Cheers to the Douglases!

This had to have been one of the funnest (I know, not a word, I don’t care!) weekends of the summer.

Beginning on Thursday I went over to M&K’s to help Kelly do the flowers for Saturday. The boys were all off getting their tuxes fitted and once they came back they grilled up in the backyard while we did the flowers and once all the work was done we enjoyed some lovely BBQ on the deck and got to hang out a bit with Kelly’s folks and Mike’s brother and sister and kick off the beginning of wedding weekend.

On the way home, about 10pm – we get a call from the Craft-ies who have just closed on a new house in SE – they’re movin’ out of the ‘Couve! They have a sitter and are headed out to celebrate – Noland, Spencer and I meet them at the Lowbrow and help celebrate in fine fashion.

The Friday morning was Brewfest prep – My fabulous Noland and I both took the day off, so we slept in – got up and headed to Biscuits for some all-day drinking base. One sausage and cheddar omelet with hash browns and biscuits later – we head toward the waterfront. As we crossed the bridge and the tents came into view – as Noland said “it’s like seeing the circus Big Top when you’re a kid – it just makes you feel all giddy and wobbly inside!”

We arrived about 10 till noon and set up camp in the SE corner of the tent. Tony and Phil showed up next just as the taps opened and the day begins. This year had to have been some of the best weather we’ve had for OBF in years – I hated to say it but it was almost chilly there for the first hour or so – it was fabulous. Nearly everyone (but the bride to be – she was a little busy) made it down at some point during the day and even as I went to get my final beer at about 4:30pm – there were no lines longer than a person or two. We even found these great handmade wooden beer steins that were so cool – we had to go back on Sunday with more cash to pick up a pair!

Then it was off to the Forestry Center for wedding rehearsal and back to Lola’s room for the rehearsal dinner. All seemed to go very well and no one freaked out at anything! After a late night Thursday and an anticipated late night Sat. - we crashed out early – by around 9pm and headed home to play with the dogs and fall asleep on the couch.

Saturday morning was good putzing around the house before heading up to the Forestry Center for the main event. Crazy parking issues aside – the wedding was fabulous – Mike and Kelly looked so happy, there were no melt-downs, crazy in-laws, obnoxious drunken uncles or any of that other stuff that you seem to hear always occurs at weddings (as I told Noland later when we caught something on TV showing some Texas-sorority girl wedding “see, this is why our friends are so normal – no drama!”) My husband was (of course) a fabulous officiant - getting praises of “we wished we’d had you do our wedding” or “we’ll be calling you for ours you know.” Even though it was Mike and Kelly’s ceremony – I like to think it was me in his thoughts when he wrote all those nice thoughts of love and marriage. After all the official to-do was over, basically everyone under the age of 40 that was there headed downtown to the Matador – where we proceeded to take over the entire back-half of the bar and close the place down. It was great – all the out-of-towners from both Mike and Kelly’s side of things were all hanging out with all the Portlanders and everyone had a fabulous time. And now those crazy kids are official husband and wife – pretty cool.