They toll not for me. My brother got married this weekend. It was a beautiful ceremony and I was a bridesmaid, so I was made up all girly and prissy. It was weird, but awesome. The event lasted all weekend and was quite a huge deal. I’m very impressed with how it all came together so well and, as I told the happy couple, I couldn’t have thrown a better wedding myself. It was everything I could have imagined and more. I told my brother at the reception that I’m very proud of him. He was confused and asked me why. I smiled, saying “if my big geeky brother can find true love and happiness in this world, it gives me hope that I can too”, then sipped my champagne and just grinned. It was nice to have a brother/sister moment there. I think it also gave him a clue to my uncertainties about my status with Irish, but also my hopes that it’ll work. Honestly, at this point I can’t say for sure either way of how I think it’ll go. I’m just going with the flow. But back to the wedding stuffs, here’s a breakdown of the weekend.

Saturday – Rehearsal/Dinner:
We parked at the Rusty Scupper then walked up to Federal Hill to do a run-through of the ceremony. I finally found out which of my brother’s friends would be walking me down the aisle and when we did our rehearsal walk, we both started strutting with this silly walk, with no prompting or collaboration at all. It was pretty amazing. We both were giggling about it afterwards. Dinner was at the Rusty Scupper, which sounds terrible, but was actually pretty good.  Open bar and good crab soup. And then chocolate fondue for dessert. So full of win. Except for the fact that the fondue fountain got way too hot and burned the chocolate. But oh well. Twas still good.

Sunday – Prep/Wedding:
Woke up around 7 to go to breakfast at Miss Shirley’s Cafe. The selection there was amazing, but I just wasn’t that hungry. I ended up with sweet tea(with a sprig of mint), Cinnamon Danish pancakes, and bacon. Ate about half the pancakes before I just couldn’t do it anymore. It sucked a bit because I’ve learned that to me, pancakes are like Chinese food – I get hungry again an hour later. And it messes with my stomach too. Which on a day where I am going to be in a wedding and outside and nowhere near civilization for awhile… sucks. And it did. I felt fluky all day, but was also hungry. I ended up grabbing a slice of pizza that the boys ordered, even though it was after the girl did my makeup.

I finally got my hair done, then the hairdresser said I looked like a movie star. Meh. I did look pretty good I guess. After prettying up and getting dressed, we did pictures all around the hotel, then piled into the limo to head to the ceremony. It was beautiful. My escort and I joked quietly about the strut walking, but decided we shouldn’t do it for the actual ceremony. Hearing my brother’s vows made me cry though. I had no idea he was capable of such strong emotion. Just… wow. The geekyness was definitely there too, because there were a lot of video game references and such. Very cool.

After looking around the entire ceremony, I got my phone from my father and found out that Irish had not made it. In fact, at the time of the ceremony’s start, he had given up trying to find the hotel to catch the shuttle and had gone back home to get better directions. I lost it. It was the most beautiful wedding ever, and I was all dolled up, and I really wanted him to see it, and I wanted to get pictures taken with him. And none of that got to happen. I texted him back, saying that it was over and that cocktail hour starts at 7, so be there. By the time we got back to the hotel and I had a glass of wine in my hand, I felt a bit better, even though I still had no confirmation of his status.

Around 7:15, he showed up. I took him around and introduced him to my family and friends. He hated it, of course. But the free beer and snacks seemed to placate him slightly. The loud music was really bugging him, which I had apparently tuned out, since I didn’t notice it til he mentioned it. Then when I told him it was time for dinner, but that he wouldn’t be sitting with me, he got huffy again. There was nothing I could do about that though. There wasn’t enough space at the bridesmaid table for him to eat there, but he did get seated with my cousins, who he had just met and with whom he had sorta hit it off.

We lined up in our bridal party order and made our entrance. My escort and I once again strutting and being silly, this time while carrying champagne. Delicious. The happy couple did their first dance to Snow Patrol’s “Chasing Cars”, which coincidentally we had heard at breakfast that morning. It was beautiful. Then we headed upstairs for dinner, which for me consisted of caesar salad, filet mignon and scallops,  and more champagne. The filet was tiny as hell and I knew that Irish was going to end up complaining about it later, since I signed him up for that too. Which he did. The scallops were odd tasting, so I didn’t bother to finish them. I went straight to mingling and getting more booze.

When I walked over to the table with Irish and my cousins, the first thing my aunt said to me was something about asparagus pee. We had watched an episode of Good Eats where Alton Brown was talking about it, and apparently Irish had decided to talk to them about it. So weird. Within the next few minutes, my cousin had coerced me into drinking a cable car, some sort of orangey martini, and turned into a huge enabler, telling me to drink more, though I clearly didn’t need it.

The father/daughter and mother/son dances started, so we watched them from the balcony. I was recording them, but apparently my phone’s memory was full and it didn’t save the longer of the two recordings, which sucks. Especially since there wasn’t a videographer at the wedding, just photographers. Hopefully they got some good shots though.

Then came the dancing. I actually got Irish to dance with me. I was very surprised and honestly, after the stunt he pulled by not showing up to the ceremony, he owed me. Plus, I had already forcefully requested that he dance with me at some point in the night. We did some fast dances, rocking out and being silly, then took a break for awhile, grabbed another drink and chilled on the couch a bit. I got up a few times to mingle and dance randomly, but Irish just stayed on the couch. At the end of the night, I finally grabbed him and got him to dance again, then a slower song came on, although it was “Don’t Stop Believing” by Journey. We did the classic middle/high schooler arms-around-the-neck, swaying dancing. He was trying to move his feet to dance us around in a circle, but I was entirely too drunk at that point to be able to maneuver that and told him to just stand and move. I vaguely remember assaulting him on the dance floor with makeouts. In front of my parents. Ugh. But thankfully my mother has no recollection of it, or just didn’t mention it if she did.

Irish and I ran up to my parents’ hotel room real quick and I got changed and grabbed my stuff to go back home, leaving my parents to have the room to themselves and that way I’d be there to wake Irish on time in the morning. We wandered back downstairs and said our goodbyes to those who remained, saying we’d see them at brunch. I also vaguely remember a conversation with Irish that was basically “Am I coming home with you or staying here?” and after getting no real response, saying bluntly, “Will I be getting sex tonight if I come home with you?” Even though the answer was “no” because he was too tired, I still wanted cuddles. Not that I got them. *harumph*

Monday – Brunch:
Woke up roughly on time and got myself ready before hauling him out of bed to do the same. We were at brunch by 1030, so only an hour late, and there was still plenty of food. Bacon, sausage, french toast, eggs, potatoes, fruit, juice, and coffee. Om nom. Worth the drive just for a free meal in my opinion.

We said our goodbyes and congratulations again, then came back home to nap, since we were both exhausted from the weekend and the early mornings. We didn’t end up doing a whole lot the rest of the day besides being lazy, but that’s what holidays are for.

It was a good weekend and I’m so happy for my brother and my new sister. Also, the date, 10-10-10 was perfect for the wedding. He should never forget the anniversary and it is the answer to life, the universe, and everything. Plus, if he does forget, the next day, 10-11, is National Butt-kicking Day, so she’s got that to look forward to. Heh.

Well, this post took entirely too long to write over the course of a few days, but i’m finally heading to bed for the night. I’ll post more about my recent exploits tomorrow or Saturday.

Laters.