Another long but wonderful day

After yet another night with less than 5 hours of sleep (that makes it 4 of the last 5 nights - ouch!) I headed off to the park for the wedding. We did some last minute set-up. I got to decorate the little table in the front with some bits of wilting flowers and baby's breath. There were three vases on the table, two small ones and one larger one, to be used for the "unity sand." The bigger one in the middle was going to stay put, so I put the flowers and baby's breath in a circle and set the vase on top of them. It looked rather pretty and earned praise from the photographer. Baby's breath is wonderful stuff for decorating - it's cheap and can lend elegance to simple centerpieces (that's your free decorating tip for the day). The unity sand was something that I had never seen in a wedding. Candles don't always work well for outdoor weddings, so using something else makes sense. I think the sand is a great alternative. There are a lot of fine grains in sand (representing the investment the parents made according to the pastor's explanation) and once mixed together they can never be separated. I think it's a great picture.

I learned today just how much of a hassle the poor bride went through regarding the bridesmaids' dresses. Shieryl and I had chosen a dress for the bridesmaids and then proceeded to order them. The rather unimpressive bridal shop (Christian owned, which is about all it has going for it, unfortunately) didn't tell us until rather late that the dress we wanted was discontinued, so the bride had to choose another one. Stuff happened and by the time the wedding came there were three different dress styles among five bridesmaids. Only the matron of honor had anything that resembled sleeves on her dress and it was a rather cool morning, so we were all a little bit cold for most of the wedding.

It was a very nice ceremony followed by a nice reception. The bridal party wasted no time attacking the platters of hors-d'oeuvres once we arrived at the reception site. There was a nice buffet and excellent cake. I had fun taking the frosting from the cake and playing with it (I do not like most cake frosting or icing that comes on professionally made cakes). I will have to post some pictures of some of my frosting art when I get back home. :) After the toast (yes, I had the champagne) they started dancing. My favorite part of watching the dancing (I danced very briefly with one of the groomsmen during a slow dance because the bridal party was supposed to set a good example for the guests by coming out on the floor - I really have no clue how to dance, so as soon as the music ended I was back in my chair) was to watch the father of the bride, who dances quite well, and to watch some of the little kids dancing. The kids were cute. I must have taken at least fifteen pictures of them dancing and twirling around on the dance floor.

After the wedding and reception were over I came home. Within a half hour my sister and brother-in-law arrived and we all headed out to visit the grandparents and then go to dinner. My grandmother's husband invited us to go pick some avocados from the tree in his yard, so I have a few to take back to New York with me. We went to an Argentine restaurant for dinner. The food was fantastic. We started off with a couple of empanadas and an appetizer that consisted of very little more than melted provolone cheese. I had some Cuban chicken with black beans and rice for my meal and sampled the beef that my mom ordered, the steak that my sister ordered and the lamb that my brother-in-law ordered. All of it was quite good. For dessert we had flan with dulce de leche and a chocolate violet souffle. It was wonderfully decadent!

I head back for New York bright and early tomorrow morning. There is no way I am getting more than 4-4.5 hours of sleep tonight (again). Someday I really am going to get some sleep. I am so tired, but this has been a great trip home.