Hello Loves!
If you missed part one, you can go here to get caught up! If not, well, here's part two!
The 10 days leading up to the wedding are now a blur.
However, when I was living them, I thought they were dragging on and on and on. I would spend all day doing stuff, fall into bed at night and then wake up in the morning and still be DAYS away from getting married. No matter how much I got accomplished and how many errands I ran, I still wasn't married.
And getting things accomplished and running errands were pretty much my life leading up to the wedding. I may not remember day to day details, but I remember that. Target runs, WalMart runs, Fargo runs, Fergus runs. Always running, always spending more money.
I did take a couple of days off before Christmas, just to enjoy some down time. I enjoyed just hanging out with Luke and resting. My classes had just finished the week before and it was a bit dicey at the end, so it was nice to just not do anything. We went to the candlelight Christmas Eve service at my home church, which is always a highlight for me, and then spent a relaxed Christmas Eve/Day with my family, just chilling.
Then the day after Christmas hit and it was time. Time to start running here and there and everywhere!
I started off with a trip to the bakery to decide on designs for the cakes (we put little wedding cakes/cheesecakes on each table - GREAT idea by my mom!) and then met up with Bethy to hit up the after Christmas sales on Christmas trees. I had decided a couple of weeks before that I wanted to put trees lit with white lights all over. It ended up not being all over all over, but it looked great at the front of the church!
The next couple of days are a blur but I know they included several trips to Fargo (one with Luke, one with my mom, another one with Luke to pick up my sister-in-law and niece and nephew) to find Luke's wedding ring (we were able to walk out of the store with it - YAY!!), look for gifts for our attendants (did you know that it's impossible to find 4 gold necklaces that are the same style the week after Christmas?), to look for a dress for mom to wear, to buy me yet more stuff (earrings, necklace, brown boots for the rehearsal supper, etc etc etc), to drop my ring off to get soldered (boy is THAT another story for another time), get mints for the wedding (Sam's Club, WalMart, Target, Kmart all let me down. we had to get our mints from the candy store in the mall.), to just buy and buy and buy and buy.
Then of course there were all the trips to Fergus. I had to pay for the flowers and drop off the ribbons, I had to scour all the stores for this and that and this and that.
We had been planning on printing the programs ourselves but mom's printer was having some serious issues, so I ended up stopping by a print shop owned by the parents of one of my high school classmates and they gave me a great deal on printing, which meant I had to get the program designed and emailed to them by that night so they could print it before shutting down for New Years.
I had my church wedding shower, which was a lot of fun! I had to buy make-up (I have ridiculously sensitive skin so I normally don't wear anything, but I had to have SOMETHING for my wedding!). I got my nails done. I went to the doctor for that fun little pre-wedding check-up. I went and went and did and did.
Probably the hardest part about that week was not getting to spend time with Luke. The poor guy was dragged along to his future-in-laws and then told he had to just 'hang out' for a week and a half. Luckily he is a farm boy and I grew up on a farm, so my dad was in heaven! He used Luke to help feed and help with this and help with that, but it was still hard for him to fill his days, especially when I was off spending our money all the time! I told him that his job was to keep my sane, but I don't think it helped his sanity when I would pull him along on my shopping trips and make him help me decide between white or off-white.
We finally hit the last couple of days before the wedding. On Wednesday I ran errands all day and then met up with my girls for my personal shower/bachelorette party. It was a small group - 3 of my bridesmaids (Luke's sister wasn't in town yet - sadly!) and my sister-in-law - and it was really nice to just have a chill evening. We ate at a nice Italian restaurant and then went back to Rondi's for an evening of snacks and talking. I had asked Karla to do my make-up so she spent time practicing that - putting it on, making me wash my face and then putting it on again. In fact, the only pictures I have of that night are of my face - so we could compare/contrast different styles.
When I went to open my gifts, things got a little wild. Fergus is a decent sized town - about 12-13,000 and has a WalMart, KMart, Target, Herbergers and Pamida. All that and my 3 girls all still got me the exact same thing. Apparently the selection in town is POOR! So, while Kar and I practiced make-up, the other 3 went out to return what they got me and picked up a couple more options. A girl has to have options you know!
The next day was New Years Eve, a day I look forward too all year long. I have the best extended family and every year we have a huge shindig on NYE. There is copious amounts of food (including yummy Norwegian treats like lefse, rosettes and krumkake), lots of story telling, laughing and game playing. The game playing starts as soon as supper is over and goes until about 5 AM. In my day I was a definite partaker in the all night games - rolling home around 6 or so. When we were little, my parents would go home and trust that someone from the family would get us home (the party is at my dad's cousin's house, which is only 2 miles away from our house), and they always did!
I was really excited to introduce Luke to the craziness that is the Bothun's and they didn't disappoint! However, because it was the day before the day before our wedding, we didn't stay out too late. I had a church to decorate in the morning! So we hung out there until 10 or 11, played one game and then headed home. We did some last minute stuff (put gifts in bags, wrote thank-you cards, etc) and then went to bed shortly after midnight.
The past 10 days had dragged and flown by at the same time. Yet, the clock kept ticking and the days kept passing and soon enough we were at the day before the wedding. Of course that had it's own drama ... but I'll save that for next time!
Now for the gratuitous wedding picture:
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