Nancy's Wedding

One of my very best friends from college got married on Saturday. I am so happy for her. She spent 6 years dating/living with a guy who, while he was very nice, had no intention of making a formal commitment to her. She finally gave him an ultimatum: if they were not engaged when he moved back to northern Ohio, she was staying in Cincinnati. They didn't get engaged, and she stayed where she was. Enter Arn. I don't know him that well, having only met him on a couple of occasions, but he seems to be a really great guy (anyone who would willingly go to the first birthday party of his fiancee's friend's baby must be a decent guy, right?) and has really been a good influence on Nancy. A wind beneath her wings type of guy.

So the wedding was Saturday. It was an adults only affair, except for a select few children, mine being one of them. I was a little nervous because it was a Catholic ceremony, expected to last an hour, and I had no idea if we could keep Alison quiet for that long. We let her "run" around outside the Sanctuary until the last possible minute and then we went in. She was a little antsy at first, and a little loud, but we just stuffed goldfish crackers in her mouth every time she opened it and that took care of one problem. We got out crayons and paper and she spent most of the rest of the ceremomny, which mercifully only ended up being half an hour long, trying to get the crayons out of the crayon box. When is was all over and we were applauding the bride and groom, she clapped right along with us and cheered her little heart out. We got several compliments about how well behaved she was in church.

The ceremony was very nice. Nancy was beautiful, and so excited. And happy. Her dreams are finally coming true. She has always wanted marriage and a family.

Since the wedding ceremony wasn't until after evening mass, the reception didn't start unitl 8:00. We had fed Alison before the ceremony, so she was good to go. We were the ones who were starving by that point! Dinner was served at 8:30, and wouldn't you know, even though we were at table 6, we were the last table released to the buffet. Oh well. After dinner the traditional reception activities began. Except they weren't quite so traditional.

Nancy and Arn swing dance. Their first dance was actually a choreographed swing dance routine! It was so great. They really did a wonderful job. And the entertainment didn't stop there. Arn is a juggler. In addition to teaching Nancy to swing dance, he has also taught her how to juggle. They did one of the most incredible juggling routine I have ever seen. It was set to music and everything. They dimmed the lights and used lighted balls, three each to start with then Arn got up to 5, I think, then they stood together and juggled three between them, Arn using his left hand and Nancy her right. Then they switched to lighted clubs and did the typical things, includig tossing them to each other. They finished up by "twirling" some weighted flags on long strings. Nancy was really in her element here because she had been in the flag corp for both her high school and our college marching bands. All I can say is all wedding receptions we go to in the future will pale in comparison.

Throughout it all, Alison was really well behaved. I was really worried about that because she hadn't taken a nap at all. She spent a lot of time at the reception running around in the lobby with daddy. She loved the juggling. She had wanted so badly to get at those lighted balls when Nancy was trying to get everything set up.

One of my other friends, who I hadn't seen since Alison's surgery two years ago, her husband and her parents were there as well and marveled at how well Alison was doing. After my parents took Alison back to the hotel so she could go to bed, I realized I had not had a chance to get her over to see Nancy's mom. I was very upset with myself about that. She has been praying for her and keeping up with how she's doing through her website. She was supposed to come and see her at her birthday party last year, but she fell and, although she didn't know it at the time, broke her arm the day before. Fortunately, even though she didn't realize who she was at the time, she did see her while she was running around in the lobby.

I think we all had a nice time. I really am so happy for Nancy and Arn. I hope they have a wonderful life together.