ice cream and cookies, and just have fun with the girls. What she got was...

Part of her "get-up" was this Freedom sign. She also had a bachelorette sash, a veil, and toward the second half, a bachelorette hat. She gave me a Maid of Honor hat as well, so that was cool.



Sarah just wanted to take her to a bar to get "one" shot. Well, one shot turned into four, and that turned into bar hopping. Good thing we had that limo. We had originally only had it for 3 hours, but the driver was cool...if we paid in cash, we could keep it as long as we wanted. The cash kept coming...



Jackie taking her first "blow job" shot.



Some fun in the limo.



Here's a good pic of me and Jackie, early in the evening.




After that, she was hooked. The night just kept going like that. It was fun, but I was getting tired of it, and feeling bad for Jackie (since I knew this is not waht she wanted) by the end of the night. Fianlly stopped bar hopping, and headed back to Jackie's Watched a couple movies (I fell asleep during them both), and then headed home.

Thursday:

Well since I didn't get home until 5 am from the bachelorette party, I slept all day. Didn't really do too much. Hung out with my mom, got a little shopping done.

Friday:

I got up early and went running with Jen. It was a small 3 mile run, but she runs faster than me, so I was pushing it. By the time the 3 miles was over, I was pooped. Afterwards helped hang wallpaper in Grason's room. We had actually done this once before in her house in Beaverton, but just after we got it all up and nice, she sold her house. She still liked the paper, so we did the same thing in Kennewick. I think it turned out pretty good. There was some rough spots, and we had to redo a wall, but it looks good. His room is painted blue, and the paper is red cars. It looks great.

Rehearsal & Dinner. I just didn't have time to take shots of this. It was a blast. Everything that Nathan and Jackie do is fun, so of course, we had fun. We were well prepared for the "real" thing.
Dinner was at the Spaghetti Establishment. It was ok. Not a place I may go again, but ok.

Saturday:

Day of the wedding! Yeah!! :)
Started off getting our nails done, then I had to pick up Jackie and take her to the church. Well, what bride is calm and collected on the day of her wedding...she was freaking out. She left the nail salon, I told her I would meet her at her house after she had her shower. Well apparently I wasn't quick enough (had some traffic detours and delays I wasn't aware of) and by the time I got to her house, she was packed and heading off to the church. Oh well, little speedbump in the "calm and collected" day, but I knew we would get over it.

We did. Arrived at the church, said a little prayer, and got started with hair and make-up. Here are some getting ready pics.





She's all ready for pictures. I caught a quick shot of her all ready-to-go. She is a beautiful bride. She was just glowing at this point!



Jackie had some of the bridal party pics outside in a little nearby park. It was nice to have some different scenery. The were also some in the church as well. I thought this was a great pose of Jackie.



Jackie and Kathleen.



Jackie having some fun.



This is Codi and Deja. They are girlfriends of the Groomsmen. They also came to the bachelorette party. I liked them, I thought they were cool. Deja is scheduled to marry the Best man (Jim) in December.



Moving on to the actual wedding. I know this is becoming a long post, but I had to get all the pics up.

This is me and the Best man, Jim. It is really blurry, but you get the idea.



Of course, Jackie and her Dad. Again, blurry, but obviously I wasn't the photographer. (Not that mine are much better at times)



I really liked this one of the whole bridal party, with the bride and groom.



My whole family came. Except my dad...don't know where he is...maybe golfing. Hmmm?



After the ceremony, we signed the marriage license, and took some more photos of the family. I think by the end, all the picture taking was making us all feel like this..



Next up...reception.

Cake toss: Nathan was nice, fed her appropriately. But Jackie would not agree...she threw it at him. But, in the end, they still love each other.



First Dance. This is one of my favorite pics of them. It just shows how much they love each other.



Speeches. Short, sweet, and to the point.



An old friend Josh. Who happens to be Jackie's cousin. This is his little 13 month old Kailey. She is adorable.



I even got to dance with the groom. How sweet. He said that was his third dance in his entire life.



The wedding went off without a hitch (well, at least not too many hitches, and small ones at that), the reception was fun, and I was beat. Overall a great weekend. I was proud to be Maid of Honor and standup for my friend. She married the perfect guy for her. I really like Nathan, and I am very happy for the two of them.

Here's a pic of me and Jackie attempting to swing dance.



I have so many more, but I couldn't post them all. Even though it seems as if I did, I didn't.

Also had some great pics of Grason and Kaitlyn. Those will be on my next post!