New Drawings

Working Cover

This won't be out until 2010, but it is the working cover of my book :)
There will probably be a few more changes until the final-final version.

April 18th, 2009

We arrived at the Marvimon around 1pm-ish with cars full of decorations and flowers.
The people who we had rented the furniture from were SO SLOW. I had thought that they were going to be done by 2pm - but they were still setting up at close to 3, so I ran away while my family and friends relieved me of all stress and AMAZINGLY and AWESOMELY set up all of the tables.

Meanwhile, I hid in the bridal suite getting my makeup done by J's friend Rachel.
She did a sweet ass job - Everyone told me I looked all glowy and pretty. Aw. Thanks everyone, and thanks Rachel.

So then I had a couple of hours to kill before the wedding. Guest-like people hadn't shown up yet so I snuck around the venue being anal about setups. I wore my flip flops and snacked and bothered everyone. J had already seen me in my dress so I helped him get ready also. Finally non-wedding party, and non-family people started showing up so I had to hide.

When the guests walked in they were greeted with this!

It was a 24" X 36" gold framed poster of a photo that J and I had taken in our dining room a couple nights before.
It was absolutely ridiculous.

There was also a wall sized movie screen that people saw when they walked in. J made a slideshow that we put outtakes on, in addition to some childhood photos.

The table below the framed photo had a little setup with the guestbook on it.
Instead of a conventional guestbook - I glued tiny envelopes into a scrapbook album, and left out cards - so people could write us a note and stick it in an envelope.

Our programs were 4" X 6" postcards that had our wedding party on one side, and the Golden Girls theme song on the other.

We had 2 cakes. 1 was a lovely 2 tiered floral cake...
and the other was a burrito.

And of course there was our Robocop ice sculpture.

So back to story time.
5pm was approaching and most of our guests had arrived. We were supposed to start the ceremony at 5:30pm, but 5:30 rolled around and J was still writing his vows.

When J finished writing, he and our officiant/friend Chris walked out to the song 'Showdown' by ELO.

Then our HUGE, HUGE, HUGE wedding party walked out to 'Bewilderbeast' by Badly Drawn Boy, - in this order:

Dennis - Melissa
Dallas - Jennifer
Brad - J.
Janette - Zac
Will - Cuirstaun
Tim - Katie
Nikki - Jason
Chris - Stephanie
Eric - Patrese
Jamie - Vosshanah

Groomspeople listed first - Bridespersons listed second. We had mixed genders.

Followed by our ring bearer. My 15 year old nephew, Raymond. He had a broken leg, so we had tied a ribbon around Geoffrey - a stuffed bear who had the rings on each of his arms - and hung him from Raymond's neck.

And then the flower girls, J's nieces, Shawna and Sophia.

THEN ME:

My dad and I walked out to 'The Shining' by Badly Drawn Boy.

I was pretty calm during the whole getting ready process. I only started to cry if someone hugged me. RIGHT UNTIL all of the wedding party was standing in the back with me and started to walk out. The overwhelming good times feelings washed over me and I was totally "WAHHH."

Then - the ceremony.
Our friend Chris officiated. We wrote the whole ceremony ourselves leaving out lots of corniness resulting in a few readings from Chris, and our vow exchange.

The picture of Chris, on the book he was reading from was a real laugher.
So Chris read some nice things about the meaning of marriage, and how he loves us, and how even though our whole wedding was hilarious and weird, that we were serious about how much we liked each other.

So then - our vows. I went first.

I made a couple of charts, that my mom was holding on to. When it was time to do my vows she handed me a Kinko's bag and I started.

Hey J,

How's it going?
I made some charts for you.

The first one is a list of things I have feelings about - ranging from "gross, no way" to "the best ever."
Beating out baby sloths, and the Golden Girls you are "the best ever," - my number one fave of all time!
I just don't think that it gets better than you. I like you so much that makes my face hurt.
I feel so lucky to have found my video game playing, couch loafing, terrible joke making, equal.

This one is a venn diagram of all of the things we have in common.
I have a feeling that since broccoli and carnitas are our only differences that this whole marriage thing is going to work out.
I love you, doo. I really do.
I promise to always, and I promise to always provide you with my feet to rub.
I know we're going have the sweetest life together.
You make me the happiest lady in town.

Then we hugged and cried a lot.
And it was J's time for vows.

Hi Sroobins.

I spent a lot of time leading up today thinking about how we got here,
about what makes our relationship special, why we get along as well as
we do, and why I can say with great confidence that we'll be together
until, as they say, death do us part.

I think the truth is that we're both just grown up kids.

I don't mean just our love of video games and tv shows from our youth,
your love of naps, or our mutual love of delicious snacks.

You and I share a nostalgia and longing for the simple, effortless joy
of childhood.

We both remember fondly the blissful days of aimless playing, the
warmth of our families, and the worry-free safety of our childhood
homes.

But we grew up.

In fact, we're so big now, we're even allowed to get married!

But that doesn't mean we have to stop being kids.

And I know that we won't.

I love you, Sroobins, and it makes me feel so happy and hopeful to
know that a couple of silly kids like us could find eachother, and
that it will be you and me, J and Michelle, playing together forever.

Then we hugged and cried a lot.

And Chris wrapped it up and we were married!

We all exited to 'Color of Water' by M. Ward.
The wedding party all went back to where we first made our entrances which is conveniently located near the bar, and all of exchanged hugs of happiness and got drinks. Shortly after Chris announced us as a couple and our entire wedding party.

This was followed by photos in the garden, while everyone else got to eat and hang out.
Our food was an AMAZING mexican buffet provided by Alex Catering, Alex's food, and staff were off the hook. Seriously don't know what we would have done without him and all his peeps.

After photos we mingled, and ate, and listened to speeches by Jamie, and Vosh.
Jamie's speech was amazing.
He had made a video - "Our Golden Friends" where he had edited J's and my photos into the opening theme of the Golden Girls and him and lady, Chiara sang the theme song.
Followed by a scene where Sophia is getting married, he had placed my and J's heads over Sophia and her groom.
Then when it cut to Dorothy she said "I have a feeling JASON AND MICHELLE are going to be together a very long time."
Never ending laughs.

Vosh's speech was very sweet and she talked about how she was so happy for us, and was happy to be a part of our special day. I was basically sobbing through her whole speech. We have known each other for 16 years and I totally love her.

After that we cut the cake. J and I both took a bite out of the end of the burrito.
More eating, and mingling, and hanging out. Then when we only had about 45 minutes left we started to get our dance on.

J's and my first dance was to 'Raining in Darling' by Bonnie "Prince" Billy.
We acted like we were in 7th grade for a second - then we danced like a normal couple.

The very last of the ridiculousness was Chris and Jenny presenting us a novelty size check for $67.83.

The night wrapped up with J's uncle Gary, Lady J, Jennifer, and Vosh sticking around to help clean up.
We all took the place apart, I pawned off most of the decorations to our friends and Robocop was beheaded and put in the shower.

At this point it was about 1:30am, we drove to our hotel about a mile away, changed, and went to eat ramen across the street.

THE END. <3

In case you are planning an event or wedding here is a list of our vendors.
They were all awesome and we recommend all of them!

HOW Magazine

I am starting to re-enter the world again! Back from wedding and vacation madness, I will be posting a bunch of pictures and stories later tonight.

How Magazine did an article about people who did daily projects, and they featured the 25 Project! Click the images below to view larger.