I'll go ahead and confess my sins now. I hardly took any pictures on this trip. Between MoH duties, being generally stressed and nervous and not having an actual camera, it just didn't happen. And I'm mad now. So thanks to the few of who did take pictures (Misch and Alison) posted them on facebook, and are finding out now that I totally stole them. Thanks.
We left the lakes on a Wednesday to hop a flight from Minneapolis to Denver. It was a late flight, so by the time we'd landed, picked up our rental, hopped on 25-North to Fort Collins, well....it was late. And I was exhausted. From what, I have no freakin idea cause I'D JUST SPENT A WEEK DOING NOTHING. It's really rough being me some days.
I popped a Tylenol PM to ensure a super duper nights sleep and awoke on Thursday morning rearin' and ready to go. I'd only texted Whit when we landed to let her know I was going to sleep and I'd see her tomorrow, so when I rocked up at our appointed meeting place the next morning for our nail appointments, it was like a total reality check. We're in Fort Collins. For Whit's wedding. This is happening.
Fast forward to the rehearsal. The weather was beautiful and the entire wedding party + family + friends are finally all together for the first time.
Bride and groom practicing their walk down the aisle together
The ring bearer, Cash, having a hard time keeping quiet. He did a great job on the actual day!
Following the rehearsal, we all headed over to New Belgium Brewery for tours and tastings. Some in the group opted to skip the tour and just head straight for the tastings. (Who me? You've seen one brewery, you've seen them all....) We sat outside in the late afternoon sunshine and enjoyed the various beverages on tap. Favorites? Sunshine and Mothership. Not so much? Hoptober.
The bride and groom were ever-so-clever in their planning and wisely planned for us to move on to the rehearsal dinner before things got too sloppy at the brewery. We piled in a cabs and headed over to Tortilla Marissa's for yummy mexican and margaritas. There were lots of speeches and remarks and then soon enough we were back in cabs again to head down to Old Town for more beers. (Thanks to Tina, our cabbie, for turning a blind eye when we piled seven of us in a four seater. We'll never see you again but you made the night.)
The next morning, Friday, September 9th, came with the blink of an eye. My attempt to sleep the night before was an epic fail. When I wasn't tossing and turning, I was dreaming about the wedding and the alarm sounded very early. The girls met for a leisurely lunch at 11am before our hair appointments just down the street. Again, we were treated to beautiful sunshine and dined al fresco.
No, those two pictures are not a "spot what's different" game. But if you're really reading this post, and I hope you are, you'll notice the Queen is with us. Lizzie is a Whit/Kate tradition dating way back to college for Whit's 21st birthday. She's now present at all major (and minor!) life events including my wedding, and now, Whitney's wedding. She's the best.
Whitney gave each of the girls adorable presents - jewelry and handbags and pashminas and dress sashes - oh my! We gave Whit our measurements a few weeks prior but hadn't tried on the sashes in advance. While I knew my measurements were fine, I was still nervous the sash wouldn't fit. I figured if I tried it on on top of my clothes and two scarves, and it fit, I would be fine.
We headed to the salon for our hair appointments and watched as our locks were transformed from everyday do's to special wedding day works of art. I wasn't particularly happy with mine - it looked like I had three rat tails at the back - so I kindly asked the stylist to redo part of it. It took longer than I expected and suddenly I was behind schedule and running late to the ceremony/reception site. (Flashback to my wedding when Whit wasn't happy with her hair either. What is it with us?)
We had a quick hour or two to get our makeup and dresses on and help the bride with hers. Seriously, time has never flown by so fast. Before I knew it, the photographer was hanging around and we were peeking out the window to watch the guests arrive. And then it was go time.
Nate seeing his beautiful bride for the first time
After the I do's
We ate, drank and danced the rest of the evening away. The stars were out, there was a cool breezy, and some really bumpin tunes. My type of party.
Seriously, why does Blogger do this? The picture is the correct direction on my comptuer and then when it gets on here it goes all crazy. Grr.
I can't put my finger on exactly when the wheels started to come off that night but I'm guessing it was sometime around when this picture was taken. We were trying so hard to get a normal, decent photo, and well, that's stupidly difficult when the wheels are coming off.
From here on out, the night starts to become a little blurry totally awesome. We left the reception around 11pm and headed back in to town to hit up the bars. We were all supposed to meet at an assigned bar - name unknown and time unknown - but we decided to stop for more drinks before heading to the appointed bar. It's weird that at this point, I'm now using my camera, but not earlier in the day when I really needed to be using it?
When we moved from the pit-stop bar to the real bar, things began to get cah-ray-zay. The real bar was a bar right across the street from our hotel. Easy enough. And me being the genius I am showed up to the real bar sans purse, credit card, lipstick and........identification. One by one we streamed in to meet up with the bride and groom and when it was my turn? Denied. No ID.
At this point, the wheels were officially off. First I pleaded and begged. "Do you see the bride in there? Do you see I have a bridesmaids dress on? Do you think I'm legit?" No luck. Then, Christopher, the gentleman on the far right in the pictures above, gave me his ID to get in. It was a genius plan. Except he is a boy and I am a girl and the doorman saw him hand me the ID. Better luck next time. Well, at this point, I'm out of options. (Minus the obvious one. Walk across the street and get your ID yourself idiot. Didn't occur to me though.)
So, what does any rational female do? She cries. And cries. And cries. And then magically, I get in.
At some point during all this, Mr. B., learning of my awful predicament, ran across the street to get me my ID, but by the time he returned, I was already seated at the bar. You would think, at this point, the tears would naturally stop. Situation resolved. Entry to bar granted. Move on. Ohhhhh noooooo. I proceed to sit at the barstool and cry, cry, cry. Woe is me. The bartender wouldn't even let me in. How dare he. Doesn't he know who I am. I only stopped crying when Whitney came over and told me to sort it out. (To be fair, this story is almost an exact copy of the night of my wedding when she also had a drunk breakdown and needed some comforting! Ha!) Let's just say the night was pretty much over for Mrs. B. at that point.
The next morning was a little rough, but we grabbed coffee and sat outside in the sunshine (see a theme here?) with a few people and debriefed the night's events. Isn't that always the best part of fun night out? Swapping stories and hearing the hilarious stories from everyone else made my little crying incident seem totally insignificant. Good. We put on our purple (it was gameday after all!), grabbed lunch, and headed over to Nate's parents house for a relaxing afternoon of BBQ and football.
Early the next morning, we headed back to Denver airport for our flight home. I was worried/anxious/paranoid about flying on September 11 but other than the longer-than-normal security lines, it was fine. (And I'm not complaining about the extra security - bring it on!) However, I really didn't need to see every TV screen in the airport on CNN all morning replaying the images of the planes flying in to the towers etc. I'm not particularly fond of flying as it is - despite the mileage racked up on this trip - so Mr. B did an excellent job of distracting me!
All in all, our whirlwind vacation was a blast. Mr. B and I got to spend some much needed quality time with each other, family and friends and it was a nice break before the chaos of October descends on us. Now, it's back to The Anniversary Home and the endless list of chores/improvements/to fix!
Awww I absolutely love weddings! You best friend's was beautiful! <3
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