Rehearsal Day -

We had a wonderful rehearsal, and my party members stuck around afterwards to help me put the finishing touches on the hall decorations. Of course, those "finishing touches" included decorating anything that wasn't part of the hall itself. In other words, the walls and ceilings were done, but we had to do all the tables, the stage, the pulpits, etc etc.

It took forever to dress all 36 of the tables, to decorate the head table; to set up the cake table, gift table and ticket tables...

Finally, we finished up around 12:30am, and headed off to bed for at least 8 hours sleep.

Ha. Yeah right.

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Murphy was against me, and I hardly slept the night before the wedding day.

Of course, I did sleep a little bit, after working like mad trying to set up the hall and make sure all was prepared for the ceremony and reception.

And the little bit of crying that I did right drifting off also led me to slumber land.

For the first time in a while I said a bedtime prayer. Actually, this was less of a prayer and more of a plea.

I cried, I screamed, I cajoled and I sighed - please G-d, if you exist and if you're a good G-d, let me have one little sign that my father would be attending my wedding tomorrow.

My father who passed away a few months ago.

My father whom I love very much and miss terribly.

Please G-d? One little sign, that's all I ask.

I mean, it's hardly a flick of the finger for you. One little miracle amongst so many big ones - like crying statues in Europe, and blind people being able to see.

Surely one little sign would be nothing at all to you - hardly a mention in your day book.

And I finally fell asleep, knowing in my heart of hearts that no such sign would show, and that my faith in G-d had decreased to nearly nil.

For the first time in my life, I had no faith.

Now tell me that THAT kind of news wouldn't put you out like a light?!?

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I woke up the next morning screaming "BOUTENNIERES!" at the top of my lungs. It would seem that, during the course of the evening decorating, the men's boutonniere flower thingies were placed into a small plastic bag. That bag, if I remembered correctly, was then placed into a bigger bad, and later that night, all bags hanging around were placed into a really large bad - namely, the garbage bag.

We had thrown out the men's boutonnières.

Now, I woke up at 4:30am - nearly 4 hours before the reception site would be opened for business. I was a little freaked out; wondering how on earth I could get in there before the garbage collectors came and emptied the bins in the hall.

Finally, I decided to try my luck around 6:45am - after showering, fretting, dressing, fretting, making up last minute lists, fretting, and, oh yeah, did I mention FRETTING?!?!

There was someone at the hall! Hallelujah!

She was willing to send someone to check the garbage bins for flowers.

Double Halle!

He didn't find anything.

Shit.

But I was able to go and look around for them if I wanted.

Woohoo!

I didn't find them.

Crap.

My sister-in-law said that she had them.

Yes!!

She didn't have them. She had the bridesmaids' flowers.

Oh well. I gave up. I sent one of the groomsmen to go and pick up fresh, REAL boutonnieres from the flower store. They look marvelous in the pictures, by the way.