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I get to relax now...
Sep. 18th, 2005 07:39 pmThe Thing went off without a hitch and it was fantastic, just like everyone but me knew it was going to be. Kelly and I just have great families and wonderful friends and today was really special and perfect.
Kelly's aunt and grandmother arrived in Boston on Friday evening (from Michigan and Minnesota, respectively). I took the train up to Newburyport and we all had dinner at Kelly's parents' house. We got to meet Kelly's brother's new girlfriend for the first time. With Kelly's extended family living so far away, we don't get a lot of opportunities to see them, so it was a really nice evening and I was glad we'd made the trip.
Saturday, we woke up and went grocery shopping before our party that evening. In the afternoon, we had a major debate on the indoor/outdoor issue. Davio's, the restaurant where we had The Thing, had offered us a choice of two spaces: a large room with a balcony area or a smaller room that opened onto an outdoor patio with a lovely view of the river. Kelly was very attached to the outdoor option, but it was cold and drizzly on Saturday and I was unwilling to risk bad weather on Sunday. We had until 2pm to decide and we finally agreed on the indoor option.
Friends started arriving around 5, followed by my family and Kelly's and some more friends. We counted that we'd had at least 37 people visiting (thankfully not all at the same time). It was the first chance for my parents to meet Kelly's parents and everyone got along really well. Our grandmothers sat in the living room and told stories, which![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
danger_chick said were hilarious. I had been stressing about having my family come to my house for the first time because sometimes it's overwhelming (just because I have a large family and they can be pretty loud), but it felt really good to have them all there. After stressing out over what to cook, we wound up making exactly the right amount of food. Having the oven on did make the place a little stuffy, but my aunt went around and opened all the windows so it was okay. Kelly went to drop the last guests off at their hotels around 9:30 and then we cleaned up and unwound for a while.
Sunday we had a very leisurely morning. The weather was gorgeous when we woke up and Kelly really regretted that we hadn't decided to have the party outdoors. But as we were driving into Cambridge, she saw dark clouds hanging over the river and she felt better. The florist did a great job with the decorations (I'll post photos when we get them back) and everything looked wonderful. Our families came down a few minutes early and we had the photographer take some quick family pictures outside. Then we headed in and people started arriving. The whole party was great. Our friend Eve had volunteered to do the guestbook for us and she made an awesome book and set up a neat table with Polaroid cameras. The food got rave reviews and everything flowed very smoothly. We even had a few minutes to sit down and have lunch. I got to chat with Kelly's co-workers, all of whom came down for the occasion (including her secretary with husband and 2-week-old baby in tow).
When everyone finished lunch, we got up to the microphone and I thanked everyone for coming. Kelly thanked Eve for introducing us (and facilitating our initial exchange of phone numbers), wishedfj and pinkfish a happy anniversary (12 years, today), and explained that we were just now getting around to exchanging rings. I gave Kelly her ring and briefly told her that she's the best thing that ever happened to me. I was so nervous I almost tried to put her ring on the wrong hand. She said something incredibly sweet and gave me my ring (which I'm trying to get used to) and everyone cheered. Our fathers made toasts and not only said wonderful things about us, but also about our families (even if they do root for the wrong baseball teams). Then it was time for coffee and cake before everyone went home.
As we were getting ready to leave,fj said "now we're all going over to your place, right?" and I said "sure" and miraculously Kelly was okay with that idea too, so we got to unwind after the party by having tea in our living room with FJ, Dean and Alek and that was perfect also.
So now I'm relaxed and happy and I feel incredibly loved and also a little amazed that we pulled off our first big party ever and it went so well (and also maybe a little relieved that I don't have to do it again for about 15 years) and everything is good and all those weeks of stress ended very well. I can't wait until we get the photos.
Kelly's aunt and grandmother arrived in Boston on Friday evening (from Michigan and Minnesota, respectively). I took the train up to Newburyport and we all had dinner at Kelly's parents' house. We got to meet Kelly's brother's new girlfriend for the first time. With Kelly's extended family living so far away, we don't get a lot of opportunities to see them, so it was a really nice evening and I was glad we'd made the trip.
Saturday, we woke up and went grocery shopping before our party that evening. In the afternoon, we had a major debate on the indoor/outdoor issue. Davio's, the restaurant where we had The Thing, had offered us a choice of two spaces: a large room with a balcony area or a smaller room that opened onto an outdoor patio with a lovely view of the river. Kelly was very attached to the outdoor option, but it was cold and drizzly on Saturday and I was unwilling to risk bad weather on Sunday. We had until 2pm to decide and we finally agreed on the indoor option.
Friends started arriving around 5, followed by my family and Kelly's and some more friends. We counted that we'd had at least 37 people visiting (thankfully not all at the same time). It was the first chance for my parents to meet Kelly's parents and everyone got along really well. Our grandmothers sat in the living room and told stories, which
danger_chick said were hilarious. I had been stressing about having my family come to my house for the first time because sometimes it's overwhelming (just because I have a large family and they can be pretty loud), but it felt really good to have them all there. After stressing out over what to cook, we wound up making exactly the right amount of food. Having the oven on did make the place a little stuffy, but my aunt went around and opened all the windows so it was okay. Kelly went to drop the last guests off at their hotels around 9:30 and then we cleaned up and unwound for a while.Sunday we had a very leisurely morning. The weather was gorgeous when we woke up and Kelly really regretted that we hadn't decided to have the party outdoors. But as we were driving into Cambridge, she saw dark clouds hanging over the river and she felt better. The florist did a great job with the decorations (I'll post photos when we get them back) and everything looked wonderful. Our families came down a few minutes early and we had the photographer take some quick family pictures outside. Then we headed in and people started arriving. The whole party was great. Our friend Eve had volunteered to do the guestbook for us and she made an awesome book and set up a neat table with Polaroid cameras. The food got rave reviews and everything flowed very smoothly. We even had a few minutes to sit down and have lunch. I got to chat with Kelly's co-workers, all of whom came down for the occasion (including her secretary with husband and 2-week-old baby in tow).
When everyone finished lunch, we got up to the microphone and I thanked everyone for coming. Kelly thanked Eve for introducing us (and facilitating our initial exchange of phone numbers), wished
fj and pinkfish a happy anniversary (12 years, today), and explained that we were just now getting around to exchanging rings. I gave Kelly her ring and briefly told her that she's the best thing that ever happened to me. I was so nervous I almost tried to put her ring on the wrong hand. She said something incredibly sweet and gave me my ring (which I'm trying to get used to) and everyone cheered. Our fathers made toasts and not only said wonderful things about us, but also about our families (even if they do root for the wrong baseball teams). Then it was time for coffee and cake before everyone went home.As we were getting ready to leave,
fj said "now we're all going over to your place, right?" and I said "sure" and miraculously Kelly was okay with that idea too, so we got to unwind after the party by having tea in our living room with FJ, Dean and Alek and that was perfect also. So now I'm relaxed and happy and I feel incredibly loved and also a little amazed that we pulled off our first big party ever and it went so well (and also maybe a little relieved that I don't have to do it again for about 15 years) and everything is good and all those weeks of stress ended very well. I can't wait until we get the photos.
