There Will Be Dancing

When you start your day off at a bar called the "Interlude Lounge" at 3:00 p.m. in the afternoon and you're the only four "non regulars" in the place, you should know things are only going to continue to get better from there.

If you live in Omaha and have not been to this place on 78th and Pacific, go, go there now. Drop what you're doing and head to this slice of heaven. It may look like a dump from the outside, but that's only because it is. The most lovely type of dump with crock pots in the back of the bar and cigarette ash trays in the ladies bathroom. And it still has the most amazing light fixtures from 1967 when it first opened its doors, just ask Lynette the bartender. 

Naturally, the Interlude Lounge is where Kim, Goldie, Chris and myself decided to start celebrating Chris's birthday/start celebrating the wedding we were about to attend last Saturday. Kim is also a huge Keno fan, so she insisted on getting in a few games before the ceremony since the Interlude had a Keno a machine. Shocker.

This first round of shots only marked the beginning of a very great day, that would lead into an even greater night.

The gorgeous bride, Steph, and her bridesmaids all looked absolutely stunning as you can see. One of these gals is pregnant... can you tell which one? Clue: she's the only one holding flowers in front of her belly, somebody's trained her well huh?

The reception immediately followed the ceremony and was decorated just beautifully. Just look at all the work that went into it. I don't care who you are, walking through a doorway with streamers dangling is always fun. Always.

Okay I'm kidding, you got me. This wasn't the reception, this was actually at my pal Sara's apartment. We decorated "the birthday suite" for Chris. And as you can tell from the doorway, I'm really a "pay attention to detail" kind of girl.

The actual reception looked a little more like this with beautiful centerpieces on every table and just an overall romantic feeling in the air. Sadly, I didn't see any streamers. 

Wedding receptions just make me happy. I love listening to speeches, I love watching people dance awkwardly to songs like "you make me wanna SHOUT!" and "Celebrate good times C'MON!" and I love being surrounded in a room by so many of my best friends.

The only downfall to wedding receptions is that as the night goes on I like to think I'm a really funny dancer. Not a good dancer, a funny dancer. I pull all sorts of uncomfortable moves out of the bag and just think I'm a hoot for doing so. It's a really annoying habit. Unfortunately, Chris plays along. Take a look at this photo for example.

Kate and Sara are super cute, right? Well look again a little closer in the background. 

That would be me wearing Chris's tie as he "backs it up." I can't see my hands but I'm pretty sure I'm throwing out some sort of gang symbol. I can get pretty thuggish at weddings. My mouth would also appear to be wide open as if screaming to the music. Or rapping. I'm not sure. Luckily, shortly after this Chris would break away from me so he could start doing his somersaults across the dance floor... Chris can do a somersault that would make any three year old insanely jealous.

I think the problem is that I just don't get to see my friends that often so when I do I feel like I have to make the most of it. I'm pretty sure I'm literally yelling "I AM HAVING THE BEST TIME EVERRRRR" in this photo.

See that beauty in the dark dress above? I think it was just seconds after this photo was taken when she, let's call her Roy, when Roy got on stage, grabbed the mic and introduced the lovely new bride and groom in her best heavy metal screaming voice as the band played ACDC in the background. It's probably my biggest regret from the night that I didn't get that moment on camera.

I guess another regret would probably be all of the jello-shots I ate toward the end of the evening. I think it was around 11:30 p.m. when magic little helpers suddenly brought out trays of pizza and jello-shots to the dance floor. I've been fan of jello-shots since I began sneaking them from my parents "adult fridge" during their football game parties back in the 90s. So whoever conjured up the idea of serving late night jellos at the Metzler reception on Saturday night to that I say touche. Touche. Now if I could only figure out why I had speckles of jello all over my forehead Sunday morning...

All in all, it was a truly wonderful night. I've got the bruises, random spills on my dress, and broken jewelry to prove it. And now I have only two days to recover before I hop on a plane to Denver to do it all again at my cousin's wedding. 

Oh wedding season how I love you.