Mary Gets Married

Cellular Phone Picture Edition.

Mary is: Simon's sister, my sister-in-law, Julia's godmother, the kid's aunt, and thee best. She's the sweetest girl you'll ever meet (truly! she is) and she got married to lucky man Andrew on Friday night. We drove to Wichita on Thursday just in time for me to get my nails done with the girlz and the kids to go down for naps (both equally awesome). My mom was going to come up and help watch the kids but threw her back out right before she came so poor Meg and Mollie intercepted some frantic "do you know of any sitters?!" emails from the Interstate because our kids + fancy dinners = no. We found someone for both nights ... the first night the girl was pretty young and didn't have a cellie so I left her with Simon's so I could hover-text - we later saw that she had Googled "funny pictures" while the kids were sleeping - too cute. If I were left with a phone in my babysitting days I would be Googling, "will the parents notice I just ate all the fruit roll-ups, fruit by the foots, fruit snacks, and remaining expired Halloween candy? - please say no." Anyway -- I took a few pictures and am going to subject you to virtually all of them because I'm in a generous mood. I'm sorry.

Nana Bettina at Grandma Ann's house. Theo is wearing 1/2 of his rehearsal dinner outfit and whats remaining of his hairs.

Day of the wedding. Mary did ALL of her own flowers. I know! Maid's bouquets, flower girl bouquets, her OWN bouquet, the arrangements at the church and the reception, and she wasn't stressed or zilla-esque about the whole thing at all. She's my idol.

Before the wedding. Bash's face is a perfectly accurate foreshadowing of his wedding behavior. He saw me, Julia, and Simon come down the aisle and lost it. My poor dad walked him around the block multiple times in between trying to bring him inside only to have to wrestle him through yet another tantrum and claims he will be having t-shirts made saying, "I got Bashed".

Next time Julia is being a nasty nelly I'm going to throw her into her flower girl attire because she transformed into a sweet little lady as soon as she was all dressed up. It was like the "wear a suit and tie for a phone interview" thing - clothes make the man or whatever. She was weirdly WEIRDLY pleasant and polite and normal. I'm still reeling.

a. "Bash is getting some peace!" - Julia
b. again, not so subtle foreshadowing of his wedding behavior.

Man and wife + wife's siblings + Grace and the kids. Simon is the oldest and shortest Patton brother.

You know these peoples. I wish I would've gotten a shot of the back of my hair - Simon's cousin Jenna did all the girls hair and did a stellar job AND it didn't fall out during dancing (dancing where Simon threw serious salt in my game and claimed I'm an angry looking dancer ... at least I got one Thrift Shop jig in before I retired my dancing heels forever - I hope Salt Shaker's happy).

Isn't Mary's dress gorgeous? She looked like a princess. The most gorgeous princess in all of the land.

I'll be honest and admit that I was up for about two hours the night before the wedding worrying about all the logistics with the kids (what would they do during pictures? how would we get them to the sitter after the wedding but before the pictures at the reception RIGHT after the wedding? What if Julia freaks when I go up for the vows?) because I need professional help and the wedding was all about me and my brood, of course. It all turned out so much better than I could've imagined and it was the perfect day and night. Perfect. The weather reports were looking TERRIBLE the week before the wedding but it all turned out so lovely.

Oh! And to top it ALL off I got to meet longtime blog friend Kate (I think she was the very first non-family member to ever comment on the blog and she pretty much made my life) and her son Jake and she is thee cutest pregnant lady and I wish we could've talked for hours. If I'm forced to fly to California to chat in person again - I'll do it. I will. She was wearing the coolest cowgirl boots ever and why did I not get a picture? Things that will plague me forever.

ANYWAY ...

Congratulations Mary + Andrew!!
Welcome to the married club - the best of all the rest.
Enjoy your moon in Mexico!!