Tiff's Wedding Recap

After I left you last I was headed out into the monsoon for the day of getting ready before the wedding. Normally I never wear my hair up, but I was afraid nothing good would come from a half up do in the pouring rain, so I went with a full updo. I actually liked the way it came out...

The getting ready process went very smoothly and we had more than enough time to relax, take a few pictures and get to the church.

Wondering how my ceremony jobs went? First of all, I was supposed to wait for the priest to nod and that meant it was my turn to walk down the aisle. I swear the priest nodded WAY before I was supposed to go (my dad says he saw the nod too so I was not imagining things). I decided not to go at the first nod because I didn't think the music had really changed yet and it just did not seem like it was time. After a really long minute or so (where I thought oh jeez am I supposed to be going?) about five times, I finally saw the TRUE nod and it was time to walk down the aisle. I felt a hundred times better doing it time #2 so, I don't know what my problem was at Katie's wedding haha. My second job was to hold the gospel while the priest read it. I have to admit I passed my flowers to Lisa twice when I thought I was going to have to hold it and then finally it was time to actually hold it. So basically I rocked my jobs, people should hire me for this stuff, haha.

The ceremony was very interesting. There were some things I really liked about it. For example, you know how usually in a ceremony, everyone walks up and then stands on either side of the bride and groom (or sits in the front row). Typically, there is some sort of hierarchy- first maid of honor/best man, and then it sorta feels like each person goes down in importance from there? Clearly no one up there is not important because they are in the wedding, but there is some sort of hierarchy? In the Greek/Albanian church they don't do this. Everyone stands in sort of a semi circle, so no one is actually farthest away from the bride or the groom. And, everyone has different jobs they have to do, so many different people participate in the ceremony besides just the maid of honor and best man (although they do have a lot more jobs, as they should). I really liked this, because like I said before clearly everyone in a wedding party is very important to the couple so why rank your friends?

I think overall the ceremony went really well and Eric even managed to get a photo of their first kiss! (and that's me in the background holding my flowers too high, as always)
They also got a picture of me coming out with my two groomsmen. Tiff had 5 bridesmaids and Ronnie had 9 groomsmen so there were a few more guys.
While Tiff did the receiving line, I got a picture of me and Eric...
On the way back to the hotel the whole bridal party (and parents) took a trolley to the hotel. The trolley had karaoke which was pretty fun. When we got back to the hotel, we headed to our own special room to take pictures. They had drinks and appetizers for us and we sat down and chilled out 'til we had to pose.
After the pictures, we still had time to attend the entire cocktail hour because there was a gap between the ceremony and reception. I'm sure it was not as fun for those not in the wedding party to wait, but I enjoyed attending the cocktail hour. During the reception, we sat at a table with my parents, and Lisa's entire family. I have known all of them since I was very little (I started taking dance lessons with Lisa when I was 3, then pretty much lived at her house during middle/high school) so it was fun to hang out.
Dinner and cake were delicious. I had halibut for dinner and it was probably my personal favorite meal I've had at a wedding. I have a lot of difficulty eating at weddings, so it was really nice to be able to eat an entire meal at a wedding.

I only had a bike of cake but it was delicious.

Overall, the wedding went really well. The whole time I was just so happy that Tiff was marrying Ronnie. Unless you have known Tiff as long as I have, you may not appreciate this as much but Tiff has had some interesting boyfriends (no offense Tiff haha). As an example, she dated this guy in high school who had been the trouble maker of my elementary school. He wasn't even in my grade but he was just the guy you knew was bad news. He really had not gotten any better in high school, and after he and Tiff broke up, his new girlfriend was pregnant in like a month. The bad thing is...the next two guys after that make elementary school trouble maker turned baby daddy look amazing. Tiff's mom said that when Ronnie asked Tiff's parents if he could marry her, her mom was like "Ronnie, you should've seen some of the characters that have come through our door..." haha. But, as always, Tiff knew something we didn't. She wouldn't spend the rest of her life with any of those "characters."

I already liked Ronnie based on what I know about him now...he makes Tiff happy, he's nice to her friends and he is fun to hang out with. However, I also think you can tell a lot about a person based on their friends. Ronnie has chosen for himself a lot (9 groomsmen alone...plus other friends) of really good friends. They clearly love Ronnie, they clearly love Tiff and they are even nice enough guys that they made an effort to get to know Tiff's friends this weekend. There were times when they clearly could've just hung out together that they sat with Tiff's friends instead. Here is a pic of a bunch of them dancing around Tiff and Ronnie :)
Well, that's all I have to say for now about the wedding. Everything was perfect. I hope Tiff and Ronnie had as much fun as everyone else did :)