The Wedding, Part I

Written on Thursday.

Weddings create stress and a lot of work, which I'm sure any of you who have gotten married before (or more than once, in some cases) already know. I'm in an endless cycle of do a bunch of shit and then hurry up and wait, with a little sleep when you can or you won't get to thrown in there as well. And I mentioned in my last post how much trouble I'm having getting any real sleep.

Last night, Rae made it into town and basically passed out -- she's staying with a friend she has up here, one who can watch her dog (which yes, she brought with her on the long drive from Cincinnati -- why, I'm not sure, but she already knows the dog can't be around basically anyone in Daisy's family due to allergies, and it can't even visit here, as it's in the lease that we can get evicted if dogs are on the premises anywhere). I don't know if she'll stay here tonight with me/us or not. I don't even know if Daisy herself will come home tonight or crash at her parents' place; tonight is her bridal shower and bachelorette party, and I expect it to run rather late, more than likely.

Also last night, one of Daisy's bridesmaids and her driving companion arrived from New York (yes, they drove all the way), and they crashed here. We didn't go to bed until after 2AM, and didn't get up ourselves until 9 this morning -- at which point we took care of what needed to be done, they gathered their things and left to check into their hotel room, and Daisy went over to her parents' to help do the last things necessary before everything ramps up and gets super-hectic.

As for myself and my own party/friends/family? My parents should be here in a short matter of hours, as should Dan and Amanda -- the former of whom is taking Parker's place in the wedding. April and her husband arrive tomorrow evening, as does Jane, so they'll miss the "bachelor party" (or, really, whatever it is we end up doing) tonight. They'll be here for the rehearsal dinner, though, which is tomorrow evening. I don't even know how all of the stuff tonight is going to work out; it depends greatly on the times people start arriving in town (and whenever Rae gets up and comes over here to the apartment).

Getting the marriage license yesterday was easy, if a bit time-consuming. In Nebraska, all they do is have you fill out a form with your information on it, your birthplace, your parents' names and their birthplaces, and then they verify your info with your driver's licenses. They ask you to raise your hand and swear that the info that's on the form is correct and legitimate, and then you sign the forms and they print up the license. It's $20 total -- well, the license itself was $15, but it was an extra $5 because we requested a mailed certified copy once everything was finalized. 'Cause, y'know, that's sort of an important document we want to keep on file someplace. All of it gets given to us in a thick envelope, and we have to return the signed license with our signatures and our witnesses' signatures after the wedding is over, whether we mail it back to them or drive it back down to their offices ourselves. I guess everyone has to do this, though, when they get married. So really, it's not necessarily anything new.