Friday June 19th, a warm, sunny day, I had a feeling that this weekend was going to be great! I hopped into the car with my dad and we headed to Mount Pleasant Michigan. The ride was about 1 and ½ hours. As soon as my dad pulled the 5 year old silver truck into my sister's driveway, a huge smile appeared on my face. Stephanie, my sister came out of her apartment and was thrilled to see us! I couldn’t wait to get this weekend started… tonight is the last night Stephanie and Lad her fiance would be single.

“Stephanie!!!!” I screamed across the parking lot, “I missed you.”

“I missed you too honey,” Stephanie yelled back. 

After all this excitement, my mother took me to Gigi's, a Chinese nail salon, two hours before rehearsal time. We walk into the nail salon and it was a 15 minute wait for french manicures. My mom and the rest of the bridesmaids had already gotten there nails done, I was the last one to do them. Now, my nails were done and it’s time to go to rehearsal at the church. We drive back to Stephanie’s apartment and I get changed into clothes that are more dressy. Then, we drove a couple minutes to the church, to meet with everybody else that was in the wedding. I have only been in this church a couple times, but this time it looked massive, with the large windows and high ceilings that I didn’t remember being that big. I was in shock when we walked in, I wasn’t expecting so many people there to be rehearsing with us tonight. There were four bridesmaids and four groomsmen. In the bridal party there is a total of 10, but with the parents included, there is 13. The rehearsal didn’t actually start until 5 o’clock, and it was currently 4:30 pm, so we all just stood around, talked and got to know each other. I was the youngest bridesmaid there because Stephanie is ten years older than me and Amanda is seven years older, so many of their friends are older.

I was paired up with Josh for a couple of reasons, he is the youngest out of them, he is the tallest and he is the funniest, so we were a lot alike. Amanda was with Tom for the day, they were a good match up because neither of them talk that much nor be social to anyone. Allison had Paul and they ended up very good as well because they each had a significant other and they both had roughly the same personality. Last but not least, Jessica had to be with David because he was best man and she was maid of honor. Besides having those official names, they were both hilarious and could mess with each other without getting mad. Stephanie was the bride, so her pair was obviously Lad because they were about to get married!!

Now, it is finally time to actually go over the steps for what we would be doing on the actual day. The deacon started walking first and then the priest followed with a few seconds in between. Next came Lad, then Amanda and Tom, then Josh and I, Allison and Paul came after, next was Jessica and David, finally Ross (my dad) and Stephanie. The girls are on the left and boys are on the right. We had to restart a couple of times because we weren’t in sync when we were walking down the aisle. After we finally got the routine down we could go to rehearsal dinner.

We drove to the restaurant Cheers, to celebrate the last night together and their soon to be marriage. I sat by Amanda and Jessica. We had chicken, pulled pork, coleslaw, carrots, salad and sprite. We all ate and got pretty close to each other. After, we left the restaurant, I went back with Stephanie to her apartment and got changed into sweatpants. The parents of both the (soon to be) bride and groom went to the casino, they also took our family friend Wayne there too. The rest of us went to the Cabin and everyone besides me were drinking. I had ordered a mountain dew and the waitress was set on not giving me it, she asked what I wanted, I told her, but she never gave me one. I finally got one but I had to go up to the bar and ask for one. We had a lot of fun at the restaurant but we finally left at 11p.m. Stephanie took me back to her apartment, while my parents were coming back from the casino. When they got here, they took me to the hotel and we left Stephanie and Lad to there last night before getting married.

The wedding day- waking up bright and early. The bridesmaids had to be at Salon Blu at 9 a.m. My mom and I left the hotel at 8:30 and arrived at the salon a little earlier to see Stephanie get her hair done. We all were getting our hair done almost the same, all up do’s. I had mine in a french braid into a huge bun. Amanda, Allison and Jessica all had theirs puffed up on the top and into a side bun. My mom had hers half up and curled. Stephanie had huge curls that were into a bun on the top so the veil could sit in it. After we got done with hair, it was time to decorate the hall.

Stephanie and Lad had picked a really pretty hall for their reception. There was two sets of stairs and two room that we were allowed to use. One room was for the buffet and the other was for eating/dancing. We decorated the hall so there was royal blue and silver everywhere but not enough to look bad. There was a vase with a floating royal blue colored ball in the water, pebbles and lilies on top on every table. There was also hershey kisses on each table with a saying that the bride and groom had chosen. Some of the tables were squared and others were circular, but I got to sit at the important one because I was in the bridal party. Next, Jessica and I decorated their jeep and the rental tahoe vehicle. We had put a ton of streamers along the top, bottom and sides. We had also written things on their windows, you could barely see through the windows.

After, we headed over to the church to get ready, we all helped Stephanie get ready and each other get dressed also. We were all very excited, scared, nervous and sad all at the same time. The time for her to get married was finally coming. 

Now, it actually starts. The procession starts, just as in rehearsal, the deacon starts and Stephanie ends. When it was my turn, Josh and I didn’t want it to be awkward so he said a joke and we just laughed all the down the aisle, not even messing up the step. All of the bridesmaids and groomsmen were standing up there waiting with Lad for Stephanie to come. When they started the music everyone stood up and stared at her, she looked gorgeous. Everything went the how it was planned during the mass, Jessica had to help pick up her dress every time she moved because it was that big.

“Do you Lad, take Stephanie to be your lawfully wedded wife?” Asks the priest.
“I do,” replies Lad.
“Do you Stephanie, take Lad to be your lawfully wedded husband?” The priest asks.
“I do,” Stephanie says.
“I know pronounce you husband and wife.” The priest says with confidence.

They both seem very happy with each other! Stephanie had a huge smile on her face and Lad looks like he just won something. Walking down at the end was really fun, Josh and I were so happy for both of them that we smiled and joked about something on the way back too. We all had to have a ton of pictures at the church and then we left to go get pictures at a park. We all looked so good and the pictures were about to look fantastic.

After the wedding and the pictures, we went to the reception. We had to walk in with our partners and see who could dance the best. Well Josh and I did pretty good so it was hard for the others to top us. We ate and then danced for a while, it was very fun but by the end, we were all exhausted. We all helped clean up around 10:30-11p.m. We left the hall and went back to the hotel to sleep. When we woke up, we ate breakfast, packed our stuff, met Amanda, Stephanie and Lad to eat some lunch to end the weekend. This weekend was a blast for everyone especially my sister and I!