goin' to the chapel.

we had a whirlwind weekend.  joe's younger brother, jake, got married on friday.  i had the bachelorette party for allison on wednesday night, and then it was the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner thursday and the wedding friday.  i must say, i typically hate bachelorette parties.  i'm not much of a party girl and like to be home and in my jammies under a quilt on the couch at a decent hour (yep, i'm 76 years old and completely fine with it).  but, this bachelorette party was actually low-key and i had a really good time getting to know some of allison's friends.  ok, i was a little annoyed with some of them talking non-stop about "trying" to be gluten free/paleo/[insert trendy restrictive diet here]... and then one of them ordered MAC AND CHEESE for dinner.  seriously.  but, i'll spare you the rant.  overall it was a really fun night, and allison seemed like she enjoyed herself which is what matters most.

jake and allison chose to have their toasts at the rehearsal dinner, rather than the wedding reception.  joe was the best man and delivered a great best man toast.  it was equal parts funny and sentimental, of course ending with a quote from kelly clarkson.  touching.

katie and i at the rehearsal dinner

the bride and groom

joe giving his best man toast

brothers

allison was calm the day of the wedding and things went relatively smoothly, minus the fact that jake was pretty sick all morning.  fortunately, he seemed to rebound as the day went on.  while us girls got pampered at the salon, bennett was at grammy's house having a little spa day of his own!

lovin' bathtime in the sink!

we had a gorgeous day for january in minnesota- 40 degrees and sunny.  it was a little chilly taking some of the pictures outside, but it wasn't too bad and i think they'll turn out really pretty.  the photographer was great and managed our boisterous group with a smile; no small feat, i assure you.

brothers- jake, jeffrey, and joe the day of the wedding

the beautiful bride

the ceremony was very meaningful and went off without a hitch, though not without many tears (and a few shouts from bennett, who had to leave the ceremony with grammy because he was too noisy!).  we had a blast at the reception and danced the night away with our nephew martin and our niece taylor, who declared many of the songs to be "booty shakin'" songs!  martin especially liked the cha-cha slide!

joe and i couldn't be happier for jake and allison, and are so excited to be able to watch our families grow together in the coming years.  hopefully sooner than later for them ;-)

the happy couple!