Wedding recap

Well, April and Richard are married, and the wedding was great. I was running on adrenaline all day yesterday. Friday was actually more hectic than Saturday. I had a bunch of errands to run. I ended up doing my nails and toes myself, but then I still had to go to Macy's to buy April's wedding gift. I also wanted to go to Schneesel's to buy snacks to have in the dressing room Saturday morning, and I wanted to find a tiara for April to wear when we bridesmaids took her out later that night. April called me while I was at Macy's. She was just finishing up her pedicure and manicure, and so I met up with her at my house and we ran the rest of the errands together. I found a fabulous tiara at Party City with flashing lights and the words "Bride To Be" on it. After errands we went back to my house and hung out for a bit before leaving to go to the bridal tea.

The tea was great. I wish I could do something like that every weekend with some friends. One of the bridesmaids, who is a teacher, couldn't make the tea. But Nita, a high school friend of April's who now lives in Minneapolis, was there. And so was Tiffany, another high school friend who lives in Chattanooga. Nita and Tiffany are hilarious. Nita in a wild and crazy kind of way, and Tiffany in a quick-witted kind of way. After the tea, I was really looking forward to going out with them that night.

Taking April out for some pre-wedding celebrating was more complicated than I care to recap here. But I will say that I got home at 12:45 a.m. after driving April to Bonne Terre (the bed and breakfast where they were getting married) in Horn Lake, Miss., and then driving back to Memphis. You better believe that I had the air conditioning on full blast and the radio turned up loudly to keep myself awake. I. Was. Tired.

My alarm went off at 5:45 the next morning so that I could shower and get my make-up on before getting my hair done. The most wonderful hair stylist in the world met me at 6:45 a.m., and I walked in the door holding a coffee for her. After my hair was done, I went back to the house to grab the snacks and yelled some instructions to SkooterPie and then bolted out the door. I called SkooterPie two more times before I was even a mile away with more instructions.

I was at Bonne Terre by 8 a.m. and the rest is kind of blur actually. April looked gorgeous. Jesse performed his ring-bearer duties beautifully. All the bridesmaids looked fabulous and were a really big help to April, who by the way was the calmest bride ever. Here's the moment that made the day for me. The wedding party had made its way down the aisle and were all standing at the altar waiting for April to make her entrance. The doors opened, and there was April standing in the archway. And Richard let out this gush of air, and everybody cracked up. And it was great because I sort of laughed my way through the tears that sprang up. He was so emotional. And again, I felt so honored to be there.

The reception was great. The food was great (although Jesse wouldn't eat any of it). The cake was yummy. I had to make a toast. I stumbled my way through the first few seconds before pulling myself together and saying something like this "I have to apologize to Richard because when April was just about to move to Clarksville last year and she told me she'd started seeing this guy, I said 'Don't do it.' I didn't know it was you, Richard. But I told her 'Don't get involved with someone right before you move away.' I've always been sort of a mentor to April. She'd ask for my advice on her career and guys or whatever. But I'm very happy that she didn't listen to me that one time. So let's all raise our glasses and give a toast to April and Richard and to following your heart." And people laughed, thank goodness.

I got home at around 3 p.m. and went ahead and took Jesse's tux back. Then I stopped at Buster's and bought myself a bottle of wine. I poured myself half a glass, picked up the house a little bit, drank about half of the glass of wine and sat down and went to sleep for two hours. I didn't do anything else the rest of the night. Jesse and SkooterPie ate frozen dinners, and I stayed on the couch.

But my matron of honor duties aren't quite over yet. I have April's dress hanging on the back of my door. I have to box it up for her and take it to David's Bridal today so that it can be preserved. Ahhhhhhhhh.