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This is going to be long and overly detail filled. So feel free to skip along.
There was a fifteen minute period there where I thought I was going to have a heart attack. The people I needed most to the rehearsal weren't there, there was a horrible traffic jam on the turnpike, and no one was answering cell phones. But eventually everyone but the maid of honor (katertoticus) and my father made it. (Kate got stuck in really awful traffic and my dad had to pick up my brother's girlfriend after her flight got delayed by four hours or so. My brother could have done it, only he was a groomsman and was doing a reading, so...)
So the rehearsal ended up ok, and the dinner went smashingly. Chuckro and I had "Chubecca trivia", and divided up the room to play in teams. Chuckro gave his groomsmen Nerf dart guns, which may have been a mistake (or the best decision he made - I'll let him tell that one). There was far too much cake, which was to become a running theme.
I'm not going to do a full blow-by-blow of the wedding here. A lot of the people reading this were there, for one thing, and it's more detail than I really want to type out. So I'll just note some cool little details that people may have missed.
The plan had been that we'd get there an hour early, take some pictures, and then go hide. But when I got there, half the guests were already there. Many of them hanging out in the parking lot. So we mostly gave up on the "no one sees the bride" thing. Ah well.
Stuff you may or may not have picked up on - the priest who married us has known me since I was five. The first reader is a friend of Chuckro's since childhood, and also happens to be about to become a rabbi (I think she's wrapping up school right now). My mom made the pew bows, and the flower spray above the arch, and most of the flowers for the bridal party. My something old was a handkerchief wrapped around the bouquet that had been a baby bonnet from my christening. (Which I forgot to remove when I threw the bouquet. Ah well, it was kind of stained and I don't know what I would have done with it anyway.) Something new was the dress, of course. Something borrowed was the jewelry, which I borrowed from my mother. Something blue? My ring! (An advantage to sapphires.) And I did indeed have a sixpence in my shoe - my mother-in-law brought one back from Ireland for me, and I had it securely taped to the bottom of my shoe.) And our first dance was to the song playing when Chuckro proposed. (Hey look, we have an "our song"!)
I still can't believe the band made it to the wedding. That had been the one thing I'd regretted, that it was timed so the band couldn't be there. And then at the very end, I was tired, and my feet hurt, and a little annoyed that I had katertoticus and wavilyem's stuff and couldn't find them and I declared that I was going to wait in the car, and I walked around the corner and there was a rolloff and I almost stopped breathing. It was amazing. Seriously amazing. I still can't believe they pulled it off. (Yes, it was a mostly alumni strikeforce band, but it was there with uniforms and instruments, and it rocked.) I giggled madly all the way home.
So the first thing that Chuckro and I did when we got to our hotel that night? Ordered hamburgers from roomservice. I think that's the best tasting hamburger I've ever eaten.
We got to San Francisco, and went to pick up the car. While talking to the guy at the desk, we mentioned it was our honeymoon. He congratulated us and sent us on to the parking lot. When we got there, the (different) guy there came up, congratulated us again, and announced they were upgrading our car because it was our honeymoon. Rockin'!
We went strolling around Fisherman's Wharf, since it was midafternoon. As we're walking by, a random guy is yelling about his boat tour for $10, leaving in two minutes, only two seats left. We look at each other - why not? Spontaneous boat tour! It was pretty nifty - went out to the Golden Gate, took a turn around Alcatraz. There were two honest-to-God sailing ships firing cannons at each other over by Sausalito. Why were there pirates in the San Francisco Bay? I have no idea. Still don't. We got back to shore unboarded, and celebrated with a Ghiardelli sundae, and then spent far too much at the Ghiardelli shop.
The next day, we drove up to Sonoma. We started off at a cheese shop, where we got a tour, breakfast cheese, a container of quark (sort of like a cross between cottage cheese and boursin), a loaf of bread, a jar of cherry cabernet sauvignon jam, and a souvenir bread knife. Then we went to Gloria Ferrer Champagne Caves, where we had sparkling wine with our picnic while sitting on a veranda looking out over the bottom half of the valley. Next, we drove up to the Benzinger Winery, where we got an amazing tour. They're biodynamic, so they keep insectories and have falcons and stuff to control pests without insecticide. We got to sample grapes out of the crush pad. We did a tasting there, and got a coupon to do a tasting at their sister winery. Managed to escape with only one bottle of muscat. Then went to an olive press and learned about making olive oil. We left with, not olive oil, but champagne balsamic vinegar. At the sister winery, we had each had a coupon to sample five wines - there were 11 on the list, so between the two of us, we got everything but the merlot. (Of which I'm not a huge fan, and this comes from before Sideways.) We decided we'd only get one bottle. Well, we got to the end of our ten wines, and the guy serving us had been paying attention. He insisted we try an eleventh, and didn't charge us. It was a late harvest wine. Clever man. We broke our resolution, and walked out with two bottles, the late harvest and the syrah rose (which was an experiment of theirs, and priced very cheaply to drum up interest).
The next day, we drove down to Monterey by way of San Jose. I wanted Chuckro to see the Winchester Mystery House. Sarah Winchester, the heiress of the Winchester Rifle fortune, went a bit nuts after her husband and child died. Decided that the spirits of those who were killed by the rifles were haunting her and could only be appeased by building them a house...forever. The hammers had to never stop pounding. So she bought a farmhouse in California, and then went crazy building. But while extremely well educated, she wasn't much of an architect, and apparently neither were the spirits advising her. So the place is insane. Staircases that lead up into the ceiling, doors that open onto two story drops or blank walls, windows in the floor, elaborate stained glass designed to catch the sun that are on the side of the house the sun never touches, with a wall against them anyway. Hundreds and hundreds of rooms. 13 bathrooms. Everything in 13s, actually. And spiderweb designs everywhere. Lady was nuts.
We got down to Monterey and found our bed and breakfast. Holy mackeral. I am the queen of bed and breakfast pickers. This place was incredible. Two Victorian houses, right on the water in Pacific Grove. We had one of the worse rooms - giant windows, with three quarters of the view of the bay, the rest of it of the tiny garden between the houses. Our own entrance, a huge shower, a bed with a half-canopy. The garden had a little brook running through it and benches that looked out on the ocean. We spend a lot of time there. Also, there were hummingbirds that would fly right up to you. The dining room was even more spectacular - beautiful antiques, and huge windows looking onto the crashing surf. You could walk sea otters and seals while you ate your breakfast. Or we could watch the sun rise over the bay from our bed. Oh, and the food. They had wine and excellent hors d'oeuvres at 5. Freshly baked cookies and milk at 8. And the breakfasts were amazing. They made their own granola. And the hot food - quiches, frittatas, baked tomatoes, and the crown glory, a chocolate bread pudding with Chantilly cream. Heaven. We bought the cookbook.
The first night, we stumbled on a farmer's market, and bought picnic food for the next day. The next day, we went hiking at Point Lobos, one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen in my life. The timing of the tides wasn't good, so we didn't get to see much in the tide pools. But we saw seals, and crabs, and deer, and condors.
We did a lot in Monterey. We went to the aquarium. We went to the butterfly preserve - the monarch butterflies migrate from all over the country to winter there. Imagine eucalyptus trees covered in butterflies. We went to an amazing gourmet restaurant. (Oh, the food coma that results. Bliss.) We went horseback riding in Big Sur. We went to a spa and got massages. We did a lot of sitting on benches in the garden, reading and cuddling and watching the ocean. It was fantastic.
We drove back up Route 1 to San Francisco the last day. It's all along the coast, through pumpkin patches. We discovered that I don't like In-and-Out Burger, not one bit. We also discovered that Chuck has a new nemesis - Golden Gate Park. We tried to go on a driving tour of the city. We got horribly lost in the park, and went in circles repeatedly. Finally gave up, left the park, and reoriented ourselves. Tried to drive up Twin Peaks. More lostedness and some profanity. Got up Twin Peaks. The view was truly amazing. Tried to get down again. After the road that the map claimed was perfectly straight made the sixth switchback, Chuckro's brain broke. ("What are you doing? Why are you turning? We're supposed to stay on 17th street!" "We are staying on 17th Street! The road turns!" "But the map! It doesn't have any turns!" "They laid out the city back East, and then superimposed it on the mountains when they got here! Of course the map doesn't show the turns!" "But-but-but...the map lies!" "Yes, sweetie, the map lies." "Nooooooooooo!")
We went back to Fisherman's Wharf, where it was safe and the map didn't lie.
Looong flight home - left at 11:35 in San Francisco, arrived in Atlanta (having crossed into Daylight Savings Time in the air) at 6, then had to fly back to Philadelphia. Then take a car service back to New York. (The original plan was for my parents to pick us up. However, my parents moved from South Jersey to DC in the middle of our honeymoon. The plane tickets had been bought before they decided to move, a couple months ago.) Actually, we were originally supposed to go through Cincinnati. But a week before the wedding, they canceled our flights and Chuckro had to strong arm them into sending us through Detroit. Well, during the honeymoon, we get an automated message. They cancelled our connection. We're supposed to fly to Detroit Saturday night...and flight to Philadelphia Monday morning. And somehow the lady Chuckro called couldn't see how this was an issue. He finally bullied her into switching us to a different airline and routing us through Atlanta to get us back home instead of stranded in Detroit for a day. Ah well.
So despite a couple very minor hitches - it was perfect. Everything was perfect. The wedding, the honeymoon - everything I'd ever wanted them to be. So thanks, everybody, who came and helped make the day so wonderful.
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There was a fifteen minute period there where I thought I was going to have a heart attack. The people I needed most to the rehearsal weren't there, there was a horrible traffic jam on the turnpike, and no one was answering cell phones. But eventually everyone but the maid of honor (katertoticus) and my father made it. (Kate got stuck in really awful traffic and my dad had to pick up my brother's girlfriend after her flight got delayed by four hours or so. My brother could have done it, only he was a groomsman and was doing a reading, so...)
So the rehearsal ended up ok, and the dinner went smashingly. Chuckro and I had "Chubecca trivia", and divided up the room to play in teams. Chuckro gave his groomsmen Nerf dart guns, which may have been a mistake (or the best decision he made - I'll let him tell that one). There was far too much cake, which was to become a running theme.
I'm not going to do a full blow-by-blow of the wedding here. A lot of the people reading this were there, for one thing, and it's more detail than I really want to type out. So I'll just note some cool little details that people may have missed.
The plan had been that we'd get there an hour early, take some pictures, and then go hide. But when I got there, half the guests were already there. Many of them hanging out in the parking lot. So we mostly gave up on the "no one sees the bride" thing. Ah well.
Stuff you may or may not have picked up on - the priest who married us has known me since I was five. The first reader is a friend of Chuckro's since childhood, and also happens to be about to become a rabbi (I think she's wrapping up school right now). My mom made the pew bows, and the flower spray above the arch, and most of the flowers for the bridal party. My something old was a handkerchief wrapped around the bouquet that had been a baby bonnet from my christening. (Which I forgot to remove when I threw the bouquet. Ah well, it was kind of stained and I don't know what I would have done with it anyway.) Something new was the dress, of course. Something borrowed was the jewelry, which I borrowed from my mother. Something blue? My ring! (An advantage to sapphires.) And I did indeed have a sixpence in my shoe - my mother-in-law brought one back from Ireland for me, and I had it securely taped to the bottom of my shoe.) And our first dance was to the song playing when Chuckro proposed. (Hey look, we have an "our song"!)
I still can't believe the band made it to the wedding. That had been the one thing I'd regretted, that it was timed so the band couldn't be there. And then at the very end, I was tired, and my feet hurt, and a little annoyed that I had katertoticus and wavilyem's stuff and couldn't find them and I declared that I was going to wait in the car, and I walked around the corner and there was a rolloff and I almost stopped breathing. It was amazing. Seriously amazing. I still can't believe they pulled it off. (Yes, it was a mostly alumni strikeforce band, but it was there with uniforms and instruments, and it rocked.) I giggled madly all the way home.
So the first thing that Chuckro and I did when we got to our hotel that night? Ordered hamburgers from roomservice. I think that's the best tasting hamburger I've ever eaten.
We got to San Francisco, and went to pick up the car. While talking to the guy at the desk, we mentioned it was our honeymoon. He congratulated us and sent us on to the parking lot. When we got there, the (different) guy there came up, congratulated us again, and announced they were upgrading our car because it was our honeymoon. Rockin'!
We went strolling around Fisherman's Wharf, since it was midafternoon. As we're walking by, a random guy is yelling about his boat tour for $10, leaving in two minutes, only two seats left. We look at each other - why not? Spontaneous boat tour! It was pretty nifty - went out to the Golden Gate, took a turn around Alcatraz. There were two honest-to-God sailing ships firing cannons at each other over by Sausalito. Why were there pirates in the San Francisco Bay? I have no idea. Still don't. We got back to shore unboarded, and celebrated with a Ghiardelli sundae, and then spent far too much at the Ghiardelli shop.
The next day, we drove up to Sonoma. We started off at a cheese shop, where we got a tour, breakfast cheese, a container of quark (sort of like a cross between cottage cheese and boursin), a loaf of bread, a jar of cherry cabernet sauvignon jam, and a souvenir bread knife. Then we went to Gloria Ferrer Champagne Caves, where we had sparkling wine with our picnic while sitting on a veranda looking out over the bottom half of the valley. Next, we drove up to the Benzinger Winery, where we got an amazing tour. They're biodynamic, so they keep insectories and have falcons and stuff to control pests without insecticide. We got to sample grapes out of the crush pad. We did a tasting there, and got a coupon to do a tasting at their sister winery. Managed to escape with only one bottle of muscat. Then went to an olive press and learned about making olive oil. We left with, not olive oil, but champagne balsamic vinegar. At the sister winery, we had each had a coupon to sample five wines - there were 11 on the list, so between the two of us, we got everything but the merlot. (Of which I'm not a huge fan, and this comes from before Sideways.) We decided we'd only get one bottle. Well, we got to the end of our ten wines, and the guy serving us had been paying attention. He insisted we try an eleventh, and didn't charge us. It was a late harvest wine. Clever man. We broke our resolution, and walked out with two bottles, the late harvest and the syrah rose (which was an experiment of theirs, and priced very cheaply to drum up interest).
The next day, we drove down to Monterey by way of San Jose. I wanted Chuckro to see the Winchester Mystery House. Sarah Winchester, the heiress of the Winchester Rifle fortune, went a bit nuts after her husband and child died. Decided that the spirits of those who were killed by the rifles were haunting her and could only be appeased by building them a house...forever. The hammers had to never stop pounding. So she bought a farmhouse in California, and then went crazy building. But while extremely well educated, she wasn't much of an architect, and apparently neither were the spirits advising her. So the place is insane. Staircases that lead up into the ceiling, doors that open onto two story drops or blank walls, windows in the floor, elaborate stained glass designed to catch the sun that are on the side of the house the sun never touches, with a wall against them anyway. Hundreds and hundreds of rooms. 13 bathrooms. Everything in 13s, actually. And spiderweb designs everywhere. Lady was nuts.
We got down to Monterey and found our bed and breakfast. Holy mackeral. I am the queen of bed and breakfast pickers. This place was incredible. Two Victorian houses, right on the water in Pacific Grove. We had one of the worse rooms - giant windows, with three quarters of the view of the bay, the rest of it of the tiny garden between the houses. Our own entrance, a huge shower, a bed with a half-canopy. The garden had a little brook running through it and benches that looked out on the ocean. We spend a lot of time there. Also, there were hummingbirds that would fly right up to you. The dining room was even more spectacular - beautiful antiques, and huge windows looking onto the crashing surf. You could walk sea otters and seals while you ate your breakfast. Or we could watch the sun rise over the bay from our bed. Oh, and the food. They had wine and excellent hors d'oeuvres at 5. Freshly baked cookies and milk at 8. And the breakfasts were amazing. They made their own granola. And the hot food - quiches, frittatas, baked tomatoes, and the crown glory, a chocolate bread pudding with Chantilly cream. Heaven. We bought the cookbook.
The first night, we stumbled on a farmer's market, and bought picnic food for the next day. The next day, we went hiking at Point Lobos, one of the most gorgeous places I've ever seen in my life. The timing of the tides wasn't good, so we didn't get to see much in the tide pools. But we saw seals, and crabs, and deer, and condors.
We did a lot in Monterey. We went to the aquarium. We went to the butterfly preserve - the monarch butterflies migrate from all over the country to winter there. Imagine eucalyptus trees covered in butterflies. We went to an amazing gourmet restaurant. (Oh, the food coma that results. Bliss.) We went horseback riding in Big Sur. We went to a spa and got massages. We did a lot of sitting on benches in the garden, reading and cuddling and watching the ocean. It was fantastic.
We drove back up Route 1 to San Francisco the last day. It's all along the coast, through pumpkin patches. We discovered that I don't like In-and-Out Burger, not one bit. We also discovered that Chuck has a new nemesis - Golden Gate Park. We tried to go on a driving tour of the city. We got horribly lost in the park, and went in circles repeatedly. Finally gave up, left the park, and reoriented ourselves. Tried to drive up Twin Peaks. More lostedness and some profanity. Got up Twin Peaks. The view was truly amazing. Tried to get down again. After the road that the map claimed was perfectly straight made the sixth switchback, Chuckro's brain broke. ("What are you doing? Why are you turning? We're supposed to stay on 17th street!" "We are staying on 17th Street! The road turns!" "But the map! It doesn't have any turns!" "They laid out the city back East, and then superimposed it on the mountains when they got here! Of course the map doesn't show the turns!" "But-but-but...the map lies!" "Yes, sweetie, the map lies." "Nooooooooooo!")
We went back to Fisherman's Wharf, where it was safe and the map didn't lie.
Looong flight home - left at 11:35 in San Francisco, arrived in Atlanta (having crossed into Daylight Savings Time in the air) at 6, then had to fly back to Philadelphia. Then take a car service back to New York. (The original plan was for my parents to pick us up. However, my parents moved from South Jersey to DC in the middle of our honeymoon. The plane tickets had been bought before they decided to move, a couple months ago.) Actually, we were originally supposed to go through Cincinnati. But a week before the wedding, they canceled our flights and Chuckro had to strong arm them into sending us through Detroit. Well, during the honeymoon, we get an automated message. They cancelled our connection. We're supposed to fly to Detroit Saturday night...and flight to Philadelphia Monday morning. And somehow the lady Chuckro called couldn't see how this was an issue. He finally bullied her into switching us to a different airline and routing us through Atlanta to get us back home instead of stranded in Detroit for a day. Ah well.
So despite a couple very minor hitches - it was perfect. Everything was perfect. The wedding, the honeymoon - everything I'd ever wanted them to be. So thanks, everybody, who came and helped make the day so wonderful.
</lj-cut
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Date: 2006-11-01 04:45 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2006-11-01 02:22 pm (UTC)From: