Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Wiley!

Saturday, Sarah and Nate got hitched. The ceremony was lovely and the reception flew by, which means, I'm thinking, it was a lot of fun. The things we were stressed about came together seamlessly and the one thing we weren't stressed about, but maybe should have been, also came together in the end. Although I had my camera with me, I didn't take a single picture the entire day (with the exception of one blurry Blackberry picture where Nate bares an uncanny resemblance to Flavor Flav -- opps). Fortunately, the photographer took thousands (that's her work here), leaving no doubt that Sarah and Nate's day was well documented and the bride is thoroughly tired of having here picture taken. The shrug I was making for Sarah to wear with her dress as a shower gift was completed Friday night after the rehearsal dinner. Joe and Mads can attest, working on this shrug increased the amount of profanity in my conversation by 1000%. I started it with plenty of time, but the pattern was terrible and full of mistakes. Eventually, I made it work and, while I'm pleased with the results, I won't be making another. It seems fitting that Sarah should have a one-of-a-kind wedding shrug.

Aside from driving myself crazy knitting a shrug, my Maid of Honors duties included writing a toast. I was a little nervous about the quality of my toast when I searched theknot.com for toast ideas and learned I should have started my toast three weeks before the wedding. Maybe it was last minute by the Knot's standard, but I think it was still a quality toast. Above you can see everyone at the head table thoroughly enjoying my toast. Not one to be sentimental, I opted for humor. Here's what I wrote for the toast (people were surprised, but I write out scripts for phone calls and this seemed much more important) there was, of course, as little improvisation:


Good evening everyone, I'm Sarah's sister Rachel, the Maid of Honor. I want to begin by thanking Sarah and Nate for including all of us in their special day. There were a few times along the way that Sarah threatened to elope, but we're all glad you didn't. I'm Sarah's older sister and, occasionally, people ask me if I'm upset she's getting married before me. The truth is I always expected it. Her Barbies always beat mine to the alter and when we would play Life, Sarah was always married first and usually had to purchase a second car to fit all here kids. That was her strategy, in fact, to land on every single "have a baby!" So, be careful for that Nate.


In all seriousness, Sarah and Nate fit together pretty well. I found this quote, from Judith Viorst (whom I googled, turns out she's a psychologist, so she knows what she's talking about). I took the liberty of updating it just a little:


"Infatuation is when you think he's as sexy as Robert Pattinson, as smart as Henry Kissinger, as noble as Ralph Nader, as funny as Woody Allen, and as athletic as Tom Brady. Love is when you realize he's as sexy as Woody Allen, as smart as Tom Brady, as funny as Ralph Nader, as athletic as Henry Kissinger, and nothing like Robert Pattinson -- but you'll take him anyway.


So, congratulations to Sarah and Nate. I wish you both all the best.


* In case you were unaware how thoroughly my sister and I are opposites: my Barbies had careers, I avoided the "have a baby!" spaces in Life like the plague and I've always known Joe is nothing like Robert Pattinson and I'm very, very grateful for that!