Wedding bells... again!

No, they're not my wedding bells - I haven't even been married for three months yet! That's not enough time to get divorced and remarried... unless you're Pam Anderson. Which I'm not.

The wedding bells I'm talking about are for my cousin, Breanne, who I've known her entire life (she's 18 months younger than me).

About a year ago, she asked me to be her maid of honor, which I happily accepted. Since then, I've had a blast planning our weddings together. She was a major part in helping mine go perfectly, so I wanted to return the favor.

Not only was it another excuse to go home (score!) but her wedding was a great way to see my entire family, party, and watch happily as my cousin married the love of her life. What could be better?

WEDNESDAY

My five-day trip home started on Wednesday evening, when my parents, sister, and her friend, Zack, picked me up from the Detroit airport. I went home early because it was my sister's 23rd birthday, so we decided to celebrate in Detroit. Our evening started at Fishbones restaurant in Greektown, and ended at the Greektown casino.

Brittany and Zack had never been inside a casino before, so my mom gave each of us $20 with the challenge to see which of us could make the biggest return on our investment. Then, she tried to show them the ropes by sitting down at what she thought was a Blackjack table with a minimum bet of $5. So she puts down her chip and is dealt a 2. The dealer dealt himself an Ace, so he takes her $5. My mom then starts protesting that she didn't get additional cards to try to make 21. The dealer then laughs at her - rightfully so - and explains that she sat down at a war table. (You know war - the simple game where each person is dealt one card and the person with the higher card wins.)

My mom, being the person she is, just laughed at herself and we moved on to the slot machines, that is, everyone but me. I hate slot machines. I don't understand them and feel like I'm just pouring money into a machine and getting nothing in return except flashing lights and colorful, spinning characters.

I'm a girl who likes the table games, especially roulette. I think they're fun and easier to win at - and it showed, because even though I only played a few roulette and war hands, I ended up with $35 - and a 75 percent return, which I gave to my parents for their generosity and to make up for the fact that my mom ended up losing her entire $20.

THURSDAY

Thursday started off with my picking up my wedding video - which I loved - and my reception video - which left me a little disappointed. It shows all the important stuff, but missed a few funny things we asked to be taped - like all of us slapping hands and shouting COUSINS (inside joke). And it also included a few things I wished weren't on the tape - like irrelevant shout-outs to people I don't know by some annoying cousins. Who would keep that on a wedding video?

Then I ran around like crazy between other appointments - like my bridesmaid dress fitting - getting things together for her bachelorette party later that evening. I even managed to squeeze in lunch with some friends and former Blade colleagues in downtown Toledo. Though it was great to see Ignazio, Ryan, Maureen, and Laren at Navy Bistro, I wished I had more than an hour of time to spend with them. Sigh.

After spending two hours at the hall where the reception was being held, where I worked to put chair covers on and tie ribbons to them, I excused myself to go grocery shopping for booze, candy, and finger food, and other (in)appropriate bachelorette party paraphernalia and gifts to give to those who won at the games I was planning on playing with the girls.

Then, about 15 girls and I met Breanne at Max and Erma's Restaurant on Central Avenue and had a great dinner before heading back to her parents' house for games and drinks. Her mom's game, in which we all drew a pig, was pretty fun because depending on how you drew the pig on a piece of paper, there were personality traits associated with it, like if you drew the pig facing forward, you are direct and confrontational.

My two games were called "The purse game" and "How well do you know your spouse?" The purse game was for everyone - it's the one where you get points for having a certain item, like a checkbook, bobby pins, or a condom, in your purse. One girl got more than 100 points for what she had stuffed in her purse!

The second game was for Breanne. I asked Mike 30 questions about himself, chose the best 20, then asked Breanne what he said in response to questions like, "If Mike were a superhero, what would he want his superpower to be?" (He said "fly.") She got 10 out of 20 right, but in fairness to her, some of them were pretty specific, like, "If Mike could change jobs, what would his dream job be?" Mike said "construction worker," but Breanne guessed, "stay-at-home job with no kids." LOL!

All in all, it was a great night that ended with my mom and I watching my wedding video together until nearly 2 a.m.

FRIDAY

I had a bit of time to sleep in Friday before I again ran errands (things are so much cheaper in Toledo!) and got ready for the wedding rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. Then I again got to go to lunch with friends - this time Jon from college and a former Blade colleague, Meghan - at Calvino's.

I then spent a mere 20 minutes at my Aunt Mary's house looking at photos from my cousin Alexis's six-week study abroad in Spain. That's all I had to spare before heading to the church to practice the wedding and meeting Brent at The Clarion, which is where Breanne and Mike were having their rehearsal dinner. (Brent flew in late on Thursday, so I hadn't seen him in two days.)

At the dinner, Breanne and Mike read a hilarious poem they wrote about themselves and the people in the wedding, then played a cute video of the two of them in which they were interviewed about growing up, dating, and the upcoming wedding.

After eating a nice dinner, we headed over to Brent's sister and brother-in-law's house to see his two nieces and eat dinner. (I wanted to have three dinners that evening - the third being with my friends - but Brent convinced me I was heading over the edge if I thought I had time - or the stomach capacity - for three dinners.) I rolled around on the floor playing with the kids until after 10 p.m., then went home to watch my wedding video again with my mom, sister, and Zack while we, the girls, painted our nails for the wedding!

SATURDAY

My maid of honor duties took me to the hair salon at 8:30 a.m. with Breanne so the two of us could get our hair done for the big day.

The jobs I gave to myself for the rest of the morning included making sure she drank plenty of water, ate some carbs, and was distracted from panicking. But she did great. Her mom was the panicky one!

There was no need, though. Her wedding ceremony was a traditional Catholic ceremony at Christ the King church, which went off without a hitch. Then the happy couple, the bridal party, and their significant others piled into a party bus to drink and celebrate.

After a quick stop at the Toledo Botanical Gardens for some photos, we headed to the wedding reception at Parkway Plaza - a place where I think I might have chosen for my reception had I known about it! The only weird thing was that the DJ asked everyone but Breanne and Mike to stand all throughout the father of the bride speech, best man speech, the maid of honor speech, and the dinner prayer.

But after that, a photo montage of the happy couple, then Breanne, then Mike played throughout the formal dances and the wedding reception was such a fun time that Breanne's dad had it extended until 11 p.m. instead of 10 p.m. Even then, people were still busting a move right up until the end, which was great! All in all, I'm sure it's a day, like me, that Breanne will treasure for the rest of her life!