I had decided it would make most sense for me to loan daernhelm my car for the weekend, as I was going to be with other people the entire time and he was likely to need to be independently mobile. Thus, amy_pearlman came to pick me up at about 9:00 to start running errands. We stopped at Target, Best Buy, a beauty supply store, a Big and Tall store, Michaels, and both Macy's and the Aveda store in the Short Hills mall. Then after grabbing a quick lunch back at my apartment, we headed to Wedding Central, where palingyuan, J, and lurse were finishing up the program for the wedding. (Side note: does anyone have a spare copy of the program? I collect such things, and I never got a copy.) Amy took it to be printed, while palingyuan's father drove her, me, and lurse to Target.

We met demongrey and leftsphenoid at Target, where leftsphenoid picked out all the makeup I would need while palingyuan did a whirlwind shopping for everything still needed for the honeymoon.

The rehearsal started at 5:00, and eventually we all even managed to arrive. palingyuan had needed to shower and change, so we had started without her, with leftsphenoid filling in as a Stunt Bride. Someone should have a picture of palingyuan's parents walking leftsphenoid up the aisle of the church and giving her to oidhche. Then we introduced them. The priest was perhaps a little surprised to discover how much of the wedding party was not Catholic, but he adapted well.

Back at Wedding Central, we all took a few minutes to decompress before the great hordes arrived for dinner. However, leftsphenoid and I ended up in the living room with several of palingyuan's relatives, and when the conversation turned toward obstetrical discussion, we fled. daernhelm and oidhche's aunt had gone to Famous Dave's to pick up a barbeque feast for sixty. That is an impressively large quantity of meat. It was being fed to an impressively large number of people for that apartment, though. Eventually, most of oidhche's relations and connections ended up out on the front lawn, palingyuan's family were inside the apartment, and all of the assorted friends were either outside grilling vegetables (my choice) or in the computer room.

Finally, late in the evening, we packed up palingyuan and took her to the hotel. She, Amy, lurse, and I sat around and chatted and painted nails, and I believe turtle_morn was also around for a while. Everyone else left by about 1 AM, but palingyuan and I kept talking until about 2:30, when we finally turned off the lights and got some sleep.

To be continued...