Pre blog...of the spelling of Barrett"Barrett" -- "two R's, two T's."
Or if you have trouble remembering it that way, there's always
"B-A-R-R-E-T-T. Lawyers always drink for free."
Sorry so late!I apologize that we're a week behind with this, but LL and I have been living like Gypsies since Christmas: flying out of town almost one out of every three weekends since then! At the risk of sounding like an old fogey, I'll admit to an overwhelming sense of relief that we don't have any travel plans for the rest of this year. I'm tired of luggage and airport security and the dank smell of air that's been recycled through an airplane 5,000 times. Yuck!
But, when you want to end your travel season with a bang, you can't do any better than a wedding in downtown Austin (well, I imagine someone
could plan a crummy wedding in downtown Austin, say perhaps with a dry reception, but then those people would not be Erin and Barrett). This wedding was spectaculous, as Don King would say (if he were invited, which he wasn't), and fun for the whole family (as long as everyone in your family is 21 or older).
First, you rehearse...So, first, there was the rehearsal at University United Methodist Church (site of the wedding of course), which is on the campus of UT. Technically, it might not really be sitting on land owned by the university, and the roof has
more of a red tint than the campus buildings, but surely any casual observer would say that it was "on campus," right Candice?? :) This church also has a bit of history with LL's parents. They actually met at this church in Sunday school when they were studying at UT, thus ruining any chance their kids might ever have of escaping chastisement by appealing to mom and dad's "wild days."
The rehearsal itself was cool, as much as that's possible. I sat and watched, similar to what I did at the wedding, except that this one doesn't count.
Here is Erin with her matron of honor, Amy. She is Erin's
younger sister, but she got married first (a few months ago), and was really funny about finally having a topic on which
she could advise
Erin. Especially during her toast the next day at the reception, Amy dispensed uxorial wisdom liberally while the guests pretty much howled with laughter. Respectful laughter, of course.
Amy also made the bouquet that Erin is holding (it's a practice bouquet, which I actually think is a useful prop). It's made of Crate&Barrel tissue paper that Amy altered to read "Crate&Barrett." Their dad, Rusty, had never been more proud.
After rehearsing, we were rewarded with dinner at the Old Pecan Street Cafe. "The Old" is part of the proper name of the place. So is "Pecan Street" since it's actually located on 6th street. I've got no qualms with "Cafe." Here we have Erin GS, LL, Candice and Gunnar weaving through the bikers on their way to TOPSC. Austin doesn't usually have this many bikes, but it was the weekend of the Republic of Texas biker rally (featuring cage fights, girls roller derby and Charlie Daniels). You can learn more about the bikers here. I checked out the message board, which featured such gems as
"But then I am of a mind that screams 'I've got the toys and the toys are full of the TA-TAs'"
Classy.
And speaking of classy, after the rehearsal dinner, everyone went to Logan's for drinks. Logan's is famous (or at least locally famous) for serving huge beers. In fact it's more of a small pitcher than a large beer. And the selection is pretty good too. But it's mostly fun to order a beer the size of your head and carry it around with you.
Here are some patrons of Logan's. Erin GS, Amy, Emily and LL. It was like having the band back together.
I also thought these two pics were pretty fun. The left is Erin and Rusty, and to the right is Erin and Barrett. It looks like she's going to handle this life transition just fine.
And then there was the wedding...
The wedding day was cool. LL and I stayed at Fisher's the night before. Our plan was to stay at the Driskill after the wedding, but we could only afford one night there. So, on the wedding day, we left Fishers and got tacos at El Chilito for breakfast, which is an awesome place, btw. Not only are the tacos good, but they are big and they are $1.75 (or something close to that). Then I dropped LL off at the Driskill to get ready while I drove to Supercuts. And thankfully I did, because look what happened to Erin at the hands of a "professional"...
Whoh! What in the name of St. Paul Mitchell is going on? Is her hair even expected to make a full recovery?
Here we have a fabulous group of gals post-hair and makeup. They're all drinking champagne in a can through a straw. Actually, I've seen these cans before at a restaurant/wine bar out here in CA owned by the Coppola family, and I think these are a Coppola product. I'm not sure if this means that Rusty would not refuse any requests on his daughter's wedding day...I didn't ask, as it could potentially leave me indebted to a bunch of Longhorns...oh wait...shoot!
Just to point something out, it's not only bridesmaids who get all done up for weddings. Emily's bf Jordan put on his best socks! Dobby would be proud.
While the girls were prinking themselves silly, I had a chance to walk around and take some photos of the reception area. The Driskill is such a cool old hotel.
After this we went to the actual wedding, which happened successfully. I didn't take any pictures at the wedding because there are professionals who do that, and I also feel like it's not cool to be clicking away during the ceremony. It's got to be someone's job to just sit there and be nothing more or less than a guest, right? I think that's my job.
It was pretty and all that, and then we drove back up to the Driskill for the reception...
Here are Erin and Barrett during their first dance! They did a nice job, complete with a few under-arm turns. One thing about Erin though, and this has nothing to do with her dancing, is that she gets some wicked redeye in her pictures. I know this because I have to go in a fix it in all my photos. The problem is that her redeye isn't even
red. If it were, then there are photo tools that will automatically fix it. But Erin's redeye ranges from
racoon to Terminator. So hard to fix! I keep wondering if this is related to her two cornea transplants. I also wonder if it shares cause with her ability to control her evil bloodthirsty pet cat.
Here is the mother of the bride (Betsy) and LL's mom (Leslie) trying to bustle the dress. I don't know anything about this, which apparently puts me on par with everyone who's ever tried to do it.
If you know Erin, you may be surprised to learn that this is the groom's cake. LL and her family are proudly hooking 'em.
Here's Gene and I relaxing a little at the reception. We had a good time and got in a little bonding while LL and Leslie ran around doing whatever.
The reception ran until 11:00, at which point everyone headed over to the Driskill Bar. The bar was a lot like the reception, except that we had to pay for our own drinks. It was a nasty shock. On the way to the bar, we decided to go to Gunnar and Candice's room to visit Lulu (I think she needed to "go out"). The hotel was great about pets, even giving Lulu her own little doggie bed and food and water bowls.
Here we all are with Lulu. In this photo, I asked everyone to pose while we were waiting for the elevator. But just as I was about to take the picture, the elevator arrived and Fish darted for the door, resulting in this odd pose.
Rye Ann Win collage
Lastly, I though I'd take all the photos of RW throughout the evening and make a collage out of them. I got this idea because
he rarely just takes a "normal" picture and I couldn't decide which of these really captured his inner spirit. However, I changed his name so that these won't show up in a Google search done by a potential employer. Instead, they'll have to wait for their first company party so they can snap their own. I'm nice that way.
To see all of the pictures, click
here!
Here she is getting a little pre-measurement done. Can you see why she was ready to chop it off? I mean, it's a beautiful head of hair, don't get me wrong! But such long hair is hard to manage and hard to dry. We're probably going to save several dollars a month on electricity now that the hair dryer and Chi don't have to run for 30 minutes, meaning we will recoup the cost of this haircut in just a few lifetimes.
Here's Olympo and LL. Something like an hour has past between the last photo and this one. Olympo cut off a lot more hair, as you can see below...
I think this is called a "bob." I don't really know where that comes from (I only recently found out what a "Rachel" was...you know, 10 years after everyone had one). It's a pretty dramatic change though. I think even I would notice without her having to say (in a completely exasperated monotone), "Clay, I got a haircut today. What do you think????" It also helped that I went with her to witness the haircut, so I could not later forget and embarrass myself by saying something like, "You look different. Are those new pants?" 
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