The HOG
While the weekend's theme was "wedding," not all of the weekend was spent doing wedding stuff. Thursday night after the rehearsal dinner we headed to the House of Guinness for some group bonding. Pictured from left: Breezy, Dale, Dylan, Vanessa, and Mary. Friday was more fun as Vanessa, Mary and I toured around Milwaukee to see Grady St, Lake Shore, downtown, and even the old Pabst brewery. :)

Mary, Me, & Renee
So, as afore mentioned, it was Mary's wedding. She and I had never met till last Thursday, but we'd been pen pals since around 1995. When she asked me to be a bridesmaid for her wedding, I thought it sounded like fun! Here we are on Saturday 2-2-2002 getting our hair done for the big event. I was curly!

The Much Debated Cape
Mary's mom was pretty opinionated on all things wedding related and she disapproved of Mary's cape chosen for the day. Personally, I think it's much fun! When it's cold out and there's snow on the ground, a furry cape is great!

Mary & I
Admire us lovely women in our lovely dresses... Big kudos go out to Mary for letting us pick out own dresses from the David's Bridal catalog. I think I could even wear mine again in public! Yeah Mary!

The Wedding Party
The whole wedding lasted exactly 15 minutes. Luckily, that gave the photographer lots of time to arrange us for a million photos. From back left: Matt, Matt, Dylan, Dan, Mikey. Front: Vanessa, Renee, Robin, Mary, Dale, Breezy, me, Miranda.

The Bus Ride
After the wedding, they had a limo bus to take the wedding party from the church to the country club. Happily, two bottles of liqueur were provided (and finished) on the short drive. Here Robin and Mikey take swigs, while Dylan smirks after finishing his last nip...

Dale & Mary
The newlywed couple loosens up after the ceremony and enjoys the ride! I believe this photo is of Dale touching Mary's muff. ;)

The Reception
Mary's oldest friend Bryce flew in from D.C. for the wedding! He was much fun and is getting married himself next weekend in Ashville, North Carolina (the town where my grandpa lives). Small world!

The Best Man
Dylan was drinking well for most of the evening, and had fun with cameras, a rambling toast, dancing, and lots of free drinks. Dylan's brother Dan gets credit for "introducing" Mary and I in a very roundabout way. Dan also gets credit for leading me in my first Polka ever! (Kinda funny... in Texas you always do the Cotton Eyed Joe at weddings. In the Midwest, I guess you polka. Who knew?)

Married with Children
The DJ played the theme song and Dylan and Dale re-enact the scene where Peg begs Al for money. They're good!

End of the Night...
I got a final hug from Mary before she and Dale headed off to their hotel. The rest of us went back to the HOG again for another late night of drinking and celebration. All in all, the area was beautiful, the weekend was much fun and I met tons of nice folks. Not bad for some random girl from the Internet... :) I might even have to go back again some day to visit my new friends and see more sights!