Crashing A Wedding

Long weekend. Looooong, looooong, loooooong weekend. Gina's cousin, Nicolette, got married on Sunday, but when you're involved with a wedding that means you've got things happening all weekend leading up to the ceremony. Friday we had the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. We also had to pick up my tux from the tiny little suit shop in Claremont (really far from our house) so we ended up spending close to 3 hours in the car Friday afternoon. The girls hung in there, though I know they weren't too happy about the situation. They played happily in the church during rehearsal and won over almost every heart in the wedding party, and then made a beautiful disaster of the restaurant at the rehearsal dinner and won over the heart of the bus boy assigned to sweep under their high chairs every 5 minutes. We didn't end up leaving there until almost 9:30 so we changed them in to jammies and they passed out on the way home. Saturday we went to lunch with my parents and then took the girls to their first pumpkin patch experience. They went on the little train and then the carousel and we finished with the petting zoo - you know how Genevieve loves her goats. Then Saturday night we had to go up and stay with the wedding party in LA, so the girls went over to Grandmas house for a slumber party. Seems like they had a really good time - I know my mom loved every minute of it. We, on the other hand, had our first night both away from them. I finally see, first hand, how hard it's been on Gina with all those festivals. Your telling yourself to enjoy the night of adulthood, but you want nothing more than to see them and make sure they're ok. It's rough. I may have compensated by drinking a little too much and crashing a wedding in the hotel bar wearing flip flops and a t-shirt. I did get a dance with the bride, though, who made me aware that I was slightly under dressed, but she was glad I was enjoying myself. What can I say, I'm awesome. Next morning, in all the preparations, I didn't eat much more than a muffin and drank quite a lot of coffee to nurse a slight hangover, all the while failing to drink more than the one bottle of water Gina forced on me. Fortunately, because I tied on one too many the night before, I didn't join the rest of the groomsman in the pre-wedding celebrations taking place that morning. Still, once my suit and I met the 95 degree Los Angeles weather we decided to only last about half way through the 45 minute ceremony and fainted right up there in the middle of everything. Again I reiterate, I'm awesome. I could feel the lights going dark so I made a motion to get down and sit in the pews, but as soon as I made the move I could feel the blood leave my face and I was gone. Talk about stealing the show. I woke up to smelling salt and the bride exclaiming "Opa!" I spent the rest of the evening consuming as much water as I could find and gladly accepting all the ribbing dished out. After all, it's not everybody who can crash two weddings in one weekend in two completely different fashions - on figurative and one literal. It was nice to get back home, though, and look in on my girls. This being the first wedding I've been to as a father, it is quite emotional watching another dad give away his little girl. I had spoken with the father of the bride the night before and I asked him if he'd lose it when the time came. He told me he would be amazed if he kept it together, and I confided in him that I knew I'd be a sobbing mess on my girls' wedding days from the moment I laid eyes on them. The only thing that will keep me from openly weeping on those days is if I pass out. ... and we now know there's a strong possibility for that to happen as well. Have I mentioned my awesomeness lately?