Wednesday before the wedding, we spent most of the day at the airport as Julie's mom, Andy's family, and Matt, Andy's best man, came in to town.  We wished that we could get our hand stamped as we paid for parking the second time and third times.  It's funny how airports never think about stuff like that.  Eventually we had everybody accounted for.

The next few days involved intense planning.  We had to organize all of the people and other resources that we were going to have.  Like a scene out of mission impossible, we tried to figure out who was going to go where, when, and to do what.  With all of those 'w's taken care of (we already had a rather indisputable why), we had to focus on the how.

Highlights of the next several days included Julie's mom fitting and assembling all of the bride's maids' and bride's dresses (wow, thanks mom Swindell), an evening into late night assembly party for the guest bags featuring the Bzostek clan, and a candle hunt by the couple and the best man that ended up being fruitless.

On Saturday, we went to the island (the site of the wedding) to go through the rehearsal.  Rev. Dawn Gotoh had everything nicely planned out.  She ran us through a nice little outline of our wedding constantly asking questions to which the only answer was "Put it on the WalMart list!"  What would we have done without WalMart??  Then, after a brief break where everyone ran to their respective bases and cleaned themselves up, Andy's parents treated us ALL to a lovely dinner at The Melting Pot (a great fondue restaurant).  The whole group was invited and everyone had a wonderful time. (Thanks mom & dad Bzostek).

Sunday morning arrived and we all pulled ourselves out of bed early, which was a difficult task, considering how much we ate for dinner the night before.  Julie went off to harvest ivy to decorate the island and found all kinds, including the poison varienty.  Luckily, it had no effect.  A group went to the Page-Walker to begin setting up and decorating for the reception.  When the the first group of Bzosteks showed up, they found Julie's best man Jason already there, retrieving the Hotel's chairs and tables from storage.  Soon thereafter, one part of the McCain contingency was on the floor in the middle of the room carefully ironing the tablecloths (Julie's Aunt Jill and former McCain, now Gustin, cousin Kelly), while another (Kelly's husband Rob and brother Glen) were outside, attempting to assemble a cute little bench brought in just because. 

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Andy's mom, sister Sharon, and Matt were working on the centerpieces for the tables.  They turned out so nicely that one of Julie's friends who works for a local catering company, asked how we were going to get the glass bowls back to the florist.  Good job guys!  A second group was then sent to decorate the island for the ceremony.  We were glad to see that the chairs and arch was already set up.  Julie's friends Jessica and Jason (her fiancee, different than the Julie's best man Jason) decorated the arch while she and her Uncle George (another McCain) decorated the bridge.  Andy, and Julie's best man Jason, were shuttling back and forth trying to get flowers, scissors and other forgotten things to the island from the reception site.  I'll bet you are wondering, "What about the dads'?"  Well, they served as bases, Andy's dad at the hotel and Julie's dad in the van with the car phone.  Now it was time for everyone to go and get dressed for the pictures.  And the craziness begins...

First of all, Andy started putting on his tuxedo, only to realize that there was no tie.  Julie went home to an apartment that had no hot water.  Jessica did a fabulous job on her hair and then they waited for the dress to arrive.  Well, the pictures didn't happen at 1:00 as originally planned.  They could have if no one would have noticed that the bride was still in her bathrobe (distracted because her hair looked great).  While waiting for the dress to arrive, we received the call from Julie's dad that the wrong flowers had been delivered to the ceremony site. After arriving at the sight, the Rabbi reminided Andy about the all too necessary license. Meanwhile the skies darkened and threatened to rain on our little para....  er... wedding.

Don't worry, in our lives there are always happy, if humerous, endings.  The dress arrived and was sewn onto the bride at around 2:30, who had received a call from a guest's cellular phone reminding her about the license. The flowers were corrected and distributed,  while the guests started to find their seats.  The rain started to fall, but it turned out to be more like five or six unorganized drops. Those drop did get everyone a little nervous-- we saw our guests scurrying back to their cars for their umbrellas. 

The Page-Walker Hotel is a refirbished train station, and, as such, stands beside a set of tracks which are still in use. Unfortunately, the newly wed couple and two of their friends approached the festivities from the other side of said tracks. As they neared, bells rang, lights flashed, and the gates of the crossing were lowered in anticipation of a 92 car demonstration of the tracks' continuing usage.

After this small delay, the couple was warmly welcomed to their reception. A good time was had by all. However, no one ate enough, forcing friends and family to eat left-overs for about the next two-and-a-half weeks.

Now showing, our European Sampler Honeymoon