wedding stories - or, the incredible disintegrating pants

we went to a nephew's wedding over the weekend. drove to philadelphia friday, wedding saturday, home sunday. a quick trip but it actually was really nice. the wedding was wonderful. a simply lovely wedding, flawless reception, just as nice as anyone could ever ask for. when you get married in the basilica of ss. peter and paul in philadelphia, you've got a leg up on atmosphere! but it was gorgeous and they both looked just so happy. saturday morning DH took the kids to the hotel pool for a while, then we got ready for the wedding. we all drove over to rich's mom's apartment, arrived around 1. she had arranged a babysitter to watch the kids there; the plan was to get to visit with her a little bit, be more comfortable with leaving our kids with a complete stranger before we had to go, and the plan was to leave at 2. i noticed my LOVELY velvet pants that i had bought for the wedding were shedding a bit but didn't think twice about it because they were new. at 1:45 i noticed that the seams on my new dress pants were disintegrating. they must have been cut too close, and since velvet is cut to make it plush, when the seams pull out there's NOTHING there to sew back together. so i had a gap of 2 inches on either side of the inseam. can we panic now? (later noticed that the entire fly had pulled apart too. they WILL be going back!) MIL lives next to a shopping center that contained a kohls. so i bolted to kohls and dragged DH along with me - i was much less panicked not having to do this myself. (besides, i already SHOPPED for this event!) pulled 3 pants off the rack that were in the right size range, black. they weren't as attractive but at this point the goal was COVERING MY BUTT, not making it look good. threw them on and off and on again, picked a pair, and wore it out. i went to the cashier and said, "I'm in the middle of a fashion emergency, can you scan my butt?" which he did capably and we paid and got back to MIL's place at 2:10. i am so efficient. the wedding was downtown at 3. the plan to leave at 2 left room for emergencies. we jumped in the car with MIL and headed to the church. only the route was closed for some special event - and that's the only way DH really knows to get there. fortunately the detour wasn't long, WAS well-marked, and put us back on the road we needed before it diverged. got to the cathedral at 2:50, 1 minute after the bridal party. MIL and i got out while DH parked, and we all got to our seats in good time. whew! from there things went very smoothly. the reception was gorgeous, food was amazing. it was so well put together. i drank rather more than i have in some time, but i had a really good excuse with the stress of having to dress for the wedding twice!