This weekend I was in the most wonderful wedding. When I was in college I lived with my boyfriend and his best friend,
AJ.
AJ and I got really close and became good friends. He had a girlfriend. I didn't like her. He had another friend that was a girl. I liked her. She liked him. So together we worked our charm on
AJ and got him to give new girl a chance. Now new girl,
Steph, and
AJ got married!!!!! I love them and miss them. They are the type of friends that even if we have to go a couple months between visits, it's always as if we just saw each other last week. This is a couple I KNOW will be together forever. Here's the story of their wedding weekend.
This is
Steph before rehearsal. About three weeks before the wedding she broke her foot. She had to wear a huge walking cast. The week of the wedding, she found out she had a blood clot in her ankle. Granted her ankle is better then her leg or anywhere closer to her lungs, however, still very scary. Needless to say, they were both anxious to get married before anything else could happen.
This is the happy couple.
AJ is really tall,
Steph isn't really that short! The wedding was in the Dells and so the rehearsal dinner was at Monks! It was great. Gotta love the Purple Monkey. It was great to sit around and catch up with everyone. We shared lots of stories from the
bachelorette party and stories from college. Lots of laughing, that's for sure.
These are the bridesmaids, all in a row. Me... you know how
I know them. Then it's Abby,
AJ's little/only sister. Her and I had LOTS of fun at the
bachelorette party. We have partied together many, many times. She's fun. Then it's Andrea. Andrea was
Steph's roommate in college. The semester
AJ and
Steph started dating, she was away
studying in Spain. She came home to a crazy life style. My favorite memory was when Andrea had been back about a month or two, Chris and
AJ decided they would clean
Steph and Andrea's apartment for beer. (They were hard up what can I say.) When they got there they realized how
disgusting two girls could be. Andrea and I were playing Dr Mario just laughing when Chris came out of the bathroom gagging. Oh it was funny. The
blond bridesmaid is Carrie,
Steph's high school friend. I don't know Carrie all that well.
Here is the happy bride resting her broken foot after getting her hair done. She was so nervous... she hates attention. You would never have known how nervous her (or
AJ for that matter) were if it wasn't for the pacing. There was lots of pacing. We tried to keep
Steph's mind free all morning. It was such a wonderful ceremony though, I am glad they planned it the way they did.
Here's
Steph and I getting ready for
pre-ceremony pictures. Weren't the flowers BEAUTIFUL!?!?! I loved them. When we were getting our hair done the bridesmaids and
Steph's agreed I was the crazy one so the
hair stylist did my hair "fun". You can't tell so much from the front but it was wild and crazy. I loved it. I love this picture.
All the pretty little bridesmaids with the beautiful bride. The ceremony and a majority of the pictures were outside. It was chilly, probably 55
ish degrees but it was exactly how I would have pictured their wedding to be. They are going to have so many awesome pictures too. I can't wait to see them all.
And the studly groomsmen.
Derek, the ring bearer was the cutest thing ever. He's
Steph's nephew from South Carolina. He was sporting the brown tux like a model and he walked down the aisle and smiled better then the adults. He's a very smart 3 1/2 year old. The one in the back left is
Steph's brother Scott. He escorted me down the aisle. Then it's the best man, Nate. Him and
AJ went to high school together and have been super close. They went to
separate sides of the state for college but now both live in the
Waukesha area. In the front kneeling is Ty. He is Nate's little brother and him and
AJ have been friends forever. Then it's
AJ...stud. Chris, my ex-husband is leaning on
AJ. They have been friends since grade school and of course we all lived together in college.
I don't drink
PBR... until my friends get married.
I don't do shots of liquid cocaine... until my friends get married.
And here is Derek and I. Saying a toast over wine and
oj. I swear to you I can only dream my child is as cute as this one. I love him.
So that was my wedding weekend. It was a lot of fun. Have I mentioned that yet?
One more thing about the weekend I'd like to mention. I'm not an overly religious or superstitious or whatever word you want to use but I can tell you that Steph's mom was at the wedding. She must have spent the morning getting herself ready but before the ceremony started she was most definitely there. You could feel her in the front row. Steph's oldest brother sat next to what seemed like an empty chair with his hand rested softly on the seat. But I know he was holding his mom's hand. I had never met Steph's mom but she definitely brings a calm over Stephanie. I saw how nervous she had been all morning and when she walked down the aisle, I think she too saw her mom for the first time that day. She just relaxed. Steph's mom died of breast cancer when Steph was in high school. She missed her mom being at graduations and missed being able to tell her about first dates and falling in love. It felt so good to know she didn't have to miss her mom at her wedding because we all knew she was there.
It's me and Mr Wonderful at the bar before the game. He wasn't hammered... just being lame.
Know idea what this guys story was but he only had one pant leg on his pants. And it was cold out. Really cold. Scarf and mitten cold.
Mr Wonderful is a HUGE Miller High Life fan. It's his favorite beer so this man has recently become his hero. Wendell just happened to be hanging out at bar we were at after the game. I took this picture because I love Mr Wonderful.
This is us in front of the Barry statue. It was even Mr Wonderful's idea. (Which surprised me and I got really excited he suggested it.) The drunk guy that took the picture wasn't real good at taking pictures but it's an ok picture. He's super cute so he makes any picture with him in it good.
This is us again... 
