A Family Affair

So May 1st was my sister Monica's wedding, which was held at Edna Valley Vineyard here in S.L.O. It was an absolutely STUNNINGLY BEAUTIFUL setting, and thus the wedding was absolutely breathtaking. But let's start from the beginning...

My sister and her then fiance'(now husband) arrived on April 27th at about 11pm, with her two daughters (my nieces)- Amanda and Julianna. The next day I had to work, but I got off a little early and my sister and I went to my newly discovered hip-hop dance class (see last entry to read the details on that one). We had SO much fun! Thankfully it was week one in a completely new dance routine, so I wasn't as clueless as I was the prior week - where they were at the fifth and final week of learning a dance routine, and it was my first class - talk about diving in head first! I still managed to hip-hop-shimmy-and-shake my way into doing 75% of the moves wrong, but it was so much fun, and it was wonderful to be able to do it with my sister, and she really loved it to (most likely due to the entertainment I was providing to her and everyone who was able to see me). The following day, Friday, I took the day off from work so we went and finalized wedding plans, and just enjoyed the day. My parents arrived that afternoon and I was able to make dinner for everyone - something that is so wonderful to be able to do, considering how it's something I normally can't do since we live a state apart. :-(

The following afternoon we had the rehearsal at the vineyard, and everything went very smoothly (thankfully!). The bride and groom decided to forgo the traditional rehearsal dinner and instead that evening at about 8 o'clock we had a bonfire at the beach, where we roasted some marshmallows and made some s'mores (yum). It was really nice to be able to lounge around, roast some marshmallows, watch the kids run around, and sit by the fire and listen to the waves crash. It was a great evening.

The Wedding Day:

So the big day had finally arrived. My sister knocked on my door pretty early that morning and said that all of our family was going to meet at the Apple Farm for brunch. So we all got ready and met at the restaurant. My brother and the best man had arrived in town the night before from Arizona, and also met us for breakfast. We all just very casually ate, and talked, and laughed, and then I realized it was almost 12pm and I had only two hours to get not only myself ready for the wedding, but I also had to do my sister's hair - *PANIC* So we rushed home, threw my nieces in the shower (not literally - but almost!), got ourselves showered, and then by that time I had about an hour to do my sister's hair and get myself ready. Thankfully her hair cooperated on the first try, and if I do say so myself, it looked gorgeous!! Everybody thought she got it professionally done - thank goodness!!

I got myself ready in record time and we were off to the vineyard to finish getting ourselves ready. We didn't want to wrinkle ourselves driving there, so we just took our dresses with us, and how we managed to fit five girls (correction: three women and two girls), a wedding gown, two flowergirl dresses, one maid of honor dress, and all of our hair supplies and shoes and etc...into my BMW, I couldn't tell ya, but we did it!! This is why us woman are so good at organizing and packing - we have to be for our very (beauty) survival!

So we got to the wedding site, and it was just beautiful!! The caterer had already set up her tables, and the setting was so lovely, and it's hard to describe it in words, but she had these huge glass vases/tubes filled with water and inside were twigs and branches and things, and then on the inside of the center one were twigs and branches in the shape of a "J", which stood for their soon to be shared last name - "Jamison". It was so lovely! The weather forcast had actually called for rain that day, but there were nothing but blue skies - it was a beautiful day. Once my sister put on her wedding dress, I just was stunned at how beautiful she looked. She was truly a vision. My sister is beautiful, but put her in a gorgeous wedding gown, her hair swept up, a tiara, and the look of a person truly in love, and she was breathtaking!! I was so happy for her!


The wedding went wonderfully, nobody tripped, they released doves at the end of the ceremony (which was really a great touch), the food was yummy, I didn't make a fool of myself during my speech, the cake was scrumptous, we all danced, and my dad even busted out the robot and the YMCA dance (minus the YMCA song). Who knew he even knew what the robot was...Although I'm not sure if I ever wanted to know my dad knew how to do the robot...



So all in all it was a wonderful day. One of the most beautful and classy weddings that I ever had the privilege of going to. Here's to Monica and John - CONGRATS!!

(I will forgo the "Thinking Blot of the Blog" this time, as this entry has already run on too long as it is.)

'Til next time...