A Napa Fairytale: Rehearsal Morning

We woke up before the sun. I'm positive I wouldn't have even been able to sleep without the previous night's Cabernet nightcap. Once again the weather was shaping up to be amazing and the news stations began their segments on the 10-10-10 wedding rush-- it was so fun to be in on it!

Mr. Barrettes prepared for his gentlemen's golf day and I scurried around packing our overstuffed suitcases in order to check out of that hotel and into our room at Avia. We had an early breakfast date at Marie Callenders.* I love going out for breakfast when its still dark outside-- you just know the day ahead of you is going to be long and fun. At 7:30 we headed to the golf course and pulled onto the road to this familiar Napa sighting:

Being in the heightened, emotional omigod-this-is-our-wedding-weekend state I was in, I cried! Over balloons! I cried because the morning was so beautiful and I felt so lucky to be in love, in Napa, just... in everything. I felt like I needed someone to pinch me-- it was too good to be true. Right then and there, in the car, Mr. Barrettes proclaimed that we would come to Napa every year to celebrate our anniversary and next year we would do a hot air balloon. No arguments here! Then I cried a little harder because the thought of us being old people and celebrating our 75th wedding anniversary in Napa was just too much. I was just plain overwhelmed with wedding joy-- it was indescribable and I hope each of you feel/felt that way the day before your wedding too.

I said goodbye to my groom at the golf course, knowing the next time I'd see him would be at our 3pm rehearsal. I high-tailed it back to our hotel so I could get moving. Those menus and wine lists weren't going to print themselves. I pulled out my Mac and threw together the simplest looking design ever. As long as the food and wine were good I didn't think anyone would care. Trust me, if your guests are thinking, "Oh my, this paper menu looks like it was slapped together the day before the wedding", you're doing something else wrong.

I bought 32 frames from the dollar store (16 tables, one framed menu and one framed wine list each) and zipped over to Kinkos. I left 20 minutes later with printed, cut, and ready-to-be-framed menus and wine lists. Easy peasy. Next!

I had to check out of our hotel and into Avia, but our room wasn't ready yet. On my way out I heard a familiar booming voice. Our reverend, Dr. Houtz was in the lobby checking-in! Omigod this is real! It was a pleasure to see him and his wife before the craziness of the afternoon and I started to get the feeling that I would have alot more run-ins with guests as everyone descended on Napa. I could feel the energy getting closer and closer.

With nowhere to be and no hotel to check into I did what any girl would do-- head straight to her gay boyfriend's hotel to see what merriment awaited there! The Will to my Grace always keeps me amused!

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*Ever bite the inside of your lip by accident? Then because you did it once, it's so much easier to do it again and again and before you know it you have a super sore. That's me. The week before our wedding. By the wedding weekend I had a canker sore. Worst timing ever. Any time I tried to eat or drink I winced in pain. By the time I found the numbing gel my mom had bought, the weekend was over. Fail. I drank hot coffee through a plastic straw that morning. (How's that for weirdness, Mrs. Octopus?)

By the time we landed in Guam, my mouth was as good as new. The pain kept me in the moment during the weekend and I'm going to chalk it up to the universe keeping me grounded during a weekend I could have been a reckless and drunk mess :)