Wedding Bells...

But not mine!!!! I'm so evil!

Joe spanked me for that one...

I took Joe to my friend Kari's wedding in Wisconsin this past weekend. What a whirlwind trip... Seriously... I hope to never fly again. DO NOT FLY WITH DELTA OR NORTHWEST. I put that in capitals because it is now a rule I am going to live by. First off, I called the airlines on Wednesday to see if the flights were still on time (I was told they were) and to change my seat to accomodate my motion sickness (which they did). Oh wait... I forgot to start at the beginning. The Bay Bridge decided to break so we couldn't drive straight to the airport hotel; we decided to drive through San Francisco because I didn't know the San Mateo area. BAD IDEA... It took us about 4 1/2 hours to drive to our hotel because of traffic. Okay, got that out of my system... Back to my story - We arrived at the airport at 4am and the ticket agent informed us that they did not have any record of tickets for us. The start of a very bad weekend... We finally got our tickets - they never did tell us why we didn't have tickets in the first place. We landed late in Minneapolis because a runway was down due to construction so we had 10 minutes to make it from one end of this ginormous airport to the other end... After we ran to our connecting gate, there was no one there and there wasn't a plane waiting... We checked the monitors and our connecting flight had been cancelled. Great - I have to be in Milwaukee by 5pm for the wedding rehearsal - THAT wasn't going to happen.

We talked to a new ticket agent who told us the next two flights had been overbooked, but she could put us on stand by to arrive in Milwaukee by 530pm. I don't think she understood what I was saying to her - I needed to be in Milwaukee by FIVE PM... Luckily we made it onto that flight and we flew into Milwaukee in time for the rehearsal dinner at least. The worse part about this is that a Supervision came out because Joe and I were throwing a very loud fit - all he could tell us was "There's nothing I can do." He did offer us a $25 voucher for future flights - I told him I didn't want that becuase I would never fly with Delta/Northwest again. I even showed him my itenerary... He still didn't help us out.

So I made it to the dinner and didn't know anyone except her parents! Haha - It was funny. But I met her Whitewater friends whom she talks about all the time so it was nice to put some faces to the names.

This is Kari - the Bride - My very good friend from my days in Platteville, WI. (Elisha - I've been wearing the pearls you gave to me!)

Joe and I had our very first Fish Fry - Although it is exactly like Fish & Chips... Funny thing - Every time Kari and I talked on the phone she was on her way to a Fish Fry - I lived in WI for 4 years and never had fish fry - so we had it at the rehearsal dinner. Yummy.

The next day we had the wedding. I carried the Gospel book in at the beginning and I read the Prayers of the Faithful. I was so honored to be apart of her wedding.

Here is Kari walking in with her father - Rick. Very beautiful dress with lace and beading. Her veil was her mother's headdress with a new veil sewn on it. She looked so happy!

They are husband and wifie!!! Mike and Kari after officially taking their vows. It was such a beautiful ceremony. What made it even more special was Mike's brother was just ordained as a priest so he was able to marry them.

The cake was beautiful as well. White frosting with some elegant piping and ribbon wrapped around the bottom of each layer with some red roses planted on top.

They had a humungous wedding party - 8 people on each side - A couple of them were students at Platteville when I was there - apparently we recognized each other, but we couldn't place how we knew each other.

Don't they look soooo happy?!?!?

I guess everyone in WI are midgets - Joe towered over a lot of the guys out there. He looked soooooooo friggin' handsome in his suit!

I was so very blessed to be invited to this wedding - and I would never have missed it for anything! One of the best parts was seeing her parents - Linda and Rick. I remember going home with Kari for Easter and spending the week with her and her family. Her mom was so serious and stressed out about making the Easter meal so perfect and her dad spent the day teasing her mother and just laughing at her and having fun. I also remember going to mass with them and then there was a food festival afterwards. Each table had a special meal from a different country including their signature liquor. We spent the evening drinking and stuffing our tummies!!! Tons of fun I tell you.

All in all, I was so glad we went out there even though traveling was such a headache. I'm also glad to be home after this ordeal. Kitty missed us so much!!!!!!!!