June 19th, 2012
Jenny Jane / and Hakan too / and may all your dreams come true
“You Only Live Twice or so it seems / One life for yourself and one for your dreams / You drift through the years and life seems tame / Till one dream appears and love is its name // And love is a stranger who’ll beckon you on / Don’t think of the danger or the stranger is gone / This dream is for you, so pay the price// Make one dream come true, you only live twice”
—Nancy Sinatra
“If ‘Happy Ever After’ did exist,”
—Maroon 5 / “PAYPHOOOOOOOOOONE!”
“‘Cause you are the one I could see having fun with / Not just for the night, but for the rest of my life / You are the one I could never be done with / I want you tonight and for the rest of my life”
—Meiko, Stuck On You
Lauren: “Let’s roll on over to the hotel” / Kaitlin: “WHERE’S JEFF?!”
—6/9/12, late into the evening…
“You’re my brown-eyed girl!”
—Me, to Jenny, near the end of the night 6/9/12 as they played Brown-Eyed Girl
Today is the third anniversary of LeRoy the Great’s death. Seeing as some of his greatest lessons, either accidentally or on purpose, were about family and Showing Up, it seems appropriate to write a bit about Jenny and Hakan’s wedding today, since it put together a whole lot of those two themes in one solid day – Showing Up in the greatest sense of the word.
RIP LeRoy, and thanks for such a great family.
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It’s no secret that I’m way into Jenny. I’ve never really known life without Jenny in it. All of our childhood and most of our lives did almost everything together, either by force, by choice, or somewhere in between.
But just because you’re born 19 months apart and share the same interests and are called “gemelas/TWEEEEEEENS”(aka twins) by the Dominican Republic resort staff doesn’t mean you need to be obsessed with someone, that you have to feel that kind of deep fondness for them, that you must be a starry-eyed sister who can’t imagine a world without her. But I am, it’s true.
The same goes for my extended family. Just because we mostly come from the same high-strung, efficieny-oriented, Germangermangerman type of parents doesn’t mean we need to be friends, or want to dance with our uncles, or letting our youngest cousin share his “deepest darkest secrets”. But we are.
Jenny’s wedding was, as predicted, magical and perfect and met every single high-flying expectation I had for it – which is stunning under ordinary circumstances, but when things keep Not Meeting Expectations, well, to have something go so wonderfully feels almost like a miracle. I mean, I expected nothing less – Jenny worked her little butt off to put together a really fantastic day and thus memory of her and Hakan’s start to their marriage – but it’s just so gratifying to see it come true. And to see her dreams come true, so to speak.
Part of the magic and perfection, of course, is just that it was All About Jenny, and to me, she can hardly do any wrong (just ask Jeff, my other JJ, ha ha ha) – but a whole lot of it was the expectation-exceeding excellent time I had with my extended family – Mason and Freiday and all. We danced like crazy (and got all kinds of crabby old uncles and resistant younger cousins – thanks, shots – out on the dancefloor), we got to know people we didn’t know much previously (or at all – Jeff and Stu/Lili!), we just had a sparkling fantastic time. It was a beautiful wedding, and the reception ended up being a big family party I will never forget – probably one of my favorite memories, in fact. Good times had by all.
—
And thus begins…
EOTD 6-9-12!!!
Woke up near-ish 8am. Alarm clock fail. No matter. The bride was up and bathing (OK, showering). One of the biggest challenges/fears Jenny had WRT this whole wedding was her SLEEP the night before the wedding. She sometimes has sleep challenges and so was very afraid of this day/night. But NO MATTER! She slept beautifully and was anxiety-free and the day was sunny and gorgeous and thus it began. START!
Lana calls “is this hair salon place a bank?” Um…no. No matter. We pack up snacks and get in the soap-windowed Civic (“BRIDE!”) and head to Aniu to get our hair done (“hair done nails done!”). VEIL in tow! The BRIDE! Arrive and they have a little table/snack area set up for “Mason Bridal Party.” Oh Yes. Hair-doing begins. Stephie looks a bit panicked when she sees her hair-doer. Mine is name Barb and Lana’s is named Lexi. Intriguing. Liz is already there and we conspire to have our hair done the same (note: this happened even though our ladies did not speak/see each other). Hair is done! Looking terrific! Andra’s was best (out of bridesmaids anyway) but all were great. Stephie learns how to deal with the veil since I cannot (sorry, can’t do hair, that’s Jenny’s thing). Anna squirms in her chair. We pay and get some photos done by Karl and eat snacks (Argo Mojitea) and we’re off!
Back to 6733. Makeuping and eating. Funny that Jenny and I do our makeup together in our childhood bathroom where we had many a fight about sharing space while getting ready. HA! Lana and Jenny and I have a chat about some awkward but important duties one must undertake. Amusing. I discover midway through preparing that someone (Jeff) has not ironed his wedding clothes yet…oh dear. Not amusing. I quickly and steamingly (puns!) iron these…hmmmm. But, it was done. I finally get some food and the time starts flying. Alissa does Stephie’s makeup. Dad does the crossword. Dad then claims he’s driving with Jeff…who is (a) already ready to go and (b) needs to leave now. Hm. “Dad you can drive Jeff’s car. But…you should leave in 20 minutes…so you might want to shower soon.” “OK” (does another piece of the crossword) Oh dear! We all get ready to go. OFF TO QUIVEY’S!
Arrive at Quivey’s. Jackie Allison and Lauren are graciously doing flowers/decor and it looks AMAZING. Geniuses. (Well, Lauren’s providing food…) We start to get dressed, sort of. Fake makeup pictures with Karl. Interesting. Flower fiasco with Dad that Liz fixes – thank you Liz! Then it is time to dress THE BRIDE! Over her head the dress goes. Into the hooks the corset ribbon goes. Back and forth and back and forth. This is also something I probably should not be doing, but, I am MOH, after all, heh heh heh. “Uh oh, the modest panel!” OK. I stick it up her dress UH OH TOO CLOSE! She jumps and we laugh. OOPS. And then it is done. And she looks FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC (of course!).
Before we know it is is time. Line up! Down the stairs we go “don’t fall!” I do a lot of running in my little shoes, very bad idea, but, that’s what you do when you’re schlepping things from Stone House to tables in tent. NBD. The day is stunningly bright, vividly colored, superbly sunny – terrific, perfect. Jenny sparkles all over in the sun. We make last-minute lineup adjustments and try to coach Anna/Mason (they wind up running/veering down the aisle toward Steph, ha). In we walk! Ceremony is on!
Jenny walks down with my Dad and is breathtaking. (His last unmarried daughter. Life when you’re 64. Etc.) Hakan is all smiles (of course). I manage to arrange the train. Mason keeps whispering to Stephie “is it time for the rings?” Baby Hakan keeps trying to capture sound out of the speaker. The officiant is excellent. He is calm, well-spoken, cheerful and careful. J and H have put together a most wonderful ceremony, complete with beautiful readings by Jane/Deniz, heartfelt thoughts about this threshold they’re on, and lovely vows that have Jenny sniffling and sniffling. Awwwww. It’s one of the Top ceremonies I’ve had the pleasure of attending and while I am biased I do think it’s quite true. Hakan at one point looks Jenny over and says “very nice” which is very Him which is hilarious. I can’t help but crack up. Mostly I am trying not to cry man! Such a great thing.
And then – it is over, just like that. They are MARRIED!!! Oh my stars. Off into the sun the newlyweds go. Back down the aisle I go with the Best Man. I hustle everyone away as I can so we can get the wedding party together for the bus. “It’s a school bus,” Hakan keeps saying, despondently, “a big yellow one. The other one broke down.” Yeah, right. I keep laughing at his joke until we turn the corner and…it’s a big yellow school bus. HA! Try to get the shuttles but hotel is unconvincing. FINE. Onto the Big Yellow Schoolbus the bride, the groom, the wedding party and Jeff (JEFF! YAY!) go. Bud Light Lime, champagne, and water and granola bars for all! And super-loud pop music. Party!
The bus ends up being pretty funny and we take some great pics at Lake Wingra. Especially of Liz and the owl. It’s beautiful out and the lake is so quiet. Great spot for great shots (photos that is, not alcohol)! We do a few more…some on the bus…some in the road that make me extremely nervous…and book it back to Quivey’s. All the while prepartying before the BIG Party!
Back to Quivey’s. I bustle Jenny up the FIRST time WILDLY SUCCESSFULLY in the little restaurant-thing by the bathroom. That bustle was badass!!! Yeah! We see the Cordonniers, then we see Grandma who is pretty ill. Very scary to see. I am comforted by the fact that Lisa (and Connie, but Lisa’s the nurse, you know) is with her. She just needs rest and to escape the heat. Still. Disconcerting. But we are pushed by the demands of the evening and the Quivey’s lady and out we go.
Dinner begins! We are all introduced and take our places at the Head Table. Las Vegas, yo. It is cooling a bit out which feels very nice. The tent is full of family and friends beaming at J and H. Love it. Food is served, drinks are poured, toasts are made. My Dad’s ends with “we think the world of [Jenny]” which makes me cry. Geez Dad. So good. Suleyman is a ham. I get to sit next to Jenny!!! That is really cool. And across from Jeff, sort of. My JJs. J and H start going from table to table to say hi. I decide as MOH I should do the same and chat with Whites, Peggy, and Cordonniers. Funnn. There is a little confusion but then J and H are back and toasts round 2 begin. AKA moi. Best Man goes first. During this time bridesmaids are trying to Pump Me Up. Little do they know that I (not-so-)secretly love speaking and have been looking forward to toasting Jenny from the day she got engaged ;). I do a damn fine job if I say so myself. Which is good, since the Jenny Jane I know DESERVES a good toast! (Hers to me was so good I don’t know that I could top it, but at least did her a good turn. Anyway.) (I also drank Stephie’s champagne. Turns out I ended up drinking a lot that night, though it did not feel like it, which may have been the reason I was ‘sick’ aka hungover for like THREE DAYS after. Ugh. Gettin’ old man…)
Anyway. Cake is eaten (already cut earlier!), people move their places, sun starts slowly setting. SocialIZing. Jeff meets my cousin Stuart for the FIRST time and they hit it off immediately. He and Lili and Stu chat and chat and chat. I love seeing that. The dancing begins – Jenny and my Dad dance to “I Believe In You” – hipster/cool, Steve. Hakan and Jenny dance beautifully – awwwww. Then Marc’s song comes on shortly after that and I convince him and Katie to dance (the “how low can you go/can you go down low”), because it’s the “GODDAUGHTER!” song from Allison and Justin’s wedding. Ahahahaha. The moral of this story is that EVENTUALLY we get ALMOST EVERY SINGLE UNCLE to dance – even Mike, and Steve continues to dance of his own volition all night (which is super badass/fun). AW YEAH!
Dance dance dance. (Needless to say I change shoes.) Steph S. gets the dancing going. We get reluctant cousins to dance (Charlie, Patrick). I literally pick Megan up and place her on the dancefloor. I grab hands with cousins and we “get” people by hooking them in our embrace. HA! Mason and Anna dance dance dance. Anna keeps popping in to dance with Jenny/Hakan which is quite amusing. People play games, Chloe reads to Mason, etc. That family, man. Mike and Kaitlin do their Michael Jackson dancing. YEAH! Kaitlin inspires Steve to dance however he wants “that Kaitlin” he keeps saying. Even cooler! We talk about Turkish Star Wars. I joke with Matt C and Steph C-C about, well, everything. So fun to see them. Matt C dances with my mom…bless his heart! My Dad dances with me to Over The Rainbow. He makes a concerted effort to dance with each of his daughters which melts my heart.
Callmemaybe! is played, I freak out, Steph S divulges that Matt M is way into this song. HA big surprise… I keep checking in on Jeff warning him he will have to dance soon, but he is having fun chatting. That’s fine! I have companions! Mason and I make up a weird (probably dangerous) eye-pokey thing that he then tries on everyone (mostly the girls). HA! Anna does a little bit of her jig for Jeff. “Jig gone wild aaaah!” The night settles in. I jump around to “Jump Around” (by this point I should be dead, where is this energy coming from? I don’t know). Mason and I dance to Eminem, then the last song of the kids’ night which is “Intergalatic” by Beastie Boys. I will never forget that! He made me literally just run in a circle over and over. Luckily I didn’t throw up, whew. Every time I tried to stop he insisted on more. Those 3-year-olds. Too good to be true.
Steph/Mike/kids pack up and we say bye. 🙁 sad! But the fun/dancing continues. There’s at least an hour to go, yall! Ian starts telling me I don’t want to know what he/Jeff talked about (it started with “let’s tell each other our deepest darkest secrets…” hmmm. Interesting times with a 9-year-old I’d say) because “I will want to divorce him” if I know which I find hilarious. I find out Jeff let Ian say his favorite swear word which is the Offense (starts with an S). I don’t care but I bet Jane does! Ha ha. Chloe divulges that her dad was a disco king and Jane says “can we PLEASE not tell people that?!””this was before I knew him” HA. Katie and I have a nice chat. Barb and Glenn get into the dancing, too! They are really good sports, those Eagan folk.
The night turns south (north?). Jeff starts dancing. YES!!!!!! Jeff and I dance with Liz and Alex and shout nonsensical things about S Mpls/Lake Nokomis. HAHAHAHAHA oh dear. Steve creates and WEARS glasses made of glow bracelets – really cool, actually! Art on the prowl! He continues to dance which is pretty amazing. Jenny and Hakan dance and visit and go all over. I take pictures of Hakan and his boyzzz with cigars. I think I scare the Turks with my craziness…oh well. Luckily my family is part of it. 🙂 I clean up the big tent a bit throughout all this. Laugh at a photo of Mike in the guest book (background!). Etc.
Starships, Build Me Up Buttercup, other great songs come on. Then Brown-eyed girl. “You’re my brown-eyed girl!” I tell Jenny as we dance. Awwww. Ian requests “PAYPHONE!” which becomes the SONG of the NIGHT! We get EVERYONE in the family out dancing to this, including Stuart and Lili, including uncles, including Ian! HILARIOUS. (We probably think Ian requested it because it has swear words in the not-clean version, ha ha.) I still love listening to that song and reliving the dancefloor.
The last song is “Home” which makes me warm and fuzzy all over. I dance with Jeff like we’re the only people there. LOVE! Oh, love, love, love. And then…the wedding is O V E R over!! OVER! My cousins are still at a picnic table, my Dad is taking down lights, my Mom is walking around and Jenny/Hakan are Paying Up. Jeff and I get in on the pizza order via Steph S. I give her $ “let me give you $, I have some!” Matt slurs and I shout at him. “Where is your WIFE?!” (oops) “MATT! Lauren is your COUSIN! So you can’t marry her!!” Hmmmmm. Lauren cracks up. Steph S places a perfect Glass Nickel pizza order, thanks Siri!
This I did not witness – only Kaitlin’s part – but it did happen (and explains Kaitlin’s insistence on finding Jeff):
Lauren says “let’s roll on over the hotel” (across the way)
Kaitlin gets wide-eyed “WHERE’S JEFF?!” (this is the only part I witnessed) and finds him
apparently then Kaitlin, Jeff, Mike and ? all ROLL down the hill/toward the hotel. This is borne of a conversation at Laura’s 2nd b-day party in 2011 and this is nutso and amazing all at once. Oh My Stars.
I help my Dad pack up the car, taking some things from him (as well as a few beers/waters for the road [not literally, the hotel is luckily a few steps away]). I give Jenny a big hug and take a few last pics. Good bye Wife and Husband! Happy Wedding! Everyone leaves, Jeff and I finally go back to the hotel. Our room is open which is disturbing…whatever. Dump our stuff and go to Room 100 where the PARTY IS! Mike is wearing a Speedo. This doesn’t alarm or surprise me. It does Jeff. Everyone is laughing. Roll call: Mike, Matt, Steph S, Kaitlin, Charlie, Patrick, Lauren, me, Jeff. OK I think someone else was there but maybe not. Matt makes fun of Steph’s speech school issues after we all make fun of him too many times but Steph just laughs. She is great. Mike ‘finds’ a note to Matt under his pillow. “Steph…911[all] is well.” Hmmmmmm… Patrick suddenly impersonates GT w/ the cherries, that story from long ago “I don’t have TIME for that—whoaaaaa!” with the AC. I didn’t realize how widespread that story went. HA. Lots of making-fun-of-parents talk and pizza-eating and LOTS of laughing. Hilarious postpartying and just as memorable as any cousin hotel party in the Past. Love it.
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This was way more detail than you ever probably wanted to know, but, there it is. I did not detail surrounding events, but I suppose photos do it justice. The next morning there was hotel breakfast, hellos with Maral/Cordonniers, and JENNY/Hakan! YAY! And then…back to MN. Back to Life. Back to Reality.
But what a lovely whirl. I am so happy for the newlyweds (even if we can’t believe Jenny is a WIFE [though NOT 30, yet]!). CONGRATULATIONS!
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In other news, I would like to share two separate responses to my entry yesterday, about the kitty:
JENNY:
“Hi!! I just read your website. WHY DIDN’T YOU TAKE THE KITTEN HOME!? Haha just kidding but that sounds so cute.”
CHRISTIE:
“Mystical or not, I am a little horrified that you snuggled a random cat on the street!?!? How do you know it won’t be a psycho kitty that would claw your eyes out?”
As you can see, we have broad spectrum of cat fans/haters in my life. All right. OUT!
ETA: Forgot to mention that not only did Ian catch the garter (which was gotten off Jenny after a very amusing/awkward display by Hakan, ha), but he like JUMPED and FOUGHT to catch it, then wore it on his arm all night. Jane approved. This is weird but also hilarious.