We know how to make an entrance

First keep this tshirt design in mind.

Got it? Okay....that was the tshirt I was wearing when John and I arrived at his cousins wedding ceremony on Saturday afternoon. However this story begins at about 7ish in the evening the night before.

Friday after work I head over to my salon to see my hairdresser. My hair was in need of a cut and I decided on a whim it needed some colour as well. About an hour and a half later I had less hair and some blue and some blonde. It was tres rock and roll. I was in love. I arrive back in the apartment satisfied this adventure had filled enough time that awaiting John's midnight arrival not so bad. You see John had been in Hartford all week again so making sure we had everything ready to go for this wedding in the middle of no where Manitoba was up to me. And boy was I ready to go. For the first time in forever no last minute running around was required. Go me!

This was the orignal plan. Pick John up from Airport. Drive 2 hours to Brandon. Stay in hotel. Sleep...lots. Drive to Russell. Attend wedding festivities. Drive back to Brandon after wedding festivities. Have breakfast in Brandon with psuedo family. Go home.

Yeah that's so not what happened. The reason we were staying in Brandon and not in Russell in the first place was because we couldn't get a room at the Russell Inn for the life of us. Yes there was no room at the inn. They were a nightmare to deal with. So we came up with plan B and were happy with it. Then it all went to hell Friday night.

Turns out John's plane has mechanical issues and is late gettting to the airport in Hartford. He leaves many many hours after he should have. He lands in Toronto 30 minutes after his connection has left. He won't be able to get back to Winnipeg until 10am Saturday morning. Crap. He tells me to cancel our room fro tonight in Brandon but keep the room for Saturday Sunday. Cool. I call cancel and then find out they NEVER booked the room for Saturday to Sunday. BA?!?! Oh and they're full but they can put me on a waiting list. RAWR! I get put on a waiting list and make a final effort to get a room in Russell. It's been a pain in the ass getting a room in Russell. A nightmare of epic failure. In my final call to them (I'd been calling them all week after being told rooms were available with no luck) I'm told once more there are no rooms. I finally say, "Double check, I want to hear your fingers on a keyboard." Normally I'm not that rude but I was so done being nice. Oh look they have 5 rooms available. *sigh*

So now the plan is pick John up at 10am and head straight to Russell and see if we make in time.

Russell is like 4 hours from here. It was a long boring drive. Hence the reason we were entertaining ourselves by crushing far away objects with our thumbs and index fingers. Also why we were singing along to the Dropkick Murphy's at the top of our lungs.

We roll into the parking lot at the Russell Inn at 2:30 exactly. The ceremony is set to start at 2:30. Crap. We've missed it. Or so we think. We check in. Ask which room my mother in law is in so we know which room to call and leave a message in. We're told she can't tell us that and really it doesn't matter because everyones at the wedding. BA?!!? Okay I respect the can't tell me part but the second part, honestly, didn't need. That's when John and I see his cousin the bride walk by the window. She's outside in the parking lot with the bridesmaids. Huh.

So we follow them via car to the ceremony. Yes, we went to the ceremony as is. We may have had time to take our jeans off but not put something else on. No one wants pantless wedding guests (unless it's a nudist wedding I guess) so we opted for the "It means more that we're there than what we look like" approach. The bride agreed with our approach and was just happy we made it. It also seemed that everyone knew the situation we were in with the whole travel delays and such (you tell one Hammell you've told them all I'm told) that people were just floored we managed to make it. We were actually floored we made it too.

As irony would have it I had told my sister in law the day before how tacky I thought it was to wear jeans to a wedding  unless it was part of the theme of the wedding or it was like an uber casual type wedding. Though I am pretty sure it's never really appropriate to wear a roller derby team shirt to a family wedding. Now...if it was a derby wedding (there are such things) it would be a totally other story.