the beauty of friday night weddings

we attended a wedding on friday at nearby sierra la verne country club for one of the hub's cousins. unlike me, he only has a handful of these, and even more unlike me, he isn't particularly close to them. so it was nice to come and see his side of the family for a change.

although this also presented me with a slight dilemma - our usual go-to sitters are the hub's folks, who were also wedding guests. and our back-up plan - his grandparents, who live locally - was a no-go as well, since they were off to their own gatherings that evening.

anyone who knows me knows that i follow wedding etiquette pretty religiously. so when the ILs suggested that we simply take the bean with us, i clutched my imaginary pearls and explained that this was not an option, as the invitation was only addressed to me and the hub.

"oh, sure, she can come! there'll be other kids there."
"that's not the point. she wasn't invited, and that's totally okay."
"but they won't even notice!"
"oh, yes, they'll notice. and i won't be that parent."

keep in mind that i love my ILs to death, and they're typically very practical and thoughtful folks, so the hub and i couldn't understand why they were pushing this issue. later, the teen said "duh, mom, you know why. they just want to show her off."

ha! another example of the teen's wisdom beyond her years.

anyway, we found out that there was a trusted babysitter lined up to watch the bride's niece - the matron of honor's 1.5 year old daughter. and faced with the prospect of backing out (which is ass, since we didn't have a real excuse), we went with it. i was pretty anxious, because the bean's been pretty clingy lately, and i didn't want the poor sitter stuck with a crying bean for hours and hours, but i stuck to my guns. so i packed a bag for her, got ready, and off we went.

luckily, the sitter's house was only a few minutes from our house, and the wedding venue just a few minutes more. and when i suggested that the hub take her inside, explaining that it would make the separation a little less difficult, he asked "is that for her, or for you?"

i gave him the stink eye, but ended up proving him right as i fought tears all the way to the country club. oy vey, i am such a sucker/softy/wacknut.

the wedding proved to be entertaining for me, as i watched the hub's reaction to the details that are very much not his style. the groomsmen wore suits with fedoras and converse sneakers, while the bridesmaids sported tall platform stiletto heels. and there were lots and lots of tattoos and piercings on the wedding party, as well as a lot of the guests. my conservative hub needed his own pearls to clutch.

the bride accessorized her dress with a different kind of "sleeve."

the ringbearer was adorable, and i cracked up at his antics. when the officiant asked for the rings, he held up the fake rings that were attached to his pillow. and when no one paid attention to him, he whispered loudly to his mother, seated in front of where he stood: "moooom! they won't take the riiiiiiings!" comedy.

after the ceremony, we went inside to the reception, where we were amused by the white-suited DJ. he was really into his role as emcee, and he pulled out all the stops: a conga line (complete with plastic maracas for all), the electric slide, Y.M.C.A., kool and the gang's "celebration," and brother wan and i were just waiting for him to bust out glow sticks and top hats.

oh, and each table was assigned to think of a song with the word "love" in the title, and everyone had to stand up, one table at a time, and sing it loudly for the entire room. yeah.

as soon as dinner was over, the hub and i made our excuses, along with brother wan. i was more than ready to reclaim the bean, and the hub was perfectly okay with that. and as we walked into the sitter's house (where we were relieved to hear nothing but peace and quiet), the bean was getting changed into her pajamas while the other baby was being rocked to sleep. the bean looked up, saw our smiling faces, and immediately burst into tears.

and as i gave her lots of hugs and kisses, i got the lowdown on the evening: she and the other baby spent a lot of time playing with each other, they ate dinner together, and then she was just starting to get fussy when we got there. phew! although i'm thinking that without that other baby present, it would've been quite a different story. heh.

we capped our night with a stop at pinkberry, and then we headed home and called it a night. and the best part? the weekend was still ahead of us! whee!