part 1

Hi everybody. This is going to have to be a multi-part series of blog posts. When I got back to town on Thursday the idea of retelling our adventures was so daunting that I could hardly take it. I am now at work and have some time to start, so we will have to see how far I can get!

Besides finding the hilarious "Mr. X" video below (along with the Hastily Made Cleveland Tourism videos, part 1 and part 2), I did a lot of things while I was at home! I got my headshots taken on Friday. I haven't even had very much time to weed them down, yet. That is another daunting task. However, we had a really good time and our engagement photos are hilarious and awesome. Everyone thought I was nuts but I really like the way they turned out (I'll get some of those up soon). My "bachelorette party" consisted of me and my sister going to Wal-mart at midnight to buy make up for Saturday the 2nd. I was so tired (I could write an entire blog post about how I didn't sleep the entire weekend. I think I got something like 8 hours of sleep TOTAL before we got to Disney World) that I apparently picked up something that I was wondering what it was, put it in our basket for some reason, and neither one of us noticed until we were in the car and wondered why the bill was so high. I mean, I was REALLY tired. I could barely even form sentences. Chris went out and had a real party with his old friends from high school and went to Great Lakes Brewing and went bowling. I pretty much fell asleep at a Wal-mart. They're the same, right?

So, on Saturday I took a good two hours to put on the make up from the night before and we had our little pre-wedding reception in the ballroom of the yacht club. I think it went really well! We had to practice a little bit before most people started arriving, although many of them came in while we were still going through stuff. This is a picture of us practicing a Neko Case song. I know this because that was the only song I ended up playing guitar on. Our set list was as follows:

• Chris on the theme to "The Mary Tyler Moore Show"


• "This Tornado Loves You" by Neko Case


• Chris on "The Girl's Alright" (with audience participation!)


• "Love Will Come to You" by the Indigo Girls


• "Airplane" by the Indigo Girls


• "Rhiannon" by Fleetwood Mac (for Dix Huit!!)


• "Barracuda" by Heart (acoustic!!!)

We sang "Airplane" because we knew it. That was the only reason. We did this event for the Airport Operators of the Shenandoah Valley last year and we sang it there, so we brought it back... for our wedding. My brother played bass on "Rhiannon" and, like I said before, "Barracuda" was acoustic... which you don't often hear. I have not managed to NOT mess up this song when I sing it. The rhythm is so hard.

My mom made a three-tiered cake which was red velvet on the bottom, carrot in the middle and yellow on top, along with a yellow sheet cake that didn't even get cut in to. She was horribly distressed on Saturday because when they went to put it together at the Yacht Club, she moved the whole thing at once and the top piece started to sink. She freaked out. It wasn't that bad. I don't even know if I would have noticed had she not come home freaking out. The cake was awesome, though. I wish I would have been able to eat more of it. I did not get enough to eat either night. I'm not even sure all of what was served on Saturday... I know I had some chicken fingers and carrots... besides that, I really don't know what else was there.

My friend Jenny from high school and two of my friends from Sterling, Katie and (Meredith) Dix Huit Cordray were able to make it on Saturday and I was soooooo happy. I was actually able to have a conversation with them, too, which was even better. Chris only had TWO friends on Saturday night, his best man Jason and his friend from grad school Adam (and his girlfriend). I think most people get married in the city they live in. I also think that most people's entire group of friends don't move to other places, making it next to impossible to have people come to things. If we would have had a reception in New York there would have been tons of friends there!

I think there were about 150 people on Saturday at we used all of our allotted time but did get out by 11pm. Chris and I then went back to my parent's house to open presents and cards. We had video footage of that but I don't think I'll post it online because that would be weird and probably rude. I have some other video footage from the actual reception which I am sure I'll put online once my dad actually sends it to me.

Here is a great picture of the Ledyard kids. It's great because it is TRUE:

I think people had a good time. I hope they did. I had a good time (from what I can remember... it seemed to last forever and for a second at the same time). People kept doing the clinking their glass thing to get us to kiss but I was like "Dude. We're not married yet. We're IMMUNE to that." We also had to cut the cake as if we were married (Chris said, "They need to see the cake show!") but as soon as we did it, I think we walked in opposite directions away from each other. It was actually a really weird event. I think some people may have thought we were already married by the time we had this reception. We got a lot of checks addressed to "Alisa or Chris Seiler." Those we knew what to do with (give them to Chris to put in the bank). At least one was made out to "Alisa Seiler" and I honestly don't know what to do with it. I don't know if I CAN cash it because I am not Alisa Seiler. I mean, I guess the bank would understand that Alisa Seiler doesn't exist (well, she does in someone else, but not in me) and that the person who sent it didn't know I kept my name.... at least, I HOPE they would understand that. I'm not going to be like "I'm sorry. I am still Alisa Ledyard. Can you write me a new check?"

Changing your name is a funny thing. Or, maybe, NOT changing your name is a funny thing. People obviously expect you to in Ohio... but almost every woman I know down here in Virginia who is married kept her original last name. I think Chris didn't even WANT me to. I had a conversation with him about it once and he said "but Alisa Ledyard sounds so good with all the Ls!" Hardly any actors do it and I can see why. I'd hate to go to UPTAs again next year and have people get confused about whether or not I was the same person they saw the year before (unless it was beneficial to me :) ). Plus, I spent so much time in 5th-8th grade perfecting my signature that it'd be a waste to lose it now. "S" is a hard letter for me to make look cool in cursive. "L" is easy.

.....TO BE CONTINUED.