The Wedding Rehearsal (wedding part 2)

Before the rehearsal, we managed to sneak seven girls into the hotel honeymoon suite. Which, although clearly was big enough to sleep seven, was only firecoded for four. We had an anal hotel clerk who was quite suspicious of us, so we snuck in through the back door and came in and out in shifts. Stole a rose out of the fake bouquet above the fireplace just because we could (that was all Brenna). It had a phenomenally large shower and jacuzzi and a hideaway bed and a big ol' supersoft kingsize bed. The closet was big enough to use as a changeroom, which I did just because I could.

The rehearsal was long (took ten minutes just to figure out who was going to stand where), but a blast anyhow. Halfway through waiting for the pastor (Filipino and a pastor = always late), a huge thunderstorm with dregs of hail and pouring rain happened - I thought it was a great omen. All the romance in bollywood films happens in the rain or snow, and they even got a rainbow! Best wedding rehearsal idea ever is pizza and a lot of fun and laughter, with a prayer session at the end --- encouraging us to pray for them and for their marriage, and giving us a chance to pray as a wedding party.

Back at the hotel, we did manicures and all shaved legs together in the jacuzzi and ate desserts from BPs, and did makeup trials (thus the picture of me where I'm laughing because it's on so thick - good thing for practice rounds). I hung out with Robby's sister Jamie and my cuz Steph and the rest of the girls ( I never realized how funny and great to be around Steph and Jamie were). The other cousins Julia and Bonnie came by (Julia brought her boyfriend... duh... although I think it might have been planned, and he just wanted to be in a honeymoon suite with ten girls in swimsuits - jj Julia or Craig if you read this)

The last words we heard before falling asleep (that I have witnesses who will testify that I predicted at 2 in the afternoon) was , "Guys! I'm getting married tomorrow!"
We woke up at 6 AM (even though we didn't need to get up til 7) to giggling. (I was waiting to get up because I was sleeping on the hideaway and my head kept sinking into the gap between couch and mattress.) Jen and Steph and Chel slept in the big bed, and Chel woke us up giggling because Steph was violently thrashing in bed all night. (All of us girls in the family move around when we're sleeping - not violently, but we all are most comfortable switching positions every now and then - and we don't steal covers, in our defense) Chel's first words of the day: "Guys, I'm getting married today!"