Jen's Blog: wedding and reception

November 6, 2008

lucky...

you know you are lucky when your friend makes you "his & hers" gnomes in your likeness for you belated reception. very lucky! (she even got the blue nail polish...)

or how about friends that have your portrait painted?

this needs to hang somewhere special... or maybe i'll take it to work!

June 18, 2008

on 6/17/08 i became a married lady. go to my photo blog for pics of all the hub-bub. i wore the black beaded dress from smitty's wedding & dan wore his fancy dress clothes and tie. we wanted to get married in private. isn't that funny? we're just both sort of shy in our ways and wanted to say our vows without a crowd. but we still want to throw a "belated" reception in november!

i was able to book the entire wedding via email with a nice lady in the hilton wedding chapel. not one phone call needed, which made me so happy.

we arrived monday evening in vegas. the courthouse downtown closed at 8pm so once we unpacked and had dinner, we got in a taxi and raced to the "old strip" near freemont. it was easy getting the license and took about 15 minutes. we giggled the whole time.

the next day dan had to work, so i meet with the wedding planner in the chapel. she was the nicest lady and was our wedding planner, witness, photographer, and videographer. (she’s been working in vegas wedding chapels for almost 20 years and loves her job.) she helped us plan the small ceremony, pick music, flowers and decide on what kind of ceremony we'd have.

she gave us a bottle of champagne and we made mimosas before we went down to the chapel. it was tuesday, june 17^th at 6pm. (06/17/o8, per wiki is also barry manilow's birthday, LOL!)

the minister walked into the chapel sucking on a lollipop. he was an older guy in a nice suit, and he was really sweet and funny. he talked a lot and gave us advice on RVs and talked about the beauty of the desert.

we played tom waits' "a little rain" for the walk up the aisle. i think it took me all of 5 seconds, it was such a small chapel and i was nervous. the minister loved the song and quietly asked the planner to let it play out, because it was a beautiful song. he did a non-religious service and what he said made me cry, it was so lovely. i cried and giggled like a loon. after our vows, we walked down the aisle to "long way home", another waits song done by norah jones. the minister loved the music so we gave him our "wedding mix CD." (that meant a lot to us.)

we laughed and talked with the planner and minister, and took photos. then we hopped in a taxi & went to the stratosphere for dinner. we called family & friends on the blackberry to tell them the good news, until we realized folks back home in ohio were already in bed!

dinner was amazing up in the spinning restaurant, although when we got there the sun was so bright in our faces. the waiters tried to stand to block the sun when we ordered. we had drinks and steaks and just talked and laughed. the view was magical and there was a big pink moon over the mountains and it reminded me of that nick drake song from the VW ads.

ya know, i like to think of that old minister driving in his RV, out in the desert, listening to tom waits, & sucking on a lollipop....