Wedding bells

Sorry for the lack of posting 'round here. Work's been busy as usual -- we had a big event on Thursday night, which went very well but which was somewhat stressful to prepare for, on top of which my new employee started that day -- and we've been busy helping my sister and her fiance with their wedding preparations. They're gettin' hitched on Friday afternoon, in a simple ceremony at a small chapel between our house and theirs. A friend of ours is officiating, and another friend is shooting the photos. Then we're all -- all 12 of us (parents and siblings are the only guests) -- going out to dinner at a fantastic neighborhood restaurant. The whole thing is happening within 1.5 miles of our house and theirs, at places we all love.

It's been lots of fun to help my sister throw this shindig together on short notice -- they'd had a bigger wedding planned for next summer, but realized that they were completely uninterested in all the hoopla. So they started planning this wedding about a month or so ago. They're heading up the coast after the wedding to stay at a favorite B&B (with an amazing restaurant) for the weekend; we've arranged for champagne and flowers to be placed in their room before they arrive.

My folks get here Wednesday -- sans Sam and Gabby, the neurotic poodle and irrepressible mutt, respectively -- and that night we'll have Darren's parents over for dinner (they're not coming to the wedding, so it'll be nice to get them together with my parents ahead of time). I work half a day on Thursday, then my mom and sister and I are going for manicures and pedicures at one of the fancy salons in town. I believe that Thursday night her fiance's dad is taking us out to dinner, and then Friday is all about the wedding. We'll be taking care of crazy Lucy (picture below) for the weekend; my parents leave on Sunday morning, and E&P return from their honeymoon getaway Sunday afternoon. And then life will go back to the regularly scheduled onset-of-holidays insanity.