My Sister's Wedding!!!!

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I will never forget when I found out my sister was engaged. I had been in Japan for less than 12 hours. I was checking my email amongst many other JETs in the Keio Plaza. I get this email with only exclamation marks in the title from my sister. I open up the email and alas, Erin, my older sister was engaged. This was a moment we had talked about our whole lives, coming true. Scary and exciting at the same time. This was no surprise...we had been expecting Fin to do it for a while. So, I am sitting around a bunch of strangers freaking out about my sisters wedding....talk about a goo first impression. :-). They all probably thought I was crazy! Then through much discussion and confusion of where the wedding would be held (New Zealand, San Luis Obispo, Hawaii...) the final decision was to have it in my house in Chico California.
My trip home started on Friday, December 2 at 10:30 when I left my apartment. I arrived in San Francisco at 9:20, on Friday. Closest thing to time traveling! From the moment I got home it was go, go, go, go. By Monday morning I had lost all concept of time and when i should be awake or sleeping. Yet everything worked out great, including my dress fiasco (friends, if you look at my dress you will notice it is my Ace dress from last April hemmed). Friday night we met the in-laws for the first time. Saturday was the rehearsal, and Sunday night was the wedding. Now everyone says how pretty brides look...its kind of hard to not look pretty on your wedding day. But I will tell you, my sister was radiant. I have worked at a lot of weddings as a caterer's assistant so I have seen a lot of brides. I will say honestly that Erin should have had her photo on the cover of every bridal magazine! The wedding was very small and intimate. Now I am not much of a crier at events like weddings, graduations, or funerals. I leave the crying for Holly most of the time ;-). But the moment my sister walked into our living room I basically lost it. I did all that I could to hold back my tears! Then we headed to dinner and as the maid of honor, gave my speech. Then they danced their first song to Sara MaClachlan "Ice Cream," and well basically it was all downhill from there- I was a water fountain. One of the most special parts of the evening was when my sister and dad danced the second song. They danced 'Annie''s Song', by John Denver, which was the song that my mom and dad danced to at their wedding. Its neat to know that I now have a whole new 'family' to add to my relative list. What is even cooler is that they live in New Zealand! All in all it was an incredible wedding and it was absolutely perfect. I hope you all can enjoy the photos. Fin and Erin were so happy. They are that couple that you watch walking down the street and wish that someday you can be like them....you know that disgustlingly cute/lovey dovey type thing :-). Erin and Fin Du Fresne...Congratulations and know that I love you guys!
Amongst all the wedding hoopla I did get to see some friends from Chico as well as hang out in SF on Monday night. It was great to see you guys as well. My trip was short but sweet, and I would have never missed it for the world, if it meant taking a sailboat across the Pacific.

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