#MicroblogMondays (on Tuesday): Wedding weekend :)

Younger Nephew & his beautiful bride. 

• My #MicroblogMondays post is late this week. As you can see from the photo, I've been busy! ;) 
• Yes, this past Saturday was Younger Nephew's wedding.  :)  We survived! :) 
• As with Older Nephew's wedding in the fall of 2016, the weather sucked -- except this time it sucked even more. Older Nephew got rain & chilly temperatures on his wedding day. Younger Nephew got pouring rain in the early morning, which turned to freezing rain, then ice pellets, and later SNOW.  :(  (And more of the same on Sunday. :p ) 
• The weather forecast got worse & worse as the day drew near, with dire weather warnings issued. The bride & groom were resigned to whatever happened -- but BIL was driving himself (& everyone else ;) ) nuts with fretting about it.   
• The roads were terrible, and got worse as the day went on -- although they had (finally!) done some plowing by the time we left the hall that night. (The main roads were OK by yesterday, but many of the side streets still had not been plowed.)  
• Despite the fact that some of the guests had to drive an hour (or more, because of the bad weather) to get here, there were only two no-show families at the reception. More people than we expected came to both the church ceremony & the reception, and surprisingly, people stayed and did not start leaving until 11-12 that night. 
• Unlike some people in the region, we never lost power, thank goodness. The banquet hall where the reception was held did have a backup generator, thank goodness, which I think gave BIL a modicum of peace of mind. 
• I wore my regular street shoes to BIL's house & to the hall (and really should have worn my winter boots) and then changed into my dressy sandals/heels (& then later into some flat sandals I’d brought – and thank goodness, my feet were killing me!!). 
• Even wearing "sensible" shoes, I almost slipped a few times (& my outfit had a pencil skirt!!). 
• 89-year-old FIL DID slip & fall on the (concrete) front steps of BIL's house as we were leaving to head to the reception. Thank goodness he was OK!!  He even wound up staying until nearly midnight. ;)  
• We went to BIL's house in the morning while the groom & his ushers were having their photos taken. Cooper (Older Nephew's miniature dachshund) could hear the commotion from the basement apartment, and was howling up a storm, so they finally brought him upstairs for a while, until we had to leave for the church. He got in on the photo session too. :)   
• We returned to BIL's between the church and reception. Poor Cooper was still howling :(  (I really think they should have taken him to a dogsitter...) so dh went downstairs & got him. StepMIL's 9-year-old grandson was eager to play with him. Cooper wasn't so sure, he barked a lot at first, but gradually warmed up to the strangers in the house. ;)  
• The church was still beautifully decorated with masses of white lillies from Easter, along with bridal flowers.  
• The waterproof mascara was tested several times, and held up well. ;)  
• The bride was stunning. Gorgeous dress. It was sleeveless, but not strapless, which was kind of nice to see. I can't remember the last wedding I attended where the bride DIDN'T wear a strapless gown. 
• Older Nephew was Younger Nephew's best man and the bride's sister was her matron of honour. :)  Their spouses were among the bridesmaids & ushers, and the bride's adorable little niece (1.5 years old & just barely walking) was the flower girl.  The nephews' only (living) cousin's baby boy was the ring bearer. He's only 9 months old, so his parents carried him down the aisle. ;) 
• The reception was so much fun. The hall was beautifully decorated, and the food & service were excellent. By then, everyone was relaxed and not worrying about the weather so much. Just about all of dh & BIL's cousins and their families were there (and in fine form, lol).  The kids had a blast running around together. 
• One cousin's husband rounded up all the other "married-ins" (as in those of us who married into the dh's mom's family, including me & SIL), and we did a round of shots together (lemon drops, which are mostly vodka). The cousins are always doing "cousins shots" at these things & he wanted a piece of the action. ;)  
• I have never done shots before -- wasn't a "thing" when I was in university ;)  -- but this one was actually pretty smooth. ;) I couldn't down it in one gulp, though. 
• The bride even joined us for a second shot. ;)  (That one was stronger & I couldn't finish it. :p ) 
• (As an aside, every time someone mentions "lemon drops," I think about an ALI blogger named Emilie Lemmons, whose blog was called Lemmondrops. Very sadly, she developed cancer and passed away at Christmastime in 2008, almost 10 years ago now, leaving her husband and two small children. Does anyone else remember Emilie? I still think about her and her family from time to time, especially around Christmas, and wonder how they are doing.) 
• There was a slide show on screens set up around the hall, showing photos of Younger Nephew and his bride growing up (many contributed by yours truly :) ) playing on screens throughout dinner. One of my auntie dreams realized. ;)  
• I always wanted to tell (or have dh tell) a certain story about Younger Nephew at his wedding. Of course, there are always way too many speeches at wedding anyway, & we didn't get asked to speak -- but dh got BIL to include the story in HIS speech. ;)  When Younger Nephew was about 4, his mom & I went to a wedding shower together while dh stayed with BIL & the boys. The subject of weddings & romance must have been weighing heavily on Younger Nephew's mind, because he & dh had a conversation that went something like this: 
• Younger Nephew: "Uncle Dh, do you like Aunt Loribeth?"  
• Dh: "Yes..."
• Younger Nephew (puzzled):  "Do you LOVE her?"  
• Dh: "Well, yes..." 
• Younger Nephew: "But... WHY?" 
• Dh: "Well... she's my wife!"  
• Younger Nephew (totally confused): "But... but... but... SHE'S A GIRL!!"  (lol!!)  
• (I guess he changed his mind...! lol) 
• Both nephews spoke beautifully. Both SIL & I were in tears, and asked each other, "Where did they learn to do THAT??!" So proud of them both!!  
• Both nephews were also partying it up on the dance floor. ;)  SIL & I also wondered where they got THAT from, since neither their father nor their uncle (nor their uncles on SIL's side) will dance unless they are dragged onto the floor. Then I saw FIL sitting at the table, helping himself to another glass of wine ;) and it clicked. ;)  He has always loved a good party (although he tires much more easily these days), and in his younger days, apparently he used to get up & sing with the band at weddings (much to the dismay of dh, his brother & their mom, lol).  I guess the party gene skipped a generation...!  ;)  
• Watching the father-daughter dance was (as always) hard. :(  I snapped a few perfunctory photos and then went to stand with dh & squeeze his hand. Hard.  
• The happy couple are now on their honeymoon at a Caribbean resort. :)  They left Monday morning, and by then, it was just plain raining. Their flight was delayed an hour, but it could have been much worse. 
• So.... what shall we do for excitement now??  ;)   

You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.  

Me & dh, the groom's proud aunt & uncle,  in our wedding finery.
Dress by Jade Couture.