Wedding Day & The Video
Well, the hullabaloo is over. All of our UK visitors have left, and it is back to work for me tomorrow! As most of you know the webcast didn't come off, however we did record it using a friend's video camera, and it has been uploaded to our wedding website. There are three versions, the first being the full ceremony, huge file (94mb) for broadband users, the second being 20mb but still the full ceremony. The third is a bit of a joke version, but well worth a watch.
The final run in was pretty hectic. Lorraine's family were in town for a few days before and my friend Billy for a whole week. Lorraine went down to the city for a few days and left me a list of errands to complete. On the last day, Friday, I was running around and accidentally exceeded the speed limit in Bull Valley, just north of us here in Lake County. No amount of protesting my innocence, my wedding plans or even my Chicago PD shirt prevented them from giving me the $75 ticket.
Also, I was waiting patiently for the rest of my outfit to arrive. It had been posted on the Monday, but hadn't arrived by Friday, and in fact ended up not arriving in time. Luckily Billy had brought a spare shirt and being about the same size as me it was a good fit. My recommendation, don't ever use Royal Mail to send packages internationally. The package, of course, arrived today, after the President's Day vacation.
We set up the room for the ceremony on the Friday night before the wedding, and I must say it looked fabulous. Candles all over, placed on mirrors, no electric lighting. The picture here is a little blurred, but we should have some better ones to come from some of our other friends cameras. We also left all the instructions for the set-up of the main room with the coordinator for the Saturday. I had recorded all of the music for the evening onto my iPod, rather than hire a band or disco. With several different styles of mix. An acid jazz mix for the pre dinner portion, an easy mix for dinner, a party mix for the end of dinner, a sing along mix for after dinner and a going home mix for the end of the evening.
The day of the wedding was the coldest of the winter so far, and certainly one of the coldest in Illinois for quite some time, some people said. The day started in earnest for me at 3:15 for me, but not until 3:45 for Lorraine, when she eventually turned up at Independence Grove for the pictures; Bride's prerogative and all that! We had some pictures taken there, a little draughty in the kilt, before moving on the Country Squire for the actual ceremony and evening.
We checked out the room for the evening, and with a few changes, it was ready to go too. Claire wanted a few more pictures including the guests before we lost the light for the day and so we all trooped outside to have a few more done, by 'eck it was really getting cold at that point. So cold in fact that the Southern Comfort & rocks I put down when we went out was frozen solid when we went back inside 20 minutes later.
Lorraine as you can see looked fabulous. We went inside for the ceremony. She walked down the ailse to DJ Sammy's acoustic mix of Heaven. It was a fairly short affair, but it went down well, and the ambiance in the room was excellent. We moved down into the Library bar, which was reminiscent of a British pub. We served mulled wine before dinner, and after about an hour people were certainly starting to feel the effects. The food for the reception was fantastic, as expected. The wait staff were excellent, and the guests all said what a good time they had. Towards the end when several people had already left, we moved back into the bar area, and launched into the sing song mix on the iPod.
As you can see from the pictures, some people were fairly well oiled at this point! The sing song went well, and lots more alcohol was consumed. We had some cabs booked for our ride home at midnight, which unfortunately didn't show up. They said they turned up the night before due to some confusion around which midnight we wanted! However the fabulous bar tender we had, Stephanie, offered to take us home, and Leon took some of the others, so it all worked out for the best in the end.
I have many more pictures to post, some friends I haven't seen yet who will have some for me, and of course it will be a little while before we get all the official pictures back, so I won't post too many, until I find out when they are all expected back. Here is a small selection for now, in no particular order.
The final run in was pretty hectic. Lorraine's family were in town for a few days before and my friend Billy for a whole week. Lorraine went down to the city for a few days and left me a list of errands to complete. On the last day, Friday, I was running around and accidentally exceeded the speed limit in Bull Valley, just north of us here in Lake County. No amount of protesting my innocence, my wedding plans or even my Chicago PD shirt prevented them from giving me the $75 ticket.
Also, I was waiting patiently for the rest of my outfit to arrive. It had been posted on the Monday, but hadn't arrived by Friday, and in fact ended up not arriving in time. Luckily Billy had brought a spare shirt and being about the same size as me it was a good fit. My recommendation, don't ever use Royal Mail to send packages internationally. The package, of course, arrived today, after the President's Day vacation.
We set up the room for the ceremony on the Friday night before the wedding, and I must say it looked fabulous. Candles all over, placed on mirrors, no electric lighting. The picture here is a little blurred, but we should have some better ones to come from some of our other friends cameras. We also left all the instructions for the set-up of the main room with the coordinator for the Saturday. I had recorded all of the music for the evening onto my iPod, rather than hire a band or disco. With several different styles of mix. An acid jazz mix for the pre dinner portion, an easy mix for dinner, a party mix for the end of dinner, a sing along mix for after dinner and a going home mix for the end of the evening.
The day of the wedding was the coldest of the winter so far, and certainly one of the coldest in Illinois for quite some time, some people said. The day started in earnest for me at 3:15 for me, but not until 3:45 for Lorraine, when she eventually turned up at Independence Grove for the pictures; Bride's prerogative and all that! We had some pictures taken there, a little draughty in the kilt, before moving on the Country Squire for the actual ceremony and evening.We checked out the room for the evening, and with a few changes, it was ready to go too. Claire wanted a few more pictures including the guests before we lost the light for the day and so we all trooped outside to have a few more done, by 'eck it was really getting cold at that point. So cold in fact that the Southern Comfort & rocks I put down when we went out was frozen solid when we went back inside 20 minutes later.
Lorraine as you can see looked fabulous. We went inside for the ceremony. She walked down the ailse to DJ Sammy's acoustic mix of Heaven. It was a fairly short affair, but it went down well, and the ambiance in the room was excellent. We moved down into the Library bar, which was reminiscent of a British pub. We served mulled wine before dinner, and after about an hour people were certainly starting to feel the effects. The food for the reception was fantastic, as expected. The wait staff were excellent, and the guests all said what a good time they had. Towards the end when several people had already left, we moved back into the bar area, and launched into the sing song mix on the iPod.
As you can see from the pictures, some people were fairly well oiled at this point! The sing song went well, and lots more alcohol was consumed. We had some cabs booked for our ride home at midnight, which unfortunately didn't show up. They said they turned up the night before due to some confusion around which midnight we wanted! However the fabulous bar tender we had, Stephanie, offered to take us home, and Leon took some of the others, so it all worked out for the best in the end.I have many more pictures to post, some friends I haven't seen yet who will have some for me, and of course it will be a little while before we get all the official pictures back, so I won't post too many, until I find out when they are all expected back. Here is a small selection for now, in no particular order.
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