SO! My best friend's wedding!
Renai didn't get married until 4:30 pm, so I had a lot of time earlier in the day to hang out with people and do random stuff. I didn't have anything in particular planned - maybe we'd go to the parks I used to play at as a kid and Carmen would have a lot of fun. It's SO FREAKING COLD here in Utah that we haven't been out to a park in ... like ... a month. And we have a park in our backyard. Be jealous. =p
In the morning, I texted Big Carmen and invited her to come to the park and play with us. She arrived shortly before we left to meet up with some friends for lunch. Big Carmen commented on how cute she thought Little Carmen's dress was ... it just so happens that was one of the dresses Big Carmen gave us. Ha ha ha!!
I decided to have lunch at Boston Market because Mark's never been there and I have some fond memories of eating there as a kid ... I remember when we moved from the North end of Phoenix to the South end, a Boston Market opened up by our old house and we ate dinner there. We hardly EVER ate out at fast food restaurants when I was a kid, so going out to eat was a Very Big Deal to me.
It's funny ... the few people who actually told me they wanted to hang out with me made it. =p: From left to right, it goes Martin (a guy I befriended the summer before I started high school and moved to Colorado, and he was just starting his freshman year at NAU in Flagstaff), Daniel (a good friend from elementary school who was my first big crush in fifth grade), Mark (my hubby, duh), me and the Munchkin, Stacy (a girl I befriended in 6th grade), Carmen (another girl I befriended in 6th grade, who is AWESOME), and David (a guy I was friends with in middle school ... I think he was actually better friends with Carmen and Stacy than with me, but when I visited Arizona during my senior year of high school, I spent a lot of time with him and Stacy and Carmen ...) David's daughter is hiding behind him. Poor girl.
After lunch, we had enough time to go back to Jeanni's and take a family nap before heading to Mesa for Renai's wedding.
Renai's wedding was awesome. It's funny how you can go to someone's wedding and you notice all of these little touches that are just so them. The music they picked out reminds you of them. The weird quirky things they do just seem like them (like dumping bottles of sand together to show how their lives are going to be intertwined and inseparable? or HULA HOOPING your first dance as husband and wife? YES.) It was fun coming back after having not seen Renai for 6 years and being like, "Yep, same old Renai!" At the reception, they played music while introducing the wedding party, and when Renai and her husband came out, they started playing Queen's "We Are The Champions". Yeah. It just worked.
Carmen was very attached to Dad throughout the whole ceremony:
Carmen was less cooperative when sitting with me:
Also, I am a better photographer than Mark is (almost every single picture ever taken of me with this camera is blurry)
She was so thrilled to be getting married ... she absolutely beamed throughout the whole ceremony and never let go of Erin's hands if she could help it.
You can see how much he loves her just by looking at his face.
And like I mentioned ... their first dance as husband and wife involved hula hoops. Last time I tried to hula (in November - for the first time since forever) I absolutely could not do it. It was embarrassing. But Renai can hula IN A WEDDING DRESS. AND she can do it with her arms!
He cried while reading his vows, which won him major points in my book. It was so adorable. Look at how she keeps holding his other hand ...
Renai's vows were written on some very fancy lined notebook paper.
He was so happy. And so sweet. I'd never talked to the guy before, but I was totally in love with him. He can have my friend.
When they were finally pronounced man and wife and they were allowed to kiss, Erin kissed Renai for a long time and tipped her back until she started giggling and waving her arms around. I caught it on video! It was awesome! I loved Erin even more now!!
And like I mentioned ... their first dance as husband and wife involved hula hoops. Last time I tried to hula (in November - for the first time since forever) I absolutely could not do it. It was embarrassing. But Renai can hula IN A WEDDING DRESS. AND she can do it with her arms!
When we were all allowed to start dancing together, the first song was the "Celebrate Good Times, Come On!" song. Ahahaha. Shortly thereafter, Carmen got tired and we all went back to Jeanni's for bed. But here's photographic proof she had fun dancing:
Oh, and Renai had the coolest wedding cake ever:
The bottom two layers had maps of the world on it, because both of them have studied in Korea. In fact, they're going back to Korea (today?!) and they're hoping to renew their contracts and stay for another year (teaching or something) starting in March. Then they'll come back to the States and figure out what to do with the rest of their lives ... Renai says she wants to do grad school.
And the bouquet:
After the wedding, I heard Renai kind of threw it directly at one particular person. I don't know who the person was, but apparently Renai got a good laugh out of the story. Later in the night, a drunk bum wandered into the reception hall and used the women's bathroom and freaked Renai out. How ... uh ... interesting. :)
On Saturday, Renai's parents threw an open house at their place, so I got to spend some time talking to Renai and Erin. It was fun to spend time with them and get to know Erin a little bit. Seriously, they're going to be great for each other. I'm so excited!
We couldn't convince Carmen to get near Erin. I think by the time we left Renai's house we convinced her to high five him.
Anyway. It was a great experience. It's so nice now that (finally!) my non-Mormon friends are getting married. It makes me feel like I'm finally a normal person, not a young girl trying to live her life in fast-forward. ;)
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