Wedding of the Year

Saturday was my brother's wedding and Friday night was the rehearsal dinner. Both were spectacular. The rehearsal dinner was in downtown Mountain View at a wonderful restaurant that I will definitely eat at again. It was really very nice, with great food and great service. Joanne's family and friends were so nice and it was great to get to see Todd's old friends again, too. I'm sorry if I embarrassed Todd in my speech with props showing off his nice qualities, but he's just going to have to live with knowing that other people can sometimes see that. HA!
The wedding was in Menlo Park at the Stanford Park Hotel- they also did a fantastic job and I will recommend them highly for weddings. It was so pretty and done so well.

Joanne's family is filled with musicians, so during the ceremony, her mom and aunt sang a song and then a friend of theirs did a reading. The "preacher" was a wonderful speaker and did a beautiful job.

After the ceremony, we all moved to the reception area where we milled about visiting and snacking and drinking until Joanne and Todd were finished with pictures with her family. They served dinner later that was delicious and then a to-die-for browning cake thing for dessert. Once the dancing began, I never again saw my children off the dance floor area.

At one point, someone announced that there was "dancing until 9:30". Signa ran back to our table with the most excited look I've ever seen on her face EVER. "MOMMA!!! DADDY!!! There is dancing until NINE THIRTY!!!" (like 9:30 is the latest time she's ever heard of). Then she ran back to the dance floor.

After the wedding and reception, there was an "after party" at this big bar in Palo Alto. We dropped the kids with Mom and went to it and about 10 people there told me that Signa was the dancing police. They'd stop dancing to go back to their table and she'd dance on over and tell them, "YOU DON'T HAVE TO STOP! THERE IS DANCING UNTIL ***NINE THIRTY***!!!"
The after-party was wonderful, too. Joanne's musical family from Ireland played guitars and sang wonderful songs for hours and hours. We closed the place down at 2am, and I'm sure they must have all been completely exhausted, as I sure was and all I did was listen!

So now my baby brother is married and they are off to a trip around the world in just a couple of weeks. I hope there is time to say goodbye before they go.