Eli's wedding weekend has come and gone. It was a good time, but went by so quick. On Friday, I was late to the church rehearsal of course. I'm always late. I hate traffic! I think every time I go downtown I just need to spend the night in a hotel the night before just to be sure that I'll get to my destination on time.

Anyways, the church was very cool on the inside. I waited around with the other ushers until it was our turn to meet with the church lady about our ushering duties. She handed us each a two sided sheet of paper which detailed specific assignments and responsibilities, with stuff highlighted and underlined. It was pretty overwhelming. We had to be at specific places at specific times. There was a certain way we had to seat people. There were certain people that had assigned seating areas. Some of us were responsible for ushering family members that we didn't even know. I think we had the hardest job of anyone in the wedding party.

After the rehearsal, we took the Uncle Tom express over to the dinner. Good food, good times.

Me and Colleen stayed the night at the hotel in Northbrook that night. When I got up the next morning, I went down to the hotel restaurant for some breakfast. I decided to sit by myself so I could review my ushers notes that I got the day before. After changing into my tux and loading all the groomsmen into a giant van, it was back down to Chicago. We actually got to the church kinda early so we had some time to spare. But then the first guests began to arrive. It was go time.

For 30 or 40 minutes, it was a frenzy of guests and confused ushers. We were supposed to seat family members in a section closer to the front, which was easy for the Hetland side. But since all the ushers were Hetland people, we didn't know any of the Monroe family. This made it a little difficult for the Monroe side. We also didn't know what to do with the grandparents when they arrived since we were supposed to usher them down special at the beginning of the procession. It was crazy for a while, but when the ceremony began, it was time to sit and relax.

One thing I did find strange is that I did not see the videographer. I knew that there were strict rules and that he was limited to shooting from the balcony, but I didn't see anyone when I glanced up there. He must be very hidden, I thought.

After the ceremony we took a bunch of pictures inside the church, but very limited pictures outside. It was very cold and windy. I felt sorry for the girls in their heels and sleeveless dresses. One thing that was kinda cool, since the church was on Michigan Ave, there were lots of people around watching and cheering as we took pictures.

You would think that there would be more room in a stretch Hummer, but with a wedding party the size of ours, it was a pretty tight squeeze. After an entertaining limo ride, it was time to party it up at the reception. It was there that Claire and Eli realized that the videographer never showed up. (I guess there was a mix up with the contract paperwork) So we were solely relying on the camcorder footage of Uncle Bill and Clarie's uncle. And I'll be editing it, so this should be interesting.

After some tasty reception food, some speeches and whatnot, the dance floor opened and remained pretty crazy for most of the night, as can be seen my the video footage. My favorite part on the dance floor was when the played Outcast's "Hey Ya". Everyone was so into it.

I could of hung out at the reception for another hour or two, but around 10pm it ended and it was back to the hotel bar for the after party. I started the trend of ordering pizzas for delivery to the hotel. That pizza place must have made $200 just off Eli and Claire's wedding guests that night.

In conclusion, it was a fun weekend that went by way too quick. It was a shame about the whole videographer mixup, but hopefully I'll be able to put something good together from the camcorder footage.