Its like rai-e-ayn on your wedding day

Its wedding season. You know what I mean. And you're right in the middle of it too. You can't get away from it. One day there is a hand caligraphed and letter-pressed invitation in the mailbox, the next day you turn on the Today Show and there is a segment on flowers, or lace or whatever Martha Stewart (goddess of all things goddess-like and the holiest all of things holy) has up her magic, perfectly starched and ironed button up blouse. That may have been the happiest sentence I have written in my life.

We, and when I say we I mean the entirety of my fathers side of my family, attended my cousins wedding. It was the second of four cousins getting married this year. Mike and I are the last of the bunch in November, and the next one is in October. It was beautiful. The rain, yeah rain in Phoenix, stopped in perfect time. It poured the entire morning, and early afternoon, but at twenty minutes after five o'clock the rain subsided, and the ceremony began. The groom, my cousin, and the quietest man on earth came out and looked great. I had never seen him in a suit before, other than at his brothers wedding just four months prior. When the bride walked out my mouth dropped. She looked beautiful. She is a jeans, t-shirt kind of girl and she looked so elegant. I can honestly say that I have mad dress envy.

The ceremony was beautiful, and the rain held out just long enough to get a big group shot of all the guests and to make our way into the ballroom. And do you see the venue? The grass, and the statues, oh and the castle, which you can't see, but in which we partied in and spilled red wine all over.

The cocktail reception lasted about an hour. The singer was amazing. He was belting out the classics: "The Way You Look Tonight" and even busted out the Italian version of Andrea Bocelli's "Time to Say Goodbye". It was im-press-ive.

The rest of the evening was flawless, just as I hope our wedding is. It flowed perfectly. Timing was everything, and you could tell that it mattered to everyone involved. The cocktail hour remained a SINGLE hour, which flowed into "first" dances, to speeches and then dinner. Dancing was next, then cake cutting, then bouquet toss, dollar dance, last call (boo!) and the final dance. It wasn't just a perfectly coordinated wedding, it was fun! And they knew exactly how to do it. Open bar (check), DJ who knew how to feel out the crowd (check), a bride who got all crazy and many female cousins to dance with (check and check).

It was a gorgeous wedding, and look at that, I even got Mike to wear a tie.