The Big Day begins

Saturday dawns warm and hazy...I have to spend the morning setting up with the help of my sister, scooting back to the hotel to clean up, racing back to the club to attend to last minute details, etc. etc. Thank goodness for my daughter's new in-laws! They were right on the spot to help with all sorts of last minute errands, lining up place cards, arranging flowers, pinning boutineers. The photographer arrived at 1pm and took about a million shots of just about everything imaginable. (It took me 4 hours this week just to look at all the proofs, but we do love pictures. :))
The guys are cloistered in the "Gentlemen's Lounge" :) Now picture this...8 twenty somethings confined to one room with a big screen TV, waiting to be told what to do next....they end up playing cards with sugar packets and cheering on some wrestling match. You should see them all going out to the ceremony site to have pictures made. Its sort of like releasing the hounds! They look like a bunch of gangsters with their black tuxedos and sunglasses....lol Great pics! Can't post yet....still have the photographers name across them. The wind is starting to whip up...if you remember, last Friday and Saturday were stormy days across the south and midwest.....
The girls are tucked away in the Bride Room, all decked out in curlers and applying makeup for hours it seems. There are 7 of them plus 2 flower girls, plus me and my sis (the flower girls' mom). The flower girls and ring bearer are running around everywhere and I'm praying they don't lose their flower baskets or the ring pillow. :) Bek has had her hair done and the veil is inplace so she is adorable in shorts, a flannel shirt and her veil...:) I am already "made up" and very busy with last minute details...we built a garden in the foyer with a fountain and trees and such...., flowers are arriving...cake is arriving....eveything has to be perfect and of course I'm the only one who knows what "perfect" is.....haha
Neither the groom nor Bek's dad have seen her in her dress nor today at all. My hubby braces himself for the beautifulness of his daughter (he's very sentimental about these things and wouldn't even look at the dress til a few days before the wedding). She looks amazing of course!
Then all the girls troop down to the ceremony site for their pictures....the groom and his posse are carefully barricaded in the Gentlemens' lounge for that time. So no peeking is allowed. (My girl is a bit old fashioned and traditional, not like her mom in everything..:))
As soon as the girls arrive......wind is pretty gusty by now....all 100 chairs and the wedding arch...BLOW OVER...just like dominoes, row by row! It was quite funny!
No problem...They just turned a different direction to make the pictures and the photographers were right on the spot snapping away at the rows of upside down chairs too..... the servers had quite the time of it the rest of the day, keeping the chairs and arch upright.