1 year ago today...

One of my bestest friends got married. Now this day holds a special place in my heart because I was so looking forward to this wedding but fell violently ill...I'm getting ahead of myself so I'll start at the beginning.

5 years and some months ago I moved to the Twin Cities. My first job in the Cities was working at a salon in Dinkytown called Hair By Stewarts. Everyone was pretty nice but there was this girl named Angela who was a little coolish to me. No big deal I thought, there is always one in every salon (sorry Ang) that is a little...well, you know.

As the first months passed Angela and Kelly started to warm up to me, although I think it was because they could easily make fun of me but that's a whole different post. Anyway - I don't even remember the exact moment it happend but somehow, Angela and I became really good friends at the salon and out of it too.

As any stylist know, there are always those clients that you hold secret crushes on. For Angela, Adam was her secret crush and all the rest of us at the salon thought he was dreamy as well (sorry Joe but he is).

As Ang and I became closer friends, we started having "date night" every month or so. Date night would consist of going to one of our places and watching a Will and Grace marathon or going to a chick flick.

One date night, on our way to a theater we started planning our lives - I was going to marry Joe and have all girls while Ang, was going to marry Adam (now they weren't dating or anything so that was going to be another obstacle we would have to figure out) and they would have boys and the kids would grow up together and marry. We had the whole thing planned perfectly.

Fast forward maybe a year or so and Adam, I can't remember where he went, was no longer in the Cities for some reason or other and dropped off the radar for a while. I remember Angela getting upset because they had become friends and he moved away and went MIA.

This I remember so clearly. We were talking and it went like this:

Ang: "Adam called." (after a while of not talking because he was MIA) "Should I call him back or not?"

Me: "Absolutely NOT! He fell off the radar and now out of the blue is calling? Seriously, come on!"

Ang: "That's what I thought." "But, if you were me would you call him?"

Me: "Well, I shouldn't, but it is Adam so...yeah, I would."

Ang: "Whew. I was hoping you would say that."

Needless to say, she called him and they started "hanging out" together. One day I got the call I was hoping for, they were finally dating! About a year later, the Sunday morning before my wedding, Ang called me and we chatted about me only having 6 days left before the Big Day and some other random stuff.

At the end of the conversation, she finally told me the reason for her call - Adam had proposed!! I believe I yelled at her for not telling me the very second I picked up, but because she is who she is, she didn't want to take away from my wedding week. Well, hearing that she was engaged, made my wedding week!

Soon after, wedding planning was in full gear for them and the date was set, February 23rd, 2008 and I was honored that she choose me to be a bridesmaid. The running joke, before she was engaged, was that she wanted a small wedding, with Kelly (not the same one as earlier) as her maid of honor (that was it, no other bridesmaids) and I would be the personal attendant because I could keep her sane.

Well, Adam wanted lots of people standing up so I got bumped up to a bridesmaid and in total, there were 6 of us and a flower girl. So rewind now to one year ago today.

I was waking up in a hotel room in Eau Claire, WI getting ready to head to the salon to do hair for the wedding (Ang pulled double duty and did hair for my wedding, it was only right I do the same for her) and I felt a little quessy. Man, I thought, two beers at the rehearsal dinner and I am hung over - wow am I old!

Throughout the rest of the morning, I felt ok and doing hair kept my mind off it. Kelly and I were the last to leave and stopped at a gas station before heading to the church. By this time I was not feeling well at all. I hadn't had anything to eat, there were going to be sandwichs at the church so I figured I'd be fine in no time. I grabbed a water from the gas station and off we went.

We arrived at the church, had something to eat and almost immediately I ran to the bathroom and threw up. Ugh, but I felt better so maybe it was something from the night before that didn't agree with me.

Nope. Literally, every 20 minutes from that point on, I was sick. I told Kelly in strick confidence that Angela not find out until after the ceremony. Somehow, Carly, Ang's personal attendant found out and asked how I was in front of the wedding planner. So now three people knew. Just keep it from Ang and I'll be fine.

About 5 minutes before the wedding, the Wedding Planner is telling us how to line up, etc, in front of everyone, looks at me and says, "Can you make it? Are you feeling better?" Ang and her mom look at my like "What?!" I told them what had been happening all afternoon and that I was fine and could make it down the aisle just fine.

The ceremony was fabulous and Angela was beautiful. As we were exiting down the aisle, the minute I was out of the church part, I handed my flowers to Kelly and went to throw up. But hey, I made it through the ceremony!

Needless to say, no reception for me, I was in tears and back to the hotel Joe took me. He asked if I wanted to go home or stay, since we already paid for it and I told him there was no way I could make an hour and a half car ride home, as I could barely make a 30 minute ceremony. That was fine with Joe because the hotel had cable! I stayed in bed (feeling like I was going to die) the rest of the night. The next morning, I woke up and felt fine (of course)!

I will remember February 23, 2008 for the absolute rest of my life. It was the day one of my best friends (in the whole world) married the man of her dreams and I threw up through the whole entire thing.

So to the happy couple - no, the honeymoon is not over, it's just beginning. One year down and many, many more to go. I wish you both all of the love and happiness in the world. Oh yeah, one more piece of advice, Angela, don't let Adam throw any poker parties in the middle of January in your garage!!