Whirlwind Wedding Weekend

*Keep reading to the end for a lovely little surprise....*
Well, this weekend was, simply put, AMAZING.

Everything went off flawlessly. Except for a couple of things.

1. Hair. All of the 'maids went together to get our hair done. There were 2 different women styling our hair. Let's just say that one of them shouldn't be doing hair. One of the other bridesmaids ended up brushing her hair out in the car and calling her sister for backup. Yikes.
2. My dress. Remember how I said my dress was tight? Yeah, it was. I thought the main issue was going to be my thighs, however, it turns out that the top was the problem. While bending over and doing the junior bridesmaids' makeup, I popped the hook and eye and - yikes. Thank god the bride's grandmother is a seamstress, so she just sewed me into my dress. Which was great except it was SOOOOO tight. Once midnight rolled around and I got that dress unzipped, I was sooo glad to take a deep breath.
3. While on the stage, I had a serious case of heart issues. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but on occasion my heart goes all out of whack and starts beating super-hard and really won't quit until I sit still or lay down. During the ceremony, I bent straight over to fix the bride's train and BAM it hit me. It beat through the entire ceremony and straight up until I processed out and then sprinted to the bathroom where I swore I was going to be sick (but wasn't).
4. The tornado warnings and 50 mph winds. After the ceremony, we went to this old mansion to take pictures with the Christmas lights on the porch. And it rained and poured and we all got wet, even though we were on a covered porch. Ick. Did I mention that it's December? Weird.

But once we got to the reception, things were great. Before I gave my toast, the bride's father gave a toast, which of course set me off crying like a baby. My maid-of-honor speech or toast was beautiful. I think it went really, really well.

I framed the speech by talking about the things she has 'taught' me over the years, which I thought was fitting since we got to know each other at school.

After I finished my speech, the bride and her father danced which made me cry pretty much uncontrollably. I seriously had to leave the reception because I had to get myself under control. I was such a mess!

And now, I'm just going to post a lump of pictures because it seemed too tough to intersperse them with all this wordiness.

The beautiful bride getting a touch-up. Isn't she beautiful?? Me and the boyfriend. We caught the garter and bouquet at the wedding. You know what that means, right? The 3 best friends from high school (missing the bride...). We really should have got a pic of the 4 of us... sigh. You can see here how TIGHT my dress was... eek! The big girls and the little girls playing before the ceremony. At the reception...
The bouquet, with something old, borrowed, and blue. That pin was my mom's and I think she got it from her mom. And the blue ribbon added hastily because SHE DIDN'T HAVE ANYTHING BLUE!

Ok, I promised a surprise. At the reception, 3 of the other bridesmaids and I busted out in a little dance tribute to our best friends. The video's not that great, but at least you can tell we put in some effort on this little routine. I'm the 2nd from the left. Please, leave a comment and tell me how amazing lame my dance moves are. And how they made you laugh so. Pretty please? I need that comment crack to get me through all this business I have to take care of before I go back to school

Seriously though, the wedding and reception were amazing. I can't believe my best friend is MARRIED! It makes me feel soo... old? Lonely? It's the weirdest feeling, for sure.

I can't wait to hear how her honeymoon went... can't wait!