our weekend in KC

our trip to KC was great. and a weekend i'll always remember. i had such a good time at the bachelorette party and got to know one of deb's friends from high school. her name's jess, and she and i had fun thursday night and friday during the day before the rehearsal. xavier arrived friday, and took a pricey cab ride from the airport to the rehearsal dinner location. we had a really good time hanging out with debbie and ryan, their friends we'd met before, and our mutual friends from when i was in school.

the wedding is was so intimate, it brought tears to my eyes on more than one occassion. after i'd taken my place with the other bride's maids at the alter, i could feel the emotion growing stronger while i watched debbie walk down the aisle with her dad both on the verge of tears, and ryan's cheak trembling while he wiped away tears at the alter. i had to look at my bouquet to keep from spilling over with tears and runny nose everywhere. i've know debbie for almost 10 years now, and watched her wait patiently for the right man, remembering all god promised her, and all he would deliver if she would wait for his timing. these two have waited so long for each other, and i think in seeing their joy of finally being married, myself and everyone in that church saturday knew it was the most beautiful moment they'd ever share with two people. it was like something from a chick-flick movie, except it was all too real, and all too candid.

we got to stop by deb and ryan's house yesterday before leaving for the airport. about 7 months ago, we laid on their living room carpet chatting about the wedding. and yesterday, over dark chocolate toblerone triangles and pear flavored dark chocolate squares, we sat in the same place in their living room reminiscing on the day they spent months and months planning and preparing for, and of course how beautiful it all turned out. so that was awesome having that time with them...

it was also great to see friends from ringling i hadn't seen since graduating in 03. i saw roby and jonathan, and heather and ted, and tami and cory. i didn't know roby and jon were coming too, so when they called to me walking with xavi on the sidewalk saturday morning, it took me a minute to register that it was them in the car.. which made for a very cool surprise.

pics to come. some via facebook.
love, kiki