Gwen and Ron say I Do - 3.21.09

[gwenshack]

Hmmmm....I don't know where to start! Well, maybe if I dump my brain I'll be able to get it all out. I just read NOTKT's post on where her name comes from and I'm still laughing that it was supposed to mean no ticket. I just have to give major props for that unexpected twist. Especially since her name is Katie. Too good. :chimp:

Ok, I'll talk about me now.
I was gone a week, but most of that was about being in Vegas, making sure people were comfortable when they arrived, and then showing them around the town (or where to find the good drink deals...). Most people came in on Thursday, whereas my mom and I both got into town Monday and DH and his parents came on Wednesday (although I didn't see them since they were staying off the Strip). DH dumped them at their hotel and then came and met me immediately. We wanted to ensure we had SOME alone time together before the madness began. We're not naive - we knew that we would spend every waking minute with our friends and the whole "couple runs off into the night" thing wouldn't happen. So Wednesday night was "date night". We went down to Mandalay Bay and went to this bar they have there called Minus 5, which is entirely made of ice. We've never been before, so we thought it would be a stupid thing for us to do...and we were right - totally cheesy. I mean, if we want to drink, we could do it in comfortable temperatures. But they lend you a parka and some mittens and even your cup is made of ice - so it was a good (although brief) time. We had one drink and then left - they have these brainiac boobettes working in there who are supposed to take your picture and try to sell it to you - which we wanted - but they couldn't figure out how to make the big mean pictures show up on the big scary computer. No, no joke. So we just left.

Went to Red Square, which is a Russian themed restaurant, for dinner. We went there on our last trip in November as well, so we knew what we were getting into - it's delicious but expensive - and DH was so disappointed because they took this caviar blini appetizer thing (ick) off the menu that he LOVED. He wanted to lick the plate last time, claiming it was so good. :( So he was a little disappointed - and then a lot disappointed when his stomach started rebelling soon thereafter. So we went back to the hotel and went to bed. Well, he went to bed - I went downstairs and played in the casino! hahahaha :)

Thursday we literally just ran around all day meeting up with people - and then that night we took my friends from the east coast on a drinking tour of the Strip.

Friday we had to go get our marriage license.
We woke up and were pretty tired, but we had to go get a marriage license - otherwise, there would be a lot of cranky people who came a long way for nothing. Room service brought us some breakfast and we were off.



Our wedding package came with a 1 hour complimentary limo ride to use however we chose so we ended up using it for this purpose, seeing as downtown is as far as we ever go around Vegas and we could save the money we would have used on a cab. Our driver was Ann, who was an excellent driver but, unfortunately, (and here's some foreshadowing for you all) not an excellent thinker.



We got down to the Marriage License Bureau in no time flat, going down the strip, and Ann pulled up and let us out. She gave us her number and told us she couldn't sit right there, but to just call when we were done and she'd swing around to retrieve us. No problem - we head inside - only a few couples in front of us (including one guy who had the devil tattooed on his shoulder with the word "Evil") - took practically no time, since we had filled out all of our forms in advance, and we got our paper and we were out of there.



Outside in the warm desert air, I call the number Ann gave me. Instead of the warm sweet voice of a Venetian limo driver I got an annoyed, still sleeping, deep voiced man: "HELLO?" Me: Um, I'm trying to reach Ann...?" Him: I don't know an Ann. CLICK.



Uhhhh. Ok. So we stand there for a minute, confused, staring at the piece of paper she gave me and comparing it to the number I dialed - and, sure enough, one and the same. We start sort of circling the building, hoping we'd just come across her, but she was nowhere to be seen. So...? I finally decide to call the V and see if they can track her down - which they did - and next thing you know she's coming around the corner.



As I get into the car I said "We tried to call you but I think you gave us the wrong number..." So she looks at the paper and says "Ohhh, I wrote down the first 3 digits of my home number and the last 4 digits of my cell phone. Sorry about that..."

Ummmmm, ok.

After that we had the rehearsal - which was pretty kindergarten. We've all seen enough weddings that we pretty much know how these things are going to go, but the rehearsal was the first time I had seen DH's groomsmen (one of them I had written a post about a few months ago and referred to him as PIG BUTT - short for Pain in Gwen's Butt) who I have very little contact with - heck DH doesn't have very much contact with these two. DH is very loyal and felt obligated to ask these two to be his his groomsmen, even though we rarely see them, and PIG BUTT tends to be a little unruly (more on that later), and DH had to have a conversation with him about what proper behavior is and he promised that he would be on his best behavior and not cause a problem (more foreshadowing?)...but it was awkward for me. They don't make me feel very good and they're not the people I wanted standing up there. It wasn't my choice so I never said a word about it, but seeing them there, mingling with my family and friends, sort of gave me a big case of the creeps. Ah well.

Post-rehearsal, DH and I parted ways. So sad. He went off to do bachelor things (although there were going to be females there too since I wasn't taking any of the random wives and girlfriends) and I went off with my MOH (bless her 8 and a half month pregnant soul) to get our nails done. :)

More to come...

[kgvettegirl]

ohhh I can tell this is going to be good.

[Jenna5366]

Waiting impatiently for the rest... :)

[gwenshack]

So after the rehearsal, MOH and I went to Johnny Rockets so I could eat something (mmmm, veggie burger) and then we went to get our nails done. For as far along as she is in her pregnancy, I have to say, that she looked pretty darn good. Some pregnant people are not the glowing images that they purport to be - I wouldn't say MOH was "aglow" but she certainly didn't look "agross" either. She had gone on and on about her huge stomach, and, truth be told, she is a big dirty liar. She looked great. The only major abnormality was the hugely swollen ankles, so I'm quite sure she was happy to soak her feet for a while in some warm water and have somebody rub them. :)

We enjoyed both our manicures and our pedicures. We were done just in time to get ready to go to dinner with my family at - where else - a Vegas buffet. I didn't rant too much about it, since it wouldn't have done too much good, but MIL (ah man, I can't write FMIL anymore!) refused to do a rehearsal dinner. She told DH that my side had too many people or something. Hmmm, but my mom is paying for dinner for you all at the reception! And my mom paid for them to stay in a hotel last March when they came to DC because they EXPECTED to stay in her house (even though they'd never met) and when there wasn't room somehow my mom ended up paying for their hotel, not to mention the number of meals my mom paid for. But anyway, MIL doesn't plan a rehearsal dinner, so my mom and I came up with this plan for the families to go their separate ways (don't get me wrong, DH was in on this too) and we would go to the buffet with all of my relatives and my MOH and her husband. My MOH's parents were supposed to come as well, but her father got sick at the last moment and her mom called me practically crying because they weren't going to make the trip. So sad. :( Anyway, rehearsal dinner - or lack of - when MIL and stepFIL showed up at our house in LA the night before I left for Vegas she pulls out her dress for the wedding to show it to me and then she says "and I have another one for Friday night..."
I said "What's Friday night?"
Her - "The rehearsal dinner..."
Me: "Well DH said we weren't having one. Did you plan one?"
Her: "No."
Me: "Well then there's not one."
So I think she expected my mom would just pay for it. Ummmm. Nope. You're on your own.

But WE had a fabulous buffet dinner at the Wynn. They have everything and it's a fancy buffet, as opposed to that buffet they go to in Vegas vacation where Cousin Eddie says "I'll have some of the green..." Really nice. There was enough of us that we had a private room and everyone had a crazy amount of good food. It was nice to just be with my family for a while anyway....

Coming up, after dinner and the next day. (I said it would come slowly...!)

[amisteratwisterandme]

Okay, I will just sit here and tap my nails on my desk waiting for more......:w00t::w00t:

Seems better than working....

[Mrs.Goff]

HAHA, I read the above posts and rushed to hit refresh hoping that there was a new post. haha

Patiently awaiting more. hehe

[Jenna5366]

Okay, I will just sit here and tap my nails on my desk waiting for more......:w00t::w00t:

Seems better than working....

Hehe... this is what I'm doing too! :)

[gwenshack]

After dinner my friend and I went and got slushies (yum) and randomly played a little slots, while waiting for some other friends who had gone to eat at Tao, when we decided that we should go see the Sirens of TI show. It's right across the street - we were sitting in the Palazzo - sometimes you just do things. It's impulse. It's stupid decision making.

No, it's a stupid show. Holy guacamole, kids. I saw the original back in the day - where it was about pirates and it was cool - this is just gyrating vixens making REALLY bad sexual inuendos, as they tie up the pirate. Best line of the night? She calls him a boy and he says "I'm not a boy...I'm a PIRATE!" There was still some cool fireworks and a little bit of a pirate battle, but for the most part it was as lame as advertised. Egad, we giggled like schoolgirls at the waste of a perfectly good pirate ship on this drivel. I know there was some horrible line about "the cannon exploding from within" or something - hopefully they'll just go ahead and implode this show from within. Blech.

After the sexy siren shenanigans, we returned to the Palazzo to the casino bar. My siblings and all their various friends had decided to join all of us for the evening, so we decided trying to rally that many troops would just be a pain. There's just as much alcohol in the P as anywhere else, but they also have chairs to accomodate us. Our server, Elaine, seemed a little worried about the number of us and seemed rather frazzled that people kept coming, but by the end of the night I think she had gotten it together. I had a last hurrah - and we drank into the wee hours of the morning - ok not that wee - just until 1:30 or so - I wanted to make sure I wasn't completely destroyed the next day. So I retired to my bathtub and bed, and drifted off to sleep, despite all that was to happen the next day.

So I got up the day of the wedding like any other day, save for an appetite. My plan was to order breakfast and laze about the suite, but I knew I just wasn't going to actually be able to eat very much. Instead, I ate an apple out of that fruit basket from my host and half of a muffin that my friend brought me from Virginia (we used to work at a coffeehouse that had the best muffins - in fact, here's a plug - if you're ever in Arlington, Virginia you should check out the Java Shack...but I digress). Decided to jump in the bathtub and sit and contemplate what I was about to do.

Ends up, I think I had contemplated it to death long ago. I didn't have to much to deliberate about. I didn't have any nerves. I didn't have any doubts. I didn't really even seem to care. Everyone left me alone until 12:30 when my MOH came and took me to lunch at Grand Lux (chain owned by the Cheesecake Factory) - a few bites of chicken and a mojito - but she had a salad and said it was AWESOME. Then we went back upstairs and waited for the wedding women to show up.

I'm not a wedding person. I swore for years I wasn't going to do it at all, but I caved
when I met DH. He's a good guy and we have a lot of fun - a really good friendship - so I decided to roll with this whole wedding thing since our marriage will only be making official what we already have going on. And after five years you get sick of the questions about when you're going to. Of course now we're going to get hit with the baby questions...dude, if I get pregnant that will totally throw a wrench into my Vegas schedule! hahahaha :)

Anyway, the wedding women - my mother and sister. They buzz around like bees worrying about minute details whenever a wedding happens. My feeling is that as long as the groom shows up it'll be ok.

My friend Luis does hair in Virginia and he offered to do it for all of us as a gift - what a generous gift! We also hired Glamsquad702 to come and do the makeup. I had requested James, after hearing all kinds of great things about him, and I will say that he did a great job on my face and my sister's face. This is the same guy who did Neebelung's makeup and hair as well for her Shark Reef wedding. Apparently they were running behind because he brought someone else with him who did my mother's face. I heard my mom ask for something natural, but I had my back turned while my makeup was being done, and when I turned around she looked like the Bride of Frankenstein had been made up by Ronald McDonald. Oh, it was HORRIBLE. She looked like she had two black eyes. So we had to do some touching up on my mother - read, washing off - before she could go out in public. James was good at what he does but his personality left a little to be desired. He snapped at my friend when she came over to see what I looked like - "You're in my light..." - Uh, she's 8 and a half months pregnant - she could block the whole sun - chill out!

Regardless, everyone got prettied up, and then my brother showed up - who's pretty all on his own. Ha. Jeff was my "bride's best man". So he came up to lighten the mood and make sure that the wedding women didn't stress me out. He's good at that so he did his job well.

Dressed and ready, we head downstairs - I was supposed to be there at 4:45 and DH at 5 and then the ceremony to start at 5:30 - but DH, who is ALWAYS late, decided that this would be a good time to show up early - so we ran into each other in the hallway.

Good thing I don't believe in bad luck...! :) I got a good laugh out of it, while my mother freaked out. She's been divorced twice so I guess she knows what bad luck is. :P

I got stuffed in a bridal stew room where our flowers were waiting. Our ceremony coordinator, Caroline, was super awesome and organized and she kept everyone in line. I really enjoyed working with her.

5:30 sharp the ceremony started - I walked down the aisle to an instrumental version of Today by the Smashing Pumpkins - I think everyone showed up on time! Walked down the aisle escorted by my grandfather and then he didn't let go when he was supposed to so that got an uproarious laugh from the audience. We wrote our own vows and there were moments of tears and laughter - DH wrote these crazy great vows that I just couldn't top by any stretch. I can't even begin to tell you how good they were. Fortunately, we wrote them out by hand and got to keep what the other wrote so I'll probably end up sharing what he wrote.

And it was a quick ceremony - less than 10 minutes if I was to take a guess. You may kiss the bride and then the music starts - "The Simpsons" theme. Needless to say everyone got a good chuckle out of that.

More to come...:)

[amisteratwisterandme]

You are a great story teller. I am so glad your MOH was able to show. Will check back later for more details.

[f77g4]

Oh Gwen everything sounds wonderful so far. I can't wait for more and for some pics! Congrats again!

[Jenna5366]

You ARE a great story teller. I’m laughing while I’m reading it, and some of my co-workers are wondering what the heck I’m doing in my cube by myself. Am I really enjoying work THAT much? :rofl:

Can’t wait for more!!

[NOTKT]

Hmmmm....I don't know where to start! Well, maybe if I dump my brain I'll be able to get it all out. I just read NOTKT's post on where her name comes from and I'm still laughing that it was supposed to mean no ticket. I just have to give major props for that unexpected twist. Especially since her name is Katie. Too good. :chimp:

Haha, thanks! I just had to use it!

You wedding story is fun to read! I'm glad you were able to relax, hang out with family, etc. I loved that part of my wedding, I insisted on doing nothing but hang out the day before.

Can't wait for more :)

[gwenshack]

So after the wedding is of course when everyone starts to drink. We, as the couple, have to be pulled off into the belly of the Venetian to have our pictures taken by our rather awesome photgrapher, Jennafer (yes, JennAfer as opposed to JennIfer), who had a good sense of humor and realized that we were going to be more apt to participate if she let us just do a lot of goofy stuff. We great some great goofy shots. DH and I have always had a problem keeping a straight face, but that's probably the highlight of our relationship - we take everything with a grain of salt, a giggle, and a shot of something in a glass.

During our walk around the property, R coins me his "ex girlfriend", which sounds pretty cool. Hey, what are you doing tonight? I'm hanging out with my ex-girlfriend. The good news is that I'm not the crazy ex-gf, just the normal kind - the kind you tether yourself to for life.

So while our guests are drinking, we're posing, and then we really just want to get in there to join them. So we speed walk through the casino, with choruses of congratulations everywhere we go. Oh, this is cool actually. If you ever want to feel like a celebrity, wear wedding attire in Vegas. At the start of the day people give you friendly nods and smiles and as the day goes on you get "Did you just get married?!? I love your dress!" and at 5 in the morning you get drunk girls carrying their hooker heels giving you a big old hug and practically crying because they're so happy for you. DH and I have sort of decided that we might just bring the wedding clothes back sometime and just wander the streets. I mean, the chances of us getting some free drinks out of it are pretty high...teehee. :)

On to the reception - open bar so people are taking advantage as best they can. DJ comes up and he doesn't have our list of songs - huh? Oh well, don't really care - we gave him a brief list of what we could remember and he did his best to pull it together for us, considering his boss just threw him out there to drown. (We later learned that he called our home in California the night before the wedding to try to get answers, as she had not even given him the cell info or where we'd be. Poor guy!) If we were pickier people we would have been PO'ed, but we're not so we just tried to work with him.

He introduces us and we get to come in and sit - briefly - first dance time - Love Song - the Cure song but the cover done by 311. It seemed to go on for days - we're not dancers and just wanted to get the whole formality thing over with! Finally we got to move on and encourage people to eat - we had a HUGE spread of food - we did food stations - and Venetian catering was so awesome. We worked with this girl named Rebecca, who was so great that I actually took her to lunch because I liked her so much. They did everything they could to make the day exactly what we had wanted. So our food stations - salad, carving, potatoes, sushi and sashimi, and mediterranean tapas. DH and I don't eat any of the same food - hence the crazy variety. But I think everyone was happy. I only ate a little bit because I was SO not hungry, although DH seemed to wolf it down and said his prime rib and sushi was good. What a combo. I had some of the veggies and some of the olive bread off the mediterranean station (that one was like "mine") and it was awesome, but it's hard to have an appetite when you're in a room with like all your favorite people, you know? So off we went, up and down to the bar, and around and around the room, checking in with people, chatting, making sure everyone had a good time. Seems everyone did - or maybe it was the booze? Nope, I think everyone did. My gay friends took charge of the DJ (who kept following me around asking questions) and next thing I knew it was Hey Hey Hey Hey YMCA and it was just a crazy giant dance club after that. There was Kelly Clarkson involved - that's all I can tell you. :)

I don't know how, but it went by SO fast. We cut the cake and that was pretty much it. (We kept the traditional stuff to a minimum...) The night would not, of course, end there, but that's for the next post. I've gotta keep you all in suspense!

[Moon.Dust.]

ok. I'm going to read this AFTER the wedding. I started and I started to hyperventilate thinking about everything we still had to do.

[gwenshack]

Ok before I forget, I wanted to let you all read what Ron wrote. It took ice water pouring through my veins to not bawl my eyes out during the ceremony - the makeup guy had attached fake eyelashes to me and I didn't want those little things dripping down my face...hahahaha...

Ron's Vows...
A Promise to my love, Gwen
March 21, 2009

I am uncertain about many things. Uncertain of the future and its contents, of our lives and how we will lead them, or what manner of people we will become. But more worrying, despite your view of me as courageous, which I am surely not, I am uncertain of myself.

Promises are the surest way to determine a person's character. Whether someone is honest, sincere and forthright can easily be determined by whether they keep their promises. I would like to think I am the kind of man who will keep his promises. Now that I stand here next to you, I know that I am.

We've made many promises to each other over the years, some greater than others. I tried to think of a list of promises to make to you at this ceremony, but, to be honest, everything I wrote seemed outside of the point. They all seemed so incidental to the one promise that matters most.

So, for all of my frailties, and for all of my uncertainties, there is only one promise I can make to you that is certain never to falter or stray. I promise to love you forever.


Um, ok, seriously, I almost fell over.

[f77g4]

Ok before I forget, I wanted to let you all read what Ron wrote. It took ice water pouring through my veins to not bawl my eyes out during the ceremony - the makeup guy had attached fake eyelashes to me and I didn't want those little things dripping down my face...hahahaha...

Ron's Vows...
A Promise to my love, Gwen
March 21, 2009

I am uncertain about many things. Uncertain of the future and its contents, of our lives and how we will lead them, or what manner of people we will become. But more worrying, despite your view of me as courageous, which I am surely not, I am uncertain of myself.

Promises are the surest way to determine a person's character. Whether someone is honest, sincere and forthright can easily be determined by whether they keep their promises. I would like to think I am the kind of man who will keep his promises. Now that I stand here next to you, I know that I am.

We've made many promises to each other over the years, some greater than others. I tried to think of a list of promises to make to you at this ceremony, but, to be honest, everything I wrote seemed outside of the point. They all seemed so incidental to the one promise that matters most.

So, for all of my frailties, and for all of my uncertainties, there is only one promise I can make to you that is certain never to falter or stray. I promise to love you forever.


Um, ok, seriously, I almost fell over.


OMG Gwen that is so sweet! I wouldn't have been able not to bawl! I hope our vows can be as touching!

[NOTKT]

Yup, I would have cried my eyes out! That was so sweet!

DH had to keep making secret funny faces at me during the ceremony to keep me from crying, lol.

[Mrs.Goff]

That is one of the sweetest things I've ever read.:sob:

[Nekochanpurr]

Your wedding sounds awesome. It was a great read, Gwen!! You are so LUCKY! To do all that partying in Vegas! haha

[amisteratwisterandme]

Wow. I am almost speechless. What a beautiful thing to write. I love that he took the time to contemplate what type of man he is and wants to be.

I would frame that bugger, so that on the days you want to strangle him, you can look up and read it, and maybe just kick him in the shin instead. :innocent:

[gwenshack]

Last wedding day installment...
Ok, let's see if I can pick up where I left off now. I'm still SO tired - I seriously slept most of the day yesterday, getting up to eat and post updates on OW. Ok, it wasn't that bad, but I've seriously never been more exhausted - I think that's the first sign we did it right.

So after the wedding was over they didn't kick us out - they let us linger for a while, finish our drinks, determine our next move, etc. - which was really cool of the V. We did have a huge pile of stuff that needed transferred up to the room, so I decided that I would take the stuff (with a few helping hands) and DH could lead the parade of fools to a bar. We decided the lounge at the P would just be easiest and most convenient, so the troops rallied and went over there and proceeded to continue to drink.
Unfortunately, there was a PIG BUTT problem - as you'll recall that stands for pain in Gwen's butt - and that he was. He promised he'd behave and DH even had a discussion with him about proper behavior - he acts like a ten year old sometimes. Has no censor, no filter on his mouth, and he gets himself in trouble all the time. Well, the whole reception he was drinking like a fool and dancing like a hyena, and at some point right before it was over he looked at my brother - my best man of all people - and says the F word that rhymes with bag, hag, lag, sag, rag, etc. You get it. Well, not only is that really upsetting, because you shouldn't say that word at all, nonetheless pointed at my brother (who's straight), but I also had a room with a lot of gay men in it - and they're all people that are really important to me and should be made to feel comfortable at MY wedding. They came to a safe place - as did my brother who isn't gay - and derogatory words were used. Which is so uncalled for. So as I'm leaving to go back to the room I tell DH that I'm leaving and PIG BUTT called Jeff a ***.
After a quick trip up to the room and saying goodbye to my MOH, I headed back downstairs where the party was in full swing. Somebody got me a beer and we all just mingled and had a good time. DH had dealt with PIG BUTT - and told him he had to apologize to me and then leave. He apologized - sort of - but he swore he never said the word, which I'm sure he was lying about (especially because he said he said "gay" - why would Jeff make up hearing the other word? he wouldn't. PIG BUTT was covering his butt), and I made it really hard on him because when I got to the bar and DH said that he was going to come apologize to me I sat down between three gay men because I wasn't going to make it easy. He stammered out some apology about how he has lots of gay friends and then said he was leaving because it was my day and he didn't want to make me uncomfortable. I told him he didn't have to leave but he had to not be offensive, but I guess since DH had already told him he had to leave - he left. Which is for the better because my brother and his best friend came downstairs soon after to drink beers with me and I didn't want them to be uncomfortable because of stupid PIG BUTT.
As the night went on people would hit their limit or their exhaustion point (and one girl hit her limit many hours before she left and annoyed the **** out of the rest of us by dinging her glass repeatedly with her fingernail, trying to get us to kiss, and then getting annoyed because she did it so much that we tuned it out and just started ignoring her). But one by one, everyone left, leaving myself and DH, my bartender friend B and my bartender friend D. Leave it to the happy couple and the two professional drinkers to be the last holdouts on the evening.
D had a few friends in town and the one girl had shown up and D was trying to estimate his chances of her coming back to the Imperial Palace with him for, uh, a nightcap. I looked up at him after about a half hour of him standing with her at the bar, made eye contact, and got a very subtle shake of the head. That done, and it being 3:30 in the morning, I decided we needed to go find food.

We set out toward the Grand Lux at the Venetian, getting there to only be faced with a long line. I whipped out a front of the line pass, when told we had a 35-40 minute wait, and she said "We certainly can bump you to the front of the line, but just so you know there's a problem in the kitchen so all we have is cold food."
COLD FOOD?!? NO EGGS?!? Egad. Somebody says the Peppermill (which is this old school Vegas diner with all kinds of cheesy neon!), but I say it's too far (my stomach was rumbling!) so I come up with the ingenious Denny's solution. So there we are, the bride and groom and our two bartenders, in all our wedding glory, running down the moving walkway escalators toward the Denny's at Casino Royale. 4 am and there's of course a wait, so DH and I take a seat and B and D go next door to find cheaper booze. D comes back and says the same $12.25 drink he's been drinking at the P is $2.25 over at the Casino Royale. And he's had many of them. So he's standing on the little ramp betwen the Denny's and the CR when this girl walks into the Denny's who is wearing these skin tight (and this was not a body you want to see in skin tight anything) gold pants - they looked like somebody had spray painted her legs gold. And he just loses it - literally is throwing his body against the wall with laughter - and then B comes around the corner and he catches a sight of Gold Gams, and the two of them just run, like little children, back into the CR, only to be found (instantly) when my name is called for a table.
So there we are, drunk, dressed up, and eating at Denny's at CR. Best moons over my hammy (hold the hammy) I've ever had.
Fed and exhausted, D headed back to the IP, and B and DH and I head back to the V. We're so tired, literally falling over, but still being congratulated by drunk people, and we are ready to go to bed. B says he's tired too - headed upstairs, but as we get into the casino and he sees the middle casino bar he says:



"I'm gonna get another beer to wash this egg taste out of my mouth."

And that's pretty much the summary of my evening. B got a beer to wash the egg taste out of his mouth and DH and I passed out at 5 am.

Breakfast in Bed to come....:)

[Mrs.Goff]

Man, I hope that my day is 1/4 and exciting as yours. haha

BTW, everytime I read "PIG Butt" I LOL. haha

[f77g4]

What a great day! Sorry to hear about PIG butt though..

[ChristineLS]

With the exception of PIG BUTT (I do appreciate the acronymn) your wedding sounds like it was AWESOME.

Oh, and the pictures were fantastic :D

[NOTKT]

That sounds like a rockin' good time! I'm so happy for you!

[Jenna5366]

Sounds like a GREAT time!! I love your style of writing! :D

[Docsgirl]

Hmmm. Gwen, if you're not, you should be a writer of some sort. You've got me just wanting to read more and more!

Everything sounds awesome. Well, with the exception of PIG BUTT.

[gwenshack]

Awww thanks guys! :)

I guess I should finish up the wedding parts of the story -
breakfast in bed came with our wedding package, which is really cool, although we never anticipated that 11 am (our requested breakfast time) would seem so early. We picked a "late" time because we knew we'd be out "late", but we never imagined we'd be pouring ourselves into bed at 5 am after roaming the streets to find a Denny's in our wedding attire. Well, I guess if we had thought about it enough we probably would have realized that's how the night would end. :)
So 11 am comes a lot earlier when you're exhausted. I also looked like the kiss of death, seeing as the Glamsquad guy had completely caked my face in makeup the day before, and, despite my scrubbing before bed, I looked like Courtney Love - makeup dribbled all over my face. I threw on a robe to open the door for the room service people, and DH threw the covers over his head.
In rolls a huge breakfast spread - eggs, steak, potatoes, toast, coffee, chocolate covered strawberries, and 2 bottles of champagne. Uh, needless to say we were much more interested in the water. Ha. Somehow, as a side note, we were given like 6 bottles of champagne over the course of the week - I guess New Years will be at our place? Anyway, we picked at breakfast but we just weren't really all that into it. We saved the champagne and the strawberries, did the best we could with the eggs, and then most of it ended back out in the hall (save for the blessed coffee).
We just sort of laid around for a little while and then the phone rang - my mother - they had all gone to the airport to catch their plane and, ends up, my sister had done my one brother's booking, not best man brother but other brother!, and had accidentally booked him for the 11 PM flight as opposed to the 11 AM flight - so bro and his gf were stuck. So they cabbed it back, and, fortunately, we're not big honeymooners, because we had room guests for the rest of the day.
They ended up taking me out to dinner though later, so that more than made up for the inconvenience. :)
Anyway, the rest of the day we hung out with the people who remained - bartender B and bartender D - and had some drinks later, but basically we were EXHAUSTED and had a long drive ahead of us the next day.
Fortunately, by that point, I had a husband who was willing to drive my car back to California. :)

All in all it was a great trip - definitely a great wedding - and although there was some drama, I wouldn't have done it any other way. The DW thing worked really well for us - we had our nearest and dearest and were able to actually spend time with them, as opposed to make the rounds to a large group and only get a short amount of time with each guest. I'd give it two very enthusiastic thumbs up.

Of course now I need a vacation to recover from my vacation....:)

[Jenna5366]

Of course now I need a vacation to recover from my vacation....:)

Ha! Do I EVER know how you feel!!

[Micah's bride]

I can't believe I didn't see this before, but I'm glad I didn't have to wait for the story and got it all at once. Sounds like you had an amazing time, save for pig butt(that cracks me up every time). I saw your other thread with the pictures, too, everything looked amazing. Congratulations!!

[gwenshack]

So I forgot to mention!

I don't know if you guys remember, but I got my MOH a charm bracelet as her gift for standing up for me - my grandma had one with a charm for each child and grandchild, and I thought, since she's pregnant with her first, that I should get her one. So I got her this one - a martini charm for all our fun adventures, a happy anniversary one since her anniversary is the same weekend as mine (but one year apart), a maid of honor charm, and a baby charm.
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/gwenshack/IMG_0325.jpg

So in irony of ironies, this is what she got ME as a gift...
http://i400.photobucket.com/albums/pp84/gwenshack/IMG_0371.jpg

Hahahaha:) I guess great minds think alike, right? The charm says Las Vegas. Too cute! :)

[savepaws]

Congrats Gwen. I loved hearing all about your wedding, you are a fantastic story teller!!

[Moon.Dust.]

Hahahaha:) I guess great minds think alike, right? The charm says Las Vegas. Too cute! :)
I love it!
It just shows you guys know each other!

[tk93]

Gwen, I share in other brides' sentiments that I hope my wedding is even a fraction as exciting as yours! I had such a blast reading about your adventure and the vows your husband wrote for you nearly made me cry!

It sounds like you posted pictures somewhere so I'm going to go look for them now! :)