Wedding #2

We are back from the ginormous Kansas City wedding and I know you are dying to see pictures, right?

I forgot to mention that we flew out of Chicago Midway, since tickets out of Milwaukee were ungodly expensive. What is usually an hour and a half drive to the windy city turned out to be a three hour drive on a Friday night, which helps me remember why I would despise the constant Chicago traffic if we lived there. [I love that city with all of my heart but the traffic would drive me insane.] We still made our 9 pm flight without issues, arrived in KC at 10:45 and then discovered that the airport is inconveniently located in the middle of nowhere. It was seriously a $75 taxi ride to our hotel and that was our cheapest option---everyone was out at the rehearsal dinner so we couldn't bum a ride, and by the time we got to our hotel at midnight we were sufficiently exhausted. Needless to say we called it an early night and did not meet everyone out, which made for an extra short weekend---I felt like we didn't get to visit our friends as much because of it, but oh well.

Saturday the temperatures soared to 90 degrees in Kansas City--which us Wisconsinites consider tropical and we nearly melted all day long. But it was a gorgeous day and a beautiful wedding, here is the only shot I took at the ceremony:

Ashleigh was a picturesque bride, fit for a magazine. She had her gown sewed by a family member and it was stunning--I wish I took a better picture of it for you, but she was a tad busy with her hundreds of guests all day:)

We went to a bar between ceremony and reception, where one of the groomsmen displayed his new purchase: a boom box for their trolley. This group of guys is probably one of the most random and hilarious collection of personalities ever.

The bartender asked if I wanted a small or large beer and without asking for clarification, I said 'large.' Here is what I got:
So then came the reception. Did I mention that they invited 760 people [I think about 500 attended]? And did I mention that the reception was in the groom's parents' back yard? Hardly your typical backyard wedding with that number of people, right? Well here is how you host a huge party under a tent, in your backyard:

I'm not sure if you can fully grasp how large this tent really was, but it caused an audible gasp from our shuttle when we pulled up to the house. The tent was HUGE, their house was a mansion, complete with their own private lake. Pretty freaking impressive, if I do say so myself. Aren't we cute? Nate was an usher and mighty handsome if you ask me. And hello to my J.Crew dress!
Onto the details that I know you brides/newlyweds want to see.

They had a monster sized Gocco:
And here is my attempt at showing you how many freaking tables they had set up under the tent. I couldn't even capture half of them but it was amazing:The flowers were incredible---Ashleigh's bouquet even had tiny feathers in it! Squee!
Her colors were chocolate brown, rusty orange, and accents of leopard print. How feisty, right? Here are their programs:

First dance: you can kind of see her dress here:
Yours truly:
Andy and Laura--our best buds for the night. They are getting married in two weeks! Can't wait to see you guys in St. Louis for your own big day.

The band was quite entertaining, costumes and all. That would be Tina Turner, Superwoman, and I think Elvis? :

Reuniting with college friends always makes me want to become the photographer for the night:
These two handsome lads are single, ladies. I know---try to restrain yourselves.

Frat boys will always be frat boys, wild stories and all:

And the boys with their groom. Now that Caleb is sporting his wedding band the world has officially lost one of the most notorious bachelors. It's the end of an era and it proves that we are all getting REALLY old:)

And now the bride and groom are off to St. Lucia---and we are of course, insanely jealous since that is where we spent our honeymoon. But they will be at Andy and Laura's wedding in two weeks so I hope they bring their pictures for me to drool over.

So yeah, it was pretty much the bomb. I'm more tired than I've been in months and my throat is a bit scratchy from yelling over superwoman and her band, so I think I should call it an early night. I mean, the marathon is in 6 days and I need as much rest as I can get!! Eeek.