Sadie, Sadie, married lady.

So it happened. Last night my little sister became Mrs. James Jordan Phillips.

The day was relaxed enough to begin with. We had a bridesmaid sleepover the night before, wherein we watched P.S. I Love You, a sweet and sad little movie about a woman (Hilary Swank) who loses the love of her life, played wonderfully by Gerard Butler, to cancer. I cried about twelve times during the course of it. We also painted our nails all matching pink, then organized her wedding playlist. (I will talk more about that later.)

In the morning we went to Lace by Louise and got Andrea some fun wedding night lingerie, complete with corset and garter belt. Fantastic. Then Marjaan and I went to Target to get stuff to decorate Annie's car with. (Whipped cream, Oreo's, and condoms.)

Later that day, as we all rushed to get ready, Jordan came over with his friend Dylan and took me to help him get stuff to decorate the hotel room where they'd be staying their first night as a married couple. We got all the cliche items: rose petals, candles, chocolates, and a bottle of Martinelli's sparkling cider, after which we drove to the hotel and pranced about like little fairies, sprinkling the room with our purchases.

That's when the real rush began. I ran home, hurriedly scribbling down my Maid of Honor speech, which contained mostly jokes, and slapping makeup on my face. Once we were ready, we checked and double checked to make sure we had everything. The one major delay happened when we couldn't find Andrea's car keys. Turns out they were in the jacket pocket that her husband-to-be had supposedly checked and double checked.

Then it was off to the races.

Noah's reception center had been set up for the wedding, with chairs facing the little wooden platform that was to hold the wedding party. Already I was stressed out, first rushing to fix the botched tanning lotion application that a bridesmaid had done all over my sister's chest, arms, and back, then checking to make sure the buoquets were in place and everyone had theirs. I then went over the music with Amy, Heidi's friend, and then rushed off to get my aunt Shari to man the sign-in book while making the decision about when we should start the DVD of Andrea and Jordan's pictures. I then gathered the bridesmaids for photos, ran back to check on the music status, saw the best man sans his tux, which had been left at the house so I gave him the key to the garage, ran upstairs to where my sister was to inform her that my aunt had just cut up the last bridesmaid's bouquet for the cake, not knowing that it was intended for our cousin Liva, who would arrive late, so we had to split up some of the other bouquets to accomodate for the mistake.

Five minutes to the ceremony, the best man/the emcee arrived, finally in his tux. I gave him instructions in hurried tones, then practically had to push the groomsmen and bridesmaids into position. At the last minute my uncle Mark showed up, and I grabbed his hand, dragging him to the back of the room where I shoved a video camera in his hands and told him he would be taping the ceremony, then ran upstairs, telling Amy, in passing, that she should wait until everyone sat down and was quiet, and then start the music.

Eventually the crowd got the hint and sat down. The music started and we all walked down the stairs and down the aisle. I think we were all so stressed that we walked too fast, but that's ok. Then came the bride. She walked arm in arm with my dad, looking radiant. The song was "Annie's Smile," and I could see the tears in my dad's eyes as he gave her away.

The pastor spoke about love, friendship, and accepting that marriage could change a person in ways they don't expect. As I looked at Andrea and the tall, kind man standing beside her, I couldn't help but feel the overwhelming love in the room. For a moment I forgot everything I still had to do, and let the tears come as I watched my baby sister make vows for lifelong love.

The one little mishap occurred when my cousin Megan, the flower girl, fainted. She had locked her knees, but luckily my cousin Liva caught her before she fell and she revived quickly, her dad whisking her to her seat. My dad noticed that someone must have told my cousin Weston, the ring bearer, not to lock his knees after that, because he started doing a funny little knee-bending dance.

After the ceremony, we exited the stage to "I Believe in a Thing Called Love." Food was served while I ran over to the piano to play some of Andrea's favorite Broadway songs. Of course this was the moment when everyone in the world decided to come say hi to me...let me tell ya, playing and talking at the same time isn't as easy as it sounds.

Then it was time for speeches, and Michael Riquino and I took the stage. Michael started his speech with a re-working of Jordan's favorite quote, the Fifth of November poem.

I then got to speak, and my jokes made people laugh. Michael then announced the daddy daughter dance, and I ran back to the music station to make sure they had the right song. Andrea and my dad took the floor, dancing to my dad singing "Lullaby" by Billy Joel. I asked my stepdad to dance, and Heidi asked my mom's husband David. I laughed when I saw my grandpa Hanson, because he had grabbed both his daughters, Becky and Jane, and they were all dancing together. It was cute.

After that the dancing continued for a bit. I slow danced with Michael to "Come What May," and we made my sister Marjaan laugh with our singing. After that I felt it my personal responsibility to keep people dancing, since I'm good at that sort of thing. Mid-dancing, we tossed the bouquet, garter, and cut the cake. My mom was complaining that she missed the bouquet toss because she was talking, and so in the seconds before the cake-cutting, I saw her on the opposite side of the room, her back turned, so I ran (mind you, all this running was in heels) to the other side of the room, skidded into her back, said "they're cutting the cake," into her ear, then ran back so that I didn't miss it myself.

Then the dancing continued. Now onto my discussion of the playlist. I have hosted many parties, and have been to many weddings and dances. I know people. The night before the wedding, my sister was trying to stick a whole bunch of slow songs that meant something to her and Jordan onto the playlist. I discouraged this, saying that people wouldn't dance to those because most likely, there wouldn't be enough people to pair up. I told her two slow songs was plenty. Of course, she wouldn't budge. But what ended up happening was that the slow songs were acting like a disease, sending people off the dance floor as if it was leprous. I then, for the rest of the night, had to run back and forth from the music station to pick crowd-pleasing songs (the ones I put on the list, basically) to the dance floor to keep folks dancing. All in all, I did a pretty excellent job, but it was far too tiring. My feet were red, hot, and swollen by the end of the night. Lesson to be learned: always listen to me, because when it comes to people, I'm always right.

One funny moment happened when I turned on Bohemian Rhapsody. My dad said, "you can't dance to this," but I explained to him, in a hurry, that this generation loves a song you can stand around and sing dramatically to as much as the ones you can dance to. He watched as we stood in a circle, singing dramatically, laughing his head off.

After "Rhapsody," I raced outside to decorate Annie's car with Marjaan, Anthony, and Marjaan's friend Alex. We had a good time. I then ran inside to help Andrea with her corset and garter along with Heidi and Marjaan. We then slipped her dress over her head and she and Jordan were on their way. Pictures were taken, hugs were given, and I laughed as I turned around and saw my mom standing in a line with her two ex-husbands and her current husband, David. It's moments like that that just make you smile a little.

We cleaned up the reception hall a bit, and then went home, unloading the hundreds of strawberries, cream puffs, and nuts into our house, and then Marjaan, Anthony, Alex, and I went into my sister's apartment, cleaning it, putting her gifts away, and decorating it so that it would be ready upon their return in the morning.



Finally, at eleven o'clock at night, I could breathe. I ate for the first time that day and watched Sex and the City, the movie in my jammies. It was nice.