What a weekend!!!

If you have been following this blog, you know that the entire timing of this renovation was a big event in the Perkins family, the wedding of our first daughter, Anna, to Courts Griner.  This long-anticipated event took place Saturday night.  And there were a few surprises to boot!!

The wedding weekend kicked off with the bride, bridesmaids and mother of the bride having brunch and getting mani-pedi's.  During that time Andy took the Swiss guests to Party City to get their wedding costumes.  They were a bit over-whelmed at first but ended up having a lot of fun picking out costumes.  Later in the day, Monica found out that Debra and Corinne had never had manicures since they are extremely expensive in Switzerland, so she took them to a local salon to get their nails done.

In the meantime, Andy was at home with Marco and Angelo who decided that the swimming pool water was warmer that the Rheine river in Switzerland (even in summer) so the decided to take a dip in the pool.  They actually stayed in for quite a while!!

Yes, the crazy Swiss nephews really did go swimming in lat October!!

The weekend celebration continued Friday night with the rehearsal dinner at Sonny Bryan's in the West End.  Yummy BBQ!!  It was a chance for both families to get together and to meet the out of town guests.  It started out by the surprise announcement that Couts' sister, Macey, is having twins!! 

Folks enjoying the BBQ!!

The Swiss tasting Texas BBQ for the first time!!!

The happy couple on the night before the wedding.

 Anna, Karen and Claire spent the night before the wedding at a bed and breakfast while Courts and his friends stayed at a hotel.

Saturday was a long day.  We all got up early to get to the theater by 11:00 am.  Monica and Andy had to bring a lot of stuff to the venue including lots and lots of candy.  The Swiss were very helpful helping us get everthing loaded into three cars, driving one of the cars to the venue and helping us get everything into the theater.  Then they took two cars and spent the day shopping at North Park Center which they just loved.

We had the rehearsal and then then girls got their makeup and hair done while Courts went back to the hotel to get dressed.  Andy did a lot of last minute running around buying water and tissues, retrieving the grooms jacket from home and checking the couple into their hotel getting back just in time for the picture session.

Anna made the choice to have pictures done before the ceremony.  That was a great decision as it allowed the wedding participants to get right to the party after the ceremony.  Needless to say, it was a great ceremony and party.  It was definitely not your ordinary ceremony or party.  More details in the next post.

After the couple made their grand exit, a few more toasts to the couple we loaded up all of the stuff and Swiss guests and headed back to the house where we continued to celebrate until 3:30 in the morning!!

Sunday was mostly for recovering from the party.  Just about everybody did a lot of sleeping throughout the day.  By the evening, we had all recovered well enough to go out for a good Texas steak dinner which the Swiss really enjoyed followed by some chillin' out on the patio enjoying the evening weather.

 Monday morning brought the next surprise, Marco's wife Corinne had purchased a early pregnancy test and the results came back positive!!  She and Marco are going to have a baby!! 

A wedding sandwiched between baby announcements... Wow, what a weekend!!