I actually don’t have any pictures of the wedding (read on to see why), but here are the kids at the rehearsal.
I didn’t know any of the groomsmen, so I didn’t worry about capturing them. =)
And the rehearsal of the walk down the aisle. Oh, if only it had gone that way in the ceremony…
This is about the time to share Derek’s and my firm resolution–no more weddings with kids! It really stinks to spend hundreds of dollars and six crazy days of travel to not see your dear friends get married. Now, you may be asking, wasn’t Tommy in the wedding? How could you have missed it? Well, Derek and I had to separate beforehand in order to get Tommy to the church for pictures and pick up food for all of us between church and the 2 pm wedding. Derek circled for over half an hour trying to find a place to park in Evanston (because there are no drive throughs in Chicago), so by the time he got back with lunch, the prelude had started and he had to go join Tommy in the back to send him down the aisle. I had not had a chance to take Tommy to the bathroom (dun-DUN) or feed Lizzie or Susanna (dun-DUN-DUN) before I had to go up to the second row to pick up the kids at the front of the church when their gig was done. Any parent can see how we were already heading for disaster.
So the kids started down the aisle just as Elizabeth started loudly asking for milk and Susanna started stirring, hungry. I slipped down to the center to smile encouragingly at the front, but not fast enough to prevent stage fright. The crowd overwhelmed both of them about a third of the way down the aisle, and poor little 2 1/2 year old Coraline started wailing. Tommy stopped, tried to hold her hand again, and failed. Alyssa ran out for a quick save and scooped our sobbing flower girl up, exiting left. Tommy stared around, confused what he was supposed to do next, then finally caught my eye at the front and sprinted down the rest of the aisle and into my arms, trying bravely to hold back tears. Good thing he hadn’t really been carrying the rings, or they would have been lost!
Elizabeth only made it through another couple minutes of the ceremony before she was asking for her lunch in louder and louder whispers. Derek pulled her out to join Alyssa and Coraline in the hallway. Tommy hung on valiantly through the longest Protestant wedding sermon I’ve ever heard, but he really needed to use the bathroom. I couldn’t very well leave a slightly fussy Susanna alone in the pew in case she started screaming while I was gone with Tommy, and I knew that once I roused her, she’d be fully awake and cry if she didn’t eat right away. So just as Hannah and Robert started the wedding part of the ceremony, I slipped out, too, with the two remaining kids. We heard the clapping after a few minutes and told the kids, all happily playing with blocks on the floor by now, that Hannah and Robert were married now. Tommy and Cora had done their part, but we’d missed getting to see the McConnells actually get married.
One redeeming thing was that Margee was able to take pictures of the five of us dressed up outside the chapel.
And Derek says I’m in no emotional state to talk about the rest of what we missed, so I’ll just leave it at that and say definitively that next time, the kids are staying home!
Sorry you missed the wedding. However, the family photo is beautiful!! Hope you are doing well generally. Let me know when/if you will be coming through St. Louis/Columbia on your way out west, maybe we can catch up.
The fam pic is great!
I believe that you and Derek have made a smart decision…. The pic is great and I hope you have had a chance to de-stress….
Sounds like a very interesting day! On another note, I love the family picture!
That is SO SAD. One of the hardest things about being a mom (for me anyway) is missing important things like that! The kids always seem to need food or a diaper change or a nap or whatever at just the wrong moment. I’m so sorry that you missed your friends’ wedding. It sounds like your resolution is a good one–we may need to keep that in mind, too!