Highs and Lows of Wedding Weekend

There is a 'full' wedding recap below this post (including a belly pic!), this one is just the highs and lows. Lets start with a little Awing, then do a two vents then Aw again. Sound good? Then lets go...

First AW:

I took a bunch of great photos this weekend. I played with the settings on my C.a.nn.o.n P.ower.sh.ot and got some nice shots. Nothing like "professional" ones but pretty good for me. Here are a few of my favorites:





The little girl in the last one was a flower girl, she is also R's cousins oldest. Isn't she CUTE!?!

Now my first vent:

I haven't had much experience with unwanted belly touching till this weekend. Sure R touches my belly and so do my friends but they all have fairly open invitations to do so. Other people I prefer ask and I ALWAYS say yes. I just like to be prepared that my body is about to be touched, seems like a reasonable request to me but R's mom, G disagrees. She gave me a big hug and proceeded to rub the belly. I very nicely asked her to please ask before touching my belly and she says to my belly "Can Grandma give you a rub, yes she can any time she wants." Ryon nicely stepped in and said "mom she means you need to ask HER". G didn't listen but it was the first time in a long time R has stood up to a parent in my defense. It felt nice. She continued to try and rub my belly without asking all weekend, but each time she did so without asking I simply moved out of reach. By the last day she had gotten the idea and finally asked before rubbing. Who says and old dog can't learn new tricks?

Vent Two:

Since we were staying in a separate hotel all weekend it was easy to avoid most family before the wedding, including R's dad, P. I even lucked out and was able to passively ignore him almost the whole wedding, until he approached me (R said hello to him right after the reception). It felt good to make him come to me. We chatted for a second I told him what a beautiful wedding it was, how happy we were for the couple and did NOT mention the u/s pics in my purse, he had seen me showing a few people but R and I were admit that he should ask to see them. The he finally brought it up, the baby, that is. The baby which he still hasn't congratulated me for. He told R and I he didn't want to know the gender. i said that was fine for now, since we don't know either, but that we did plan on finding out and then announcing gender at the shower. He asked us not too, something I don't feel is his place, but R and I simply said we would do what we could to keep him from finding out but that shower participants would be finding out.

R and I agree that he did this as a way to try and control the situation. He can't control that we are pregnant or what month the baby is born or even gender, so he is going to try to control when he finds out the gender. Fine by me but that doesn't mean I am not telling other family and friends! Since R convinced me one big shower would be better than two tiny ones, his family is invited to "my" shower. This means his family will find out with mine what we are having, something I am excited about doing! So P will just have to find a way to keep his ears from hearing the gender news from October 5th (shower day) till the baby comes some time around Jan 1st 2009. R and I agree we can keep the secret and not let it slip in front of him, can the rest of the family? I don't know but I refuse to keep the gender a secret from everyone simply because Grandpa, who isn't happy about baby in the first place, doesn't want to know gender till birth!

My Aw:

I may have the best partner on EARTH! He was great this weekend. Stood up to his mom, saw that his dad was trying to be in control, kept certain "people" as far away from me as he could and was supportive the whole weekend. I love that man!

Wedding Re-cap

Would you believe it if I told you that I had a wonderful time? Cause if you had told me last week or even a month ago that I would have a good time this weekend I would have laughed at you. But it is TRUE! R and I both had a good time. Sure there were a few things I would like to have changed but over all we had a really nice time.

However, I can honestly say that our good fortune of having a wonderful time was mostly because we stayed in a different part of campus than the rest of the family. While R's family (around 50 of them) shared 2 floors of dorm rooms with a three block walk up hill for breakfast every morning. We stayed a mile away in a lovely on campus hotel, with a business center (including wifi access), amazing Continental breakfast just down the hall of our room, our own parking garage with free parking (other wedding guests paid 9 dollars a day for parking) and best of all a QUEEN bed with a TV in the room plus a large bathroom. I was so thankful R and I "splurged" on the campus hotel rooms at 15 dollars extra a night! When comparing living situations most people agreed had they know about the campus hotel they would have preferred to stay there. Not having to be around family, except for Pop, and a quite place to rest saved us hours of bickering as a couple.

Our drive down and back with Pop was very nice. They both took great care of me and Pop took us out dinner on the way home Sunday night. We went to a really nice steak house; steak being one of my favorite foods this pregnancy. I rarely order steak in a restaurant just because of expense but Pop insisted and it was very, very good. We spent most of our time with him over the three day, but it was nice and when he or I needed space or was tired we just said we were ready to go back to the hotel. Is it wired that the person in R's family I like best (other than R) is someone he has no blood or legal relationship too?

The wedding itself was beautiful! Everything went great and the ceremony was preformed by the same family friend who did ours. I cried during it. R and I haven't been to a wedding since our own and so it brought back so many memories for both of us. The vows included a part about children and I said a little prayer that these two don't face any infertility or pg loss issues. I know they will make great parents and I hate the fact that there is no way to know if they will be one of the one in eight. At the end of the ceremony they were pronounced husband and wife and then presented for the first time as Mr and Mrs. hisfirstname hismiddlename hislastname. I have to admit R and I both looked at each other and exchanged sympathetic glances. We just aren't big fans of the whole Mr and Mrs thing as you all know. It isn't that she took his last name but that she is now Mrs. hisfirst hismiddle hislastname, as if who she is and was no longer exists after the exchanging of rings. I am sure most other people don't even notice things like that, but I also know, I am not the only feminist this bugs. The reception was great, R and I danced a few dances, we chatted with family, and enjoyed the whole night.

For those of you wondering how many belly rubs I got without asking the total is above 6! I actually couldn't believe it but it seems R's family really doesn't have any personal boundaries sometimes. His mom was the biggest offender of all rubbing my belly without asking even after I asked her to please ask first.

So that is the low down. Next post will be on the highs and lows of the weekend. I need to do a little venting and some AWing as well. Let me leave you with a belly pic, here is R and I with the bride, my new SIL!

Wedding Weekend!

This weekend my BIL is getting married and while I am thrilled to be getting a SIL I love, R and I are finding the weekend to be more stressful than relaxing. We will be in the same hotel all weekend with both sides of R's family. There are more than a few members of this family that drive us both up the walls. My plan is to stay in my hotel room and avoid everyone as much as possible, without being anti social. If you could send us some safe traveling thoughts and happy drama free family thoughts too we will take them all! Both of us are going to need a ton of help getting through this weekend. Thanks for all the support!

Also to the right there is a new poll just for this weekend. My question is how many people try to rub the belly without asking. So far no one has done this, not even a stranger! But I have a feeling I won't get through the weekend without it happening.