post-reception karaoke @ the tropicana 2

joel belted out his long-awaited version of the darkness' "i believe in a thing called love".
"touchin' yoooouuuuu..... touchin' meeeeeeeee..."
joel perfects his air guitar solo...
big finish!
this guy sauntered in to sing some sweet home alabama. cory insisted he was a vampire bounty hunter there to slay him, but katie knew better. he tugged at her heartstrings with his crooning.
what a heartbreaker!
aaron sang weird al's "yoda" with a little backup from the host and a little backup dancing from cory.

okay then.

so blogger likes to be a pain in my ass yet again. it's stopped putting photos in my entries. i upload them and then it says they've been uploaded and i hit the little "done" button and no picture shows up in my entry field.

this is SO fucking annoying. so yeah. there are more post-reception karaoke pics coming. i swear. it just might be a while.

it's disgustingly hot in my room. it's like trying to hang out in an oven or something.

yesterday kat and i put together more travel arrangements for europe. originally, we were overly ambitious about how much we were going to see, but here's the plan as it stands.

aug 12, 13 - rome.
aug 14, 15, 16 - fly to rotterdam on a cheap flight, take hour long train ride to amsterdam and chill out.
aug 17 - travel by train back down to italy, arrive in naples.
aug 18, 19 - naples, pompei, capri [capri can be done on a day trip.]
aug 20 - stay in small town outside rome
aug 21st - leave rome on flight at 740 pm.

exciting!

more post-reception karaoke @ the tropicana

cory regaled us with his renditions of "i'm too sexy" by right said fred and "like a virgin" by madonna. i don't know if vegas was ready for him, but we were!

cory shakes his little tush on the catwalk.
one of the karaoke hosts dancing for my sisters while he sang a bon jovi song. the hosts loved my sisters for their twinliness. you should have seen jayme's face when this guy came over and started dancing near her, if i had a picture of that, it would be priceless - she looked terrified! but she loosened up and stole his crumpled little cowboy hat and got into it!
my sisters trampy-dancing with a britney spears impersonator!
joel and aaron dancing for cory during one of his songs! [photo courtesy of jayme]
joel and i before i sang my first song. when i told them i had gotten married that day, they made joel come up and present me with a cheesy ring that had a flashing LED light on it. i sang "sunday morning" by no doubt and "somebody to love" by jefferson airplane. [photo courtesy of jayme]

wedding day photos [courtesy of jayme]

joel waiting patiently for me to arrive. the fellow with the beard is our minister, adam. he was really great. he did a fabulous job directing us and had some really nice words to share. i was very impressed.
i think this is when i'm putting joel's ring on. i had a little trouble at first, but i got it!
newlyweds ready to conquer the world.
us outside the chapel doors.
my sisters outside the chapel.
my family and some mustached man in the background.
my sisters and i. [thanks for all these pics, jay. love ya!]

reception at pharoah's pheast!

the ceremonial reading of the cards and opening of the gifts. [photo by jayme]
sexy champagne drinking. [photo by jayme]

us with our good pals, the darksouls.
aren't we sexy?
the irony? my brother made jokes about not wanting to catch his sister's garter!
joel with his new sister, lynsey.

more reception at pharoah's pheast!

the garter toss - the men were much too cool for this. they all stood there and watched it land.
the bouquet toss. look at those ladies go!
the winners! dad said "looks like a hillbilly wedding!"
lynsey and i.
katie and jonathan hamming it up for the camera!
oh, you kids.
the best men?
top: me, joel's uncle steve, joel. bottom: joel's cousin ezra, his gal rio, and cousin gabe.
jayme, jon, and lynsey. lookin' good!

wow! blogger magic!

all of a sudden my wedding day post showed up!

thank jebus! so yeah, you're probably confused now, but i'm too tired to change my last entry.

instead, here's a teaser from the upcoming entry about the reception. it's a pic of me, kat and katie! i appear to be rocking quite the cleave.

frustration gives way to a glowing review!

i wrote all this really great stuff about my wedding day in a blog entry and it all got deleted. so, due to aggravation and wanting to throw my laptop out the window, i am skipping ahead and posting the pictures of me with penn and teller which are from our last night in town.


teller was a total doll. when i asked if i could have a picure, he said it would be his pleasure. :) very soft spoken, as you'd expect. i totally felt like a little kid watching teller's goldfish trick. he also signed an ad for the show for me, as did penn.

me and penn. he's crouching down to my level a bit in this pic, but the man is hugely tall. he's like 6'6, so over a foot taller than me! he was really cool and called everyone "boss". super nice guy. these two stayed out in the lobby signing autographs and taking pictures with fans well after the show was over and accomodated everyone. completely refreshing to see.

their show was awesome. well worth paying 85 bucks to see them. if you're in vegas check them out. they change up their show every so often, so i'd probably go see it again if i ever go back. it had everything - fire eating, jazz music, goldfish, knife throwing, shadow puppets, a rabbit in a woodchipper, joke telling, the juggling of broken bottles and a trick that involved penn and teller shooting bullets at each other's faces and catching them with their teeth. i was not bored a single moment in the 90 minute show. they have their own theatre in the rio - it's a little off the strip, but you won't pay too much for the cab. i doubt very highly you'd be disappointed by these two.

dressing room shennanigans

i was so tired and it was stifling in the dressng room, but the excitement was growing by the second. it felt like we were in that room for an eternity before the minister came in to collect kat and then brought me out to my dad for the walk down the aisle. i wasn't really nervous, but i was totally shaking when i took my dad's arm. i think it was more akin to stage fright than cold feet. i was wondering what it would be like to see joel standing at the other end of the chapel. just a few minutes before we went in, my mom came to see me. she hadn't been able to come to the salon with us that morning because she was horribly ill. she had called me at 8am with this sad tiny voice telling me she had been sick most of the morning and that she was so upset because she had made a point not to drink alcohol or eat anything crazy so she would be in good shape, but seemed to have caught some kind of bug. i told her to lie down and joel went to the drug store and fetched her some gingerale and otc remedies while we went to the salon. so, when she came around that corner it was the first time she saw me all made up and she just burst into tears, her voice got all choked as she told me how beautiful she thought i looked. she hugged me and hurried off to the chapel so we could get the show on the road.

salon madness. and i mean MADNESS!

kristina's international salon. my god. you should have seen this place. we were greeted at the door by a woman who looked like a cross between magda, the neighbour from "there's something about mary" and tammy faye baker - not exactly the most comforting sight to greet you at the salon! she kinda poked fun at kat's super short hair but then said she wished she could trade her sky-high bouffant for shorn locks, but later my sister pointed out that if she cut off her hair, it would leave a couple of rats completely homeless. and then what would they do? i don't now what it is about my luck, but seriously, mine just ain't any good. i got saddled with the stylist from hell. she was this hag of eastern european descent who was bossy as hell. i tried to tell her i thought my eyeshadow was too dark and she told me to just be patient and she would blend it and guaranteed me i would love it. i didn't. i told her what i wanted my hair to look like and she told me she would do what she thought "looked good" and transformed me into an attendee of the country music awards with a pile of curls on the top of my head. also, i don't know if you know this, but there is a wrong way for you to open your eyes! she was applying clusters of false eyelashes and periodically asked me to open my eyes and at one point she got exasperated with me and barked at me that i was doing it wrong and that i should open my eyes gradually. i told the slag that i had never had false eyelashed put in before, but apparently this was supposed to be part of my womanly knowledge already. she kind of dug her nails into my face slightly while she applied the lashes and at one point she opened a cupboard door and took out her purse and rooted around in it and took something out. now i'm not 100% sure, but it's quite likely i had someone else's makeup on my face on my wedding day. mmm. sanitary. also, she burned my head in two places while curling my hair and reaching for the hairspray and sprayed hairspray all over my face.
visit kristina's international salon at the luxor hotel and casino if you'd like to pay $200 US to look like a trampy poodle! hooray!
makeover time! hope i don't get a fungal infection from this claptrap!
me, likely flipping out because i thought my hair made me look like a country star.
my sisters enjoyed the opportunity to get a little pampering in. they actually had great stylists and looked really classy!