A Star-Studded (Love) Affair: One Last Not-So-Debaucherous Night

Well, my friends, this is it. The beginning of our wedding recaps. I've been putting off starting for days because I'm a little overwhelmed about writing all of these posts in a way that shares how special that weekend was for us and also keeps you guys from getting bored, but I think I'm ready now :)

I'm so so so excited to share our pro pics and show you why I'm so proud of the way everything turned out, but first things first. We hafta start where the weekend started: Thursday. Almost all of our families and our bridal party had to travel from out of state and this was the day that people started to arrive. Up until Thursday, I had been bumming around the house all week getting everything super clean and generally feeling excited for people to get here and totally useless because I had taken the week off from working and had nothing left to do! I was actually over-prepared and left with nothing to finish the week of our wedding...crazy, right? I guess that's what you get when you're engaged for 23 months!

That morning, my MOH and her family arrived from Alabama and they were the first people I saw! They took me out to a lovely lunch and were very pleased with themselves that they were the first to arrive and "got to spend some time with the bride before everything got crazy." I was so touched that they came all the way to New York and they were incredibly helpful all weekend! Thank you, Carpenter family!

MOH, her Aunt, and her Father (Mom and Sis were there, too!)

After lunch, we came back to our place and I finished up some baking that I was doing ahead of time to prepare for breakfast the morning of the wedding. Around three that afternoon, several groomsmen showed up to whisk Mr. Star away for his bachelor party festivities. I can't say that I was particularly concerned, although I think he might have been once they decided to blindfold him and paint "Kate's" on his face:

This is one of the few pictures that exist of his whole party. It's a shame that what wasn't captured was how many people were standing around and laughing hysterically as he got marched out of the apartment. Even the mister was bemused, although you can't tell from this picture. From what I heard, their party was mostly pretty chill, consisting almost entirely of pool, cigars, and having to ask a bunch of girls to kiss him on the cheek. He was very offended when one said no.

Meanwhile, the bridesmaids still had hours of hair and makeup to do. My bachelorette party was, of course, pin-up girl themed and everyone wanted to look the part! We headed out to dinner a few hours later and I wasn't even hungry. I hadn't eaten much in days because of the eager anticipation of everyone getting there. Delicious Indonesian food quickly changed my mind, though...

Everyone had to dress as a different pin-up girl that they had been assigned and my MOH brought me a special hot pink sparkly veil that she made just for me. So pretty, right? ;)

We headed back to my place, where fun activities and a bunch of my other close lady friends were waiting! Aren't they so pretty?

We had a "grown-up tupperware party" and a couple of other adventures that aren't really appropriate fodder for blogging. Then my MOH and I took our requisite going out shot, all Myspace-style:

Then we headed out to Times Square because I had a whole stack of bachelorette party dare cards I had to complete and we needed some willing participants.

I got Batman to call Mr. Star's voicemail and tell him what a lucky guy he was...

Random tourist #1 had to go up to a police officer and tell him that he was not an average guy and sex does not matter to him...

And my dear choreographer friend Whitney took me up to the top of the TKTS red steps and shouted "she's getting married on Sunday!" for which everyone applauded. There were a bunch of other special moments like our merry little band of pin-up girls walking down the street and singing "Goin' to the Chapel." Basically, we just had some goofy fun in Times Square.

Then we ended up at a laid-back pub and talked about all the crazy things we'd seen and done that night. I was so happy to be surrounded by such wonderful ladies. But we were all getting sleepy and decided to call it a night.

I was met back at our place by fiance (wow, it feels weird to call him that now!) who wasn't feeling all that well and who came in the door, emptied his pockets of a cigar and a photo booth strip of pictures, and plopped into bed. I had no idea what they had been up to all night and though I wasn't concerned, it reminded me of that scene in The Hangover where they all empty their pockets and try to deduce what happened that night. It was amusing. Luckily, Mr. Star felt better the next morning because he had to work, and I had a dress to pick up!!