Chloupek/Howard Wedding

We had two busy back-to-back weekends, so I'm playing catch-up with the blog. I missed writing last week, but I promise to make it up this week with two posts.

On Thursday, October 21st, I braved the freeways of Tulsa for the first time by myself as I started my trip to Lincoln for the wedding celebration of Mr. and Mrs. Nicholas Howard. It was a l-o-n-g trip, especially with a baby sitting on my bladder, but Harry Potter on CD, a bottle of raspberry tea, and a box of Cinnamon Toast Crunch kept me awake for the 8 hour drive. I made it to Lincoln just in time for my first dress appointment. The seamstress took my measurements at 4:30pm on Thursday. I went back again at 9:30 Friday morning and picked up my complete bridesmaids dress at 3:30 that afternoon. A dress in 23 hours - now that's what I call efficiency

Thursday evening the other bridesmaids and I went down to the Haymarket for some bachelorette festivities for the soon-to-be Mrs. Emily Howard. Emily Chloupek, the bride, was my FOCUS disciple in college. A little background on FOCUS discipleship - discipleship is one-on-one weekly mentoring, so from my sophomore to senior year, Emily and I spent an hour together each week sharing our lives. We also lived together in Courtyards for a year as well as two summers together in Avila (an off-campus Catholic women's formation house). Needless to say, I was thrilled to be a witness for the vows she would be making...to my high school boyfriend.

Prom 2004

Oh high school! How funny it would have been to know then that we would, in fact, be together in a wedding one day!

Anyway, back to the bachelorette celebrations. We started out with supper at Old Chicago. Then, we went to Paint Yourself Silly (a paint-your-own pottery store) where we painted Nick and Emily a set of coasters. Finally, we headed to Emily Pohlen's (another bridesmaid) house where we ate oreos and doritos, I had water, and everyone else drank margaritas.

Friday I spent the day catching up with Lincoln friends. It was a busy, busy day, but SO good to see everyone again. Friday night was the rehearsal. Friday night was also when Aaron flew to Omaha from Tulsa. I was much relieved when I got the text at midnight saying he had landed safely in Omaha and was headed to the McNaughton's for the night.

Then Saturday was the big day!

Flower Power from the Bridesmaids

A little prayer before Emily walked down the aisle

The whole wedding party + ushers

Emily was absolutely stunning in her homemade dress crafted by the same super woman who made mine in 23 hours. The Mass was beautiful, and Father Holdren gave a blow-your-mind homily on marriage. I just LOVE the Sacrament of Matrimony!

Baby was gracious enough to let Aaron and I stay for the entire reception. We even danced a polka together! We shut down the place after the DJ was all packed up because there were still so many friends we hadn't talked to yet. Around midnight we made our way out of the hall and over to Omaha where we stayed with some other newlyweds: Austin and Melissa Zach. Mr. and Mrs. Zach were married this year on August 7th. We love sharing an anniversary with them!

Sunday, on our way out of town, we stopped by Andy and Kristin McNaughton's. Aaron had already seen the McNaughton's because they picked him up from the airport and let him sleep in the bunkbeds of their spare bedroom. Their son, James, is our godson. As soon as Aaron told me that James already had two teeth and was army crawling all over the place, I knew I couldn't leave Nebraska without seeing him!

"Mom and Dad, why do you want me to smile?"

After a short visit, we hopped back in the car to start our journey home. It was a fairly quick trip (it always is when Aaron is driving and he happens to find "friends" on the road to follow), and then set out planning the next adventure later that week: the arrival of my family!