Let’s Get This Party Started!

The reception, I must say, was an uberblast.

Absofreakinglutely.

It started with dorky, funny pictures staged by my splendiferous step-mom, where my dad couldn’t wait to get rid of me….


….and Scope’s parents couldn’t wait to get rid of him….


….and Scope’s mom and I had a big ol’ tug-o-war over him (“leggo—he’s MINE!!!!”)….


*snicker*

Our Best Man, Tony, gave a spectacular speech….
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….and we cut the cake, with a special surprise for my brother’s girlfriend sneakily delivered first (hee hee hee)….
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We got our cake at Safeway.

(Yes, the grocery store!)

(Yes, really!!)

Despite the store bakery staff’s complete and utter lack of confidence that they could actually do a wedding cake any sort of justice whatsoever (they were sooooooooooooooooooooooo jittery and radiating pure panic over it, I almost felt mean for asking them to do it) (almost), the cake turned out beautiful, elegant and extremely delicious….


Yummmmm.

I threw my bouquet…. and clocked the poor girl who caught it right on the nose with it (whoopsie! My bad)….


I don’t really have any good pictures of the bouquet toss. Yet. But I do have it on video….
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And Scope threw my garter. After removing it with his teeth. *wink wink*….


We have all that fun caught on video too (heh heh heh)….
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And then with our fabulous DJ/Master of Ceremonies, Kenny, pulling the strings, we danced the night away….








We even danced the Hokey Pokey (this was our Father/Daughter Dance, by the way. *snicker*)….


If you live in Western Washington and you need a DJ for anything, YOU WANT KENNY from Action Entertainment. No, no arguing—YOU WANT KENNY!! You DO. You JUST DO. Kenny is absolutely amazing! We had sooooooooooo much fun!!!! :-)

We hung out with great friends….






There were kisses….


There were hugs….


(Awwwwwwwwwwwwww.)

And in a flash, it seemed, the night came to an end and Scope and I left the party and hit Seattle to get a shot of ourselves by the Space Needle….


Then we headed for our hotel. And the rest of it is nunnaya bidness.


Up next: the honeymoon in San Francisco!

© Coracabana

The Proof Is In The Pudding. And The Video Camera.

So, picking back up where we left off: We were dressed. And lookin’ gooOOooOOood.

(Especially Scope.)

(Hubba hubba.)

The ceremony was absolutely lovely and went off without a single snag, which just made me wanna whoop, cartwheel, and hi-five everyone in the near vicinity, because, dammit, I’m not used to such perfection. But I wrestled down my exuberance and pinned its sorry, crybaby butt to the floor (‘though, I admit, it wasn’t easy—my exuberance fights freakin’ dirty, okay?!) and settled for hugging everyone in sight afterwards.

*Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!*

I could delve into all the details of the ceremony, yapping on and on and on here, sucking all your valuable time away for many eons to come. Or I could just show you.

Uh-huh.

Thanks to Callista’s hubby, Mad Dog, who brandished my Flip Camera for me, we have the whole ceremony on video.

Wanna see?!

Scope broke the video up into three parts to appease YouTube (where size matters, folks.)

Here is Part One: The Processional, where you’ll see Scope’s parents; followed by my dad and step-mom; then my mom and my brother; our marvelous Minister, Becky; Scope; Callista and my brother (yeah, he walked down the aisle twice!); my daughter, Gwen, and Scope’s friend, Tony; my niece and nephew as our flower girl and ring bearer; and, finally, me and my dad….
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Here is Part Two: The Ceremony, where you’ll hear a slight hubbub as our flower girl goes back to pick up the flowers she’d dropped *snicker* and you’ll see our uberawesome photographer, Rachel, sneaking around like a Ninja in the background, getting all the golden moments on film (I love it!!)….
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And here is Part Three: The Vows, where you’ll see Scope and I become husband and wife, exchange rings, suck face, hug our daughter (*sniffle*), and all that good stuff….
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And there you have it—proof that I am Mrs. Scope!!!! :-)

*le sigh*

Here are a few of my favorite pictures from the ceremony….






(And a big, BIG thank you goes out to Maribeth and…. uhhh…. whoever was taking pictures on my camera during the ceremony (????) for those shots—they’re priceless!)

After the recessional, Scope and I went back out and excused everyone from their seats row by row. Then I ran off to the restroom lounge with my daughter and all her friends, who were wonderful enough to all sit on the floor behind me for about ten minutes, tying up the bustle on my gown for the reception….


Once my butt was bustled, it was time to par-tay!!

Up next: The Reception....

© Coracabana

….And Now For An Intermission In Our Wedding Tale. Please Excuse The Pause. It Will Be Brief. And Pointless. (Duh)….

A few months ago I got an invitation to my 20 Year High School Reunion. After breaking out in hives and dry heaving at the most unfair realization that I’m old, I wiped the tears from my eyes and wrote “reunite w/geezers!” on the July 17th square of my Harry Potter wall calendar.

Shut up.

I started thinking about the past 20 years in between all the romping with Scope, wedding gown fittings, wedding cake taste testings, meetings with lawyers, packing up my home to move, driving my sick kid to various doctors’ appointments, and yada yada yada that’s been going on here lately. Or whenever I was bored in traffic. Whatever. And I started thinking about who I was 20 years ago.

Since I don’t have many pictures of myself from back then (and—bummeroo—the ones that I do have are already packed up ready for the move) (convenient, noooooo?) let me quickly spit shine and polish up my dusty, rusty art skillz (four years of art classes, baby!) and recreate the image of Cora ala Senior Year for you.

*folding arms*

*blink*

*nod*

POOF!!

Here you go:



(Yeah. It’s a stick figure. And?)

So, who was I 20 years ago? Hmm. Well, I was….

….a devout Depeche Mode fan
….an art class freak (see above)
….a bearer of big hair (see above and cut me some slack; it was 1990!)
….a hermit homebody
….so ghostly pale, they nicknamed me “Casper” (jerks)
….a prom-skipper
….longing to live in New York City
….a chronic letter writer
….unable to write in only one color
….quiet
….shy
….Student of the Month (but my mom made me hide my award certificate and not tell anyone in case it made my sister feel bad!!)
….voted “Most Changed” in the yearbook
….voted “Best Butt” by the sophomore class boys (hubba hubba)
….a lover of Psychology
….obsessed with a boy who was obsessed with another girl who was obsessed with some other guy (so sad)
….dressed in black. Often.
….without a clue of what I wanted to do with my life

Wow. Deep. Ish.

I’ve also been thinking back on who I have been these past 20 years since I graduated high school. I have been….

….a Contempo Girl
….a Morrissey lover
….a Morrissey hater
….a Psychology student
….a Photography student
….a Creative Writing student
….a college dropout
….lost
….a mistreated wife
….scared
….silent when I should have been screaming
….a relieved divorcee
….a single mom
….a teacher
….a nanny
….a rabid, obsessed Harry Potter fan
….a medical miracle
….a death beater (not Death Eater!)
….a survivor
….stronger than I ever imagined I could be
….hopeful

Which brings me to now, 20 years later. And, without a doubt, I am….

….a great mom
….a blissful newlywed (*le sigh*)
….”CoCo”
….snap-happy
….an eBay diva
….a blogger
….a giggler
….a fighter
….in better shape than I was 20 years ago :-)
….about to move to Chicago
….tired of waiting
….HAPPY!!!!

Anyway, I went to my Ten Year Reunion ten years ago (duuuuuuh) and I loved the heck out of it. Getting to discover what had become of those people I’d once known was really quite the giggle fest. (Then again, what isn’t?) (*giggle*) However, as my 20 Year Reunion waltzed closer and closer, I just felt kind of eh about it.

Maybe it’s because of the wedding and the move and everything else that’s going on. Or maybe it’s because of Facebook, which has stripped the reunion of the mystery the last reunion had because, well, I see all my old high school friends on FB every stinkin’ day, and I already know what everyone is up to and I’ve already seen how much people have changed (or not) and, so, my nosiness has already been satisfied.

In any case, I decided not to go to my reunion tonight. Nope. And I’m sooooooooo glad too.

Because I just found out the reunion was last night.

D’oh!



© Coracabana

Goin’ To The Golf Course and We’re Gonna Get Married….

As I previously babbled here, the night before I married Scope I slept just fine.

Mm-hmm.

It sounds like a steaming preposterous pile o’ poo, I know, and I’m sorry, but it’s true. Everyone told me brides panic the night before they get hitched, and that I’d be staring at my ceiling allllllllllllllllll niiiiiiiiiiiiiight lonnnnnggggggg, fretting, sweating and regretting what I was about to do. But no. I slept perfectly fine. I even had normal dreams.

Pffffft! I know. Go fig.

*shrugging*

I woke up feeling happy, calm, and not the least bit nervous. Not even a single butterfly. Not one. Of course, I kept expecting the nervousness to sniff me out sooner or later and then pounce and gut me like a fish. Why wouldn’t it? I mean, I was about to get married, okay?

MARRIED!!!!

*gasp*

ME!!!!

*shock*

WHAT THE--?!?!

*stunned stare*

Hadn’t I been viciously shoved off the edge of crossed this Bridal Bridge once before and ended up limping my sorry bruised self away down the cold, dark, lonely I’llNeverTrustMenAgain Lane in the wretched town of Jiltedville in the ugly State of Divorcia, vowing I’d never ever EVER cross that big old scary bridge again, hmm?

Damn straight.

Yet there I was, about to cross that bridge again and I didn’t feel the least bit nervous or frightened or unsure or anything. I just felt happy. Happy and blissfully alive! And that is how I felt the entire day. From start to end.

I’m a freak. Clearly.

And I don’t care.

:-)

As for how Scope’s and my wedding day played out—*blissful sigh*—it was truly yummy perfection with sprinkles and hot fudge on top! Nervousness? It didn’t exists. Glitches? There wasn’t a single one. Everything was lovely and I simply can’t imagine a better day. At. All.

We have—ohhhhhh—roughly a zillion pictures of the day’s events, and while I’m not going to show them all to you here, I will be posting a fair few. I doubt they’ll all squeeze into one post, so I’ll likely be splitting the tale up into a couple of posts. Or more. So, buckle up, kids! Here we go:

Gwen and I arrived at the Fairwood Golf & Country Club about four hours before the ceremony started, and along with Callista and several other generously helpful friends and relatives (including Scope’s sister and brother-in-law, my dad and step-mom, and Scope’s friend, Maribeth) we started setting up and decorating….




And, yes, I even ate lunch! Woot!….


But soon I was whisked away into hiding to transform from bagel-noshing, Skechers-wearing fiancée (see above) to beautifully-blushing, Skechers-wearing bride.

Yes. I wore Skechers at the wedding. White ones. In a Kids’ size 4. Which came in a box which says this….


Yep. My shoes were called “I’m Pretty Tall ~ shoes that make you taller!” Callista, Maribeth, Gwen, Rachel and I had a reeeaaalllllyyyyyy good laugh about that while getting ready….


Go ahead, laugh if you must. My feet never once hurt the entire wedding. Not even on the dance floor! :-)


Once we were all dressed (and wedding-oblivious golfers were booted from the private restroom lounge) our photographer, Rachel, got down to business, taking a plethora of pictures….


It’s funny, Callista warned me that the wedding would be a blur to me afterwards, and she must have been right, because I swear I have absolutely no memory of my dad being in the women's bathroom with me! When the heck did THAT happen????….


In a SNAP it was suddenly time for Scope and I to see each other and do family group pictures before the ceremony. I was led out onto the patio and was told to stand with my back to everyone so I wouldn’t see Scope emerge. Scope, as I was told, was going to be blindfolded while he was sequestered in the men’s room with his friend, Tony, and then led out behind me.

And, so, I waited.

Suddenly the crowd on the patio erupted into wild laughter and chatter about toilet paper…. Toilet paper?…. Huh?…. They blindfolded the groom with toilet paper?!

No.

No, they did not….


People, please. Just please. You can NOT leave Scope to his own devices for an extended length of time and NOT expect shenanigans of some sort to blossom, okay? I thought this was common knowledge. That’s right, my darling groom tucked a tail of toilet paper into his drawers to slay the crowd. Because he’s five. And I wouldn’t have it any other way!! :-)

*snicker*

Thank God he was sequestered in the men's room, right? I shudder to think what he might have done with the tampons if he’s been kept in the ladies’ room….

*shudder*

But anyway….

Once Scope’s behind was toilet paper-free again, I got to turn around and we saw each other in our wedding clothes for the very first time. We clean up very nicely, I must say.

We stood for pictures with our families. Here we are with my parents….


Here is my brother-in-law, my sister (who ended up giving birth a mere seven days after!), my dad, me, Scope, my brother, and my mom….


Here we are with Scope’s parents….


Here is Scope’s brother-in-law, Scope’s sister, me, Scope, Scope’s mom, Scope’s dad, and Scope’s brother….


Aaaaaaand this one is my favorite! The three of us. Awwwwww….


And then it was time to hide me away again so guests could be seated for the ceremony to begin. But because I’m mean, I’m going to make you wait a bit for the rest of the story (MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!) - hey, admit it, this post is waaaaayyyyyyy too long already.

Clearly.

[….to be continued….]

© Coracabana

Meet The Scopes

Well, we did it. That’s right. Saturday, July 3rd, Scope and I gathered our families and friends together; said a few magical tingle-inducing little words to each other; swapped rings; wriggled; giggled; grinned until our faces were sore; and ~*BOOYA!*~ now we are (….drum roll please….) married!!!!


*le sigh*

But wait—*needle scratching across a record*—first things first: let’s take a step back to how we got here….

Scope and I met right here on this very blog back in 2008. Yep. I was a nanny and brand new to Blogaritaville and I whipped up a bloggy letter to Santa, inquiring about a stripper pole (for exercise purposes) (of course) (perv), and Scope piqued my interest, curiosity, and laugh-until-you-can’t-breathe-iosity, by commenting that what he wanted for Christmas was a nanny cam.

Because I was a nanny.

With a stripper pole.

*wink wink nudge nudge say no more*

A-ha.

Did I know back then that I had just crossed paths with my future husband? Heck no. But I knew I’d just run into someone who would be verrrrrrry fun to blog with, so I scurried on over to Scope’s blog…. and I never left.

Blogging turned into facebooking, which morphed into emailing, which evolved into phone calls, and in April 2009 we finally met face-to-face. And the sparks flew immediately. And they’ve never stopped flying.

And now *TAA-DAA* I am Mrs. Scope!!!! :-)

*SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!*

Whoddathunkit? I mean, when I started up this dorky little blog I never really thought someone might actually want to read it (puh-leeze)…. or that I’d make real life friends because of it (c’mon)…. or that I’d meet my future husband on it (shaddap ya face)….. but that’s life, right? You’re minding your own business one second and then *BAM* suddenly there’s a funny man from Chicago wanting to put a camera in your house the next!

But anyway….

I’ll be writing a more detailed wedding post soon. Ish. Or whenever I’m done sorting through the sixty-two trillion photos I took that day. Whatevs. Until then though, here’s a little snippet of what we did leading up to the wedding:

Scope flew in four days before the big day and we spent that time finishing up all things weddingy…. and rounding up our relatives, trying to meld everyone’s mess of conflicting plans, schedules, expectations and requests into one well-oiled, functioning machine.

Or at least a somewhat less messy blob of some kind….


(Criminy! You wouldn’t believe the flaming hoops I had to jump through to get that tiny handful of people together there for dinner that night at the insistence of two of them. About two hours before that picture was taken I was curled in a ball on my bedroom floor, crying my eyes out because of it all! Gah! But it was worth it in the end; everyone had a good time…. I think. And if not, I soooooooooo don’t wanna know about it. Just shhhhhhhh, don’t tell me.)

(No, really.)

Friday, the day before our wedding, Scope and I took 25 members of his family and friends into downtown Seattle to go sightseeing.

This may not have been the brightest idea we’ve ever had.

Ever tried to herd 25 over-stimulated, distracted, excited people in the same direction at once? No? I have…. when I was a Kindergarten teacher and we went on a field trip to the zoo. But, frankly, that was easier because kids on a field trip know to hold hands and follow the leader. Sightseeing adults? Yeah, not so much. I spent so much time counting heads, running back and forth looking for wandering group members, and juggling questions, that I was utterly exhausted by lunchtime. Like serious zombified exhaustion.

*whimper*

Scope rescued me and snuck me away for a private lunch, just the two of us, for a much needed break before rejoining the group. (All together now: awwwwwwwwwwww.) When we rejoined the group it was to find that half of them had decided to go off on their own and do the Underground Tour, which made the rest of our sightseeing a bit more manageable.

We saw the Pike Place Market….


….and the Gum Wall….


….and the Space Needle….


….and other Seattleish sights….


And then before we knew it, we were running alarmingly late and racing out of the city in a panic to the Fairwood Golf & Country Club for our wedding rehearsal. We speed-changed our clothes in a public bathroom and burst onto the scene at the FG&CC only a mere minute late. Score!

The rehearsal went fantastically….


….and afterwards we went to the rehearsal dinner, where Scope gave a simultaneously side-splitting and touching speech (he’ll be posting it over on his blog soon), where I did—uhhhhhhhhh—whatever it is that I do….


….and where I got a call from Scope’s relatives who had stayed behind in Seattle to do the Underground Tour. Remember them? They got lost on their way back out of Seattle and wanted a local Seattleite (that would be me) to talk them back onto the right road:

Them: “We don’t know where we are. I think we took a wrong turn somewhere. How do we get back to the expressway?”

Me: “Well, I need to know where you are first. Are there any landmarks or buildings near you?”

Them: “Yes! Starbucks!”

*crickets*

;-)

Aaaaaaaaaaaand on that note, I’m going to pause this tale. Next time, I’ll tell you all about our wedding day, swearsies, but while you’re waiting for me to get my act together on that, go check out our fabulous photographer Rachel Rausch Johnson’s special sneak peek blog post about our day! (CLICK HERE) The pictures are FANTASTIC! You’ll love them! I do!

© Coracabana

Butterfly Flutter By

See that little count down widget right over there? --------> Hmm? Do ya? Right now as I’m typing this, it’s showing that there’s only nine hours to go until Scope and I are married. NINE. HOURS. And that’s crazy, people. Crazy like spaghetti and light bulbs.

Wow.

Shouldn’t I be nervous or something? ‘Cuz I’m not. No, really. Shut up. I slept just fine last night, woke up feeling completely calm and nonfreakoutish, and now I’m sitting here eating a 3 Musketeers and blogging quietly so I don’t accidently wake my daughter up before I hit my treadmill with a three mile walk while I watch Quantum Leap, just like I do every morning…. the only difference is that I keep wondering why I’m not nervous. Where are those annoying butterflies which always haunt my stomach in situations like this?! Hmm? What, are they on freaking strike? Are they sleeping in? Maybe they’re just lying in wait outside my front door, giggling menacingly amongst themselves and plotting to ambush me later as I load up my car with all the glass bowls, glass flutes, wedding clothes, seating charts, table numbers, and yada yada yada that I’ll be needing in nine hours?

Eeep.

That settles it. I’m leaving out the backdoor, dammit! So there!

*sticking out tongue at butterflies while I notice that now there's only EIGHT hours to go*

(Nope. Still not nervous. Bizarre. Who am I and what have I done with myself????)

© Coracabana