Trapped

This past weekend Grace and Phil got married. Grace is one of most dear friends from high school and Katie and I had the pleasure of being in her wedding party. Overall the wedding was a blast...beautiful, elegant, fun, and very reflective of the bride and groom--I mean who else would have a treasure chest of costume props for guests to take polaroid pictures with for the guest book? Tons of fun. 

Yet, one of my favorite moments of the weekend was not at the wedding, but the night before, because something chaotic must happen for every wedding. I seriously think it's a part of the wedding check list, but one that got accidentally cut-off due to the printer. 

Wedding Dress? Check

Flowers? Check

Something totally crazy, unexpected and involves a little bit of panic? Check

After the rehearsal dinner we all went back to the Best Western Loyal Inn in downtown Seattle. As her last night as a single girl, Grace wanted to go to the bar and play pinball. Fair enough. The whole bridal party was staying on the 4th floor (top of the building), so we all piled in. Doors shut, elevator moves a floor, and...stops. Nova. No go. Nervous giggle by everyone.

Now when I say everyone, I literally mean all 16 of us...like sardines. Yep, 16 of us thought we could pile in and that if we went over the 2,500 lb limit, the elevator would beep, or not move, or something safer than just stopping between floors two and three. After a minute of staring at each other and giggling, we pushed the panic button (well someone did, b/c truthfully you really couldn't see past the person two inches from your face). The conversation with the frontdesk kid went something like:

Best Western: Uhh...are you guys stuck?

Collective 16: YES!

BW: How many of there are you?

Elevator: (with hesitation)...umm 15?

BW: Are you serious?

Elevator: ...well...16...but that is beside the point...We're STUCK!

BW: Um...okay, that's probably the problem.

Collective 16: Thanks genius.

Silence...

waiting..

taking pictures to try and pass the time...

wave at the people outside...(thankfully one of the walls was clear and looked outside, otherwise i know there would have been pandemonium).

waiting..

anonymously entering our weight into a cell phone to see if we were over the limit (83 lbs over to be exact)....

calling loved ones...

Finally, we pushed the panic button again.

BW: Oh-yeah...the fire department is on the way.

Me (in my mind): Oh-gee thanks buddy. Thanks for keeping those stuck in the elevator up-to-date on what is going on...I mean couldn't you have told us that after you called them....hate being stuck in this elevator...is there enough oxygen, will Erin freak out...get us out!

After 20 minutes in the elevator, the fire truck rolls up-and for future reference, they don't come sirens blaring-you'll just have to sit and wait. Lights off. Power off. Doors pried open. Nice, oh so very nice, firemen pull us out. Many thank yous...and then on to pinball with a good story to tell.

The fire department shut the Best Western elevator down until they installed specific safety features. Regardless, if it worked or not, I took the stairs the rest of our stay. 

After the fiasco, Grace and Phil had a marvelous, chaos free wedding.