Amy's wedding...!!!!!

From January 31st to February 5th, I was home in Washington for the very, very important occasion of my sister’s wedding! :) It was tough to skip out on a whole week of classes when terms are only eight weeks long, but you know, some things are just more important!

I arrived home on the Tuesday evening, and the weekdays were spent with final errands and chores. Including dress fittings, haircuts, program design, and of course, a visit to the spa for a much, much needed massage. Aaaaahhhhh… That was 1 hour of heaven (thanks Amy!).

Friday the relatives from out of town started arriving and my parents hosted a casual lunch at their house to get the extended families together before the rehearsal (great idea!). It was a fun and relaxed for hours. The rehearsal was at 4pm, at the church in Arlington, and was followed by a lovely dinner at the Key Bridge Marriott – the restaurant was on the top floor of the hotel and has a spectacular view of downtown Washington.

Saturday the 4th was the wedding day! What a whirlwind of activity, but somehow we were all very relaxed throughout the whole thing. People kept asking how we were all so calm… hmm. I don’t know, but I’m not complaining! We spent a few hours at the hairdressers in the morning, and then finished getting ready back at my parent’s house. The photographers showed up and took some great photos at the house before we left. The Sander four then took a limo to the church, where the ceremony was to start at 2pm.

The ceremony was absolutely perfect. Everything went flawlessly, from the procession of the mothers straight through to the recessional at the end. Nice touches at the wedding included the old testament reading being chanted in Hebrew and then recited in English (by one of Chris’ friends who is a Rabbi), a great homily from the priest, Amy tearing up during the vows, and a beautiful song ‘I Do’ sung by my friends Kristin Hayes and Margie Woods, accompanied on guitar by Dan Gasink. Pretty much everyone in the church was crying a little.

Following the ceremony Amy & Chris and Philip (the best man), and his wife Evelyn and I drove around in the limo with the photographers and took photos of Amy & Chris at the monuments before getting to the reception.

The reception was held at the Ronald Reagan Building and

International Trade Center, which is a federal office building. One of the funniest moments all day was when Amy and I walked into the building and had to go through the security checkpoint… Amy didn’t make it through the medal detector and had to be wanded! Classic. Also one of the guards wanted to put the two bouquets through the x-ray machine, but thankfully there was a clear-thinking woman behind the machine who saved them from that!

The reception was absolutely spectacular. Everything came together exactly as we had imagined it would among all of those months of planning all of the individual details. The room was absolutely glowing. The

flowers, the cake, the table arrangements, the five piece band, the slide show, the food, the red champagne, all really spectacular. Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. My biggest disappointment of the day came during my maid of honor toast when I was just too emotional to keep from crying through the whole thing. It was pretty embarrassing, but everyone was very supportive! Ha! Oh well, what can you do.

Sunday there was a brunch for family and out of town guests. It was great to see everyone one more time and to see Amy and Chris again before heading back to England, which I did later that evening. It was quite a whirlwind trip, but I was fabulous, and I wouldn’t have missed it for the world. Congrats, you two! :)

The professional phots that are available by now are up for viewing at:
http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/gallery.jsp?gid=768a5498ce7cb095b769
There are some absolutely lovely photos in there. Still waiting on the reception photos.