meg+dan wedding weekend–september 8, 2012

last weekend, we celebrated meg and dan’s marriage in oconomowoc wisconsin. I drove thursday afternoon with pappy and the kids and laura waited for bill to finish work and came early friday morning (he was supposed to come thursday night, but didn’t finish until midnight so had to sleep). my family, the schmitts and my aunt, uncle and 2 cousins rented the house next to meg’s parent’s house for the weekend. the house also had a guest house that more of the butz family rented so it was great to all be together.

upon arriving, the kids when straight into the swimming pool.  claire was loving the sunnies.

pappy and claire in the water.

eleanore learning the boundaries of the pool.

dan and meg stopped over to talk about the preparations.

auntie suz and g. pops.

 

painting my nails and drinking a bootleg.

uncle tom and pappy.

eleanore practicing with g.pops.

 

ellie was so happy to have snuck up to the table to play with charlie’s cars.

the girls’ dining spot.

I didn’t take a ton of pictures from the rehearsal or the wedding. but here is a sweet picture of claire with pappy before we went to the church for rehearsal.

after falling in love with uncle dan’s old lego cars charlie has been obsessed. so uncle dan and aunt meg gave charlie a lego CARS set for ages 6-12…thanks a ton dan! anyway – this picture describes just how happy charlie was. he was delirious with happiness.

 

he instantly dumped them all over and required the help of my sweet cousin griffin to put them together (thanks again griffin!). the biggest problem with the legos is that charlie is really not old enough to build the little lego cars. they are REALLY hard! so he gets a bit frustrated, but just loves them so. we definitely lost a few pieces throughout the trip so now he is always trying to figure out where the pieces are. they are also dangerous because they are perfect sizes for the girls to swallow or choke.  one morning I was getting claire out of her pack n play and she pulled out her pacifier and then spit out a few lego pieces!!! thankfully they really know what they shouldn’t swallow. danny did call and ask me if it was ok to get charlie the present and I okayed it. so he is in the clear.

claire loves the sunglasses.

now on to the wedding. it was INCREDIBLE! we had an absolute blast. I was gone almost the entire day with hair, makeup and pictures so charlie and the girls were in the car of bubba and pappy. the plan was to get the kids up from nap early and get them to the church and hopefully get them down the aisle. I was really nervous about it – especially when I saw how out of sorts they were outside the church when I arrived. I was the second down the aisle so I couldn’t see what was happening when they were going to send the kids down. bill was an usher and he was the one talking with charlie before he was supposed to go down. notice I just said “supposed to”.

a family friend snapped this pic on their phone. it is the only shot I know of with charlie almost down the aisle. he took one step into the aisle and then turned on his heels and told bill “I’m too shy for this. I’m scared”.  so then bill and david (the wedding planner) pulled charlie and the girls and shut the doors and beautiful meg and her dad came down.

I was pretty disappointed, but really didn’t think they would all go down easily. I think it might have worked if I had walked down with charlie and the girls. we tried to get a few family pictures right after the ceremony, but the kids were melting. such a bummer! here are a few pics from laura’s iphone.

a quick shot of our family during cocktail hour, which was held on the front lawn.

bill and ellie.

my cousin sara has 2 little girls, caitlyn and ella, they LOVE playing with my girls. here is caitlyn helping with ellie.

this is probably illegal, but I saved a few images from facebook that their photographer posted online. also a family friend of the troys took some pictures and they are mixed in as well.

dan and meg first meeting. all of the girls were crowded up in an upstairs bedroom watching and it was so sweet!

the church. st. john’s military academy.

my handsome brother, well actually brothers – tommy is the other guy wearing glasses in the back, on the trolley waiting before the service began.

the gorgeous meg and suz. LOVE THIS PICTURE! wish I was in it!

sisters! sort of wack that suz is in the background, but glad we have a snapshot of us.

this has to be included. this is david. meg’s wedding planner – her own personal Franz from Father of the Bride. he talked a lot about the razzle and the dazzle.

married! now on to the party.

entrance to the dinner tent. it had the coolest flower ball thing.

it also had these name boards. such a cool way to tell guests where they should sit.

then you would enter the dinner tent.

head table. everything was breathtaking.

the dinner tent then led to the hipster club.

which then went to the dance tent.

my good lookin’ parents at the dinner.

meg had a specialty drink that was amazing. dan had some specialty beers that they served. local to chicago (I think).

more flowers!

meg and dan dancing. once they finished we danced the entire night to a wonderful band. we even cheered for an encore and they did it! such a fun night. so happy for you dan and meg!