Vacation Part 2

On Thursday morning I drove further north on 17, all the way into Wilmington, NC. I met up with Cat and then we headed out to the beach for lunch and a little more sunning.

I went to Wilmington for our friend Mary's wedding, which doubled as a mini college reunion. It is so much fun to get to see everyone and to celebrate the beginning of Mary and Mike's marriage. A few of us bridesmaids (and our husbands) stayed at Cat's grandmother's house, which was not only fun and economical, but it made things easier logistically! We all had to be in most of the same places at the same times.

Friday started with the bridal luncheon in downtown Wilmington.


It was absolutely beautiful, and the food was incredible, too! What a treat to get to spend some quality time with Mary, her mom and aunts, and Mike's mom and sister during the weekend.


Mary has a super rockin' cousin named Katherine who was there, too. Katherine, or Special K as Mary calls her, made bracelets for all of the bridesmaids! It was an awesome gift from an awesome 8 year old, and most of us wore them during the wedding - at the bride's direction!


The hostesses had arranged for a charm cake and it was so much fun! I had heard of the tradition, but had never seen it in person. The charms were all pretty, and I ended up with the pelican which means I will have "a life of plenty."


After lunch us girls headed home to nap and then change for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went well, with the most confusing part being figuring out what our heights would be the following day since only one of us (not me) remembered to bring their wedding shoes. I'm sure we looked very silly trying to estimate our varied height changes!



After rehearsal we walked a block or so to the rehearsal dinner. It was on the 3rd floor of a building, overlooking downtown. And I learned something about Mike - he has a major thing for Swedish Fish! There were Swedish Fish at every table, and the cake was decorated WITH the candies, as well as decorated with a fondant rendering of a bag of the candies!


We all had fun chatting, watching a slide show, and listening to toasts. There was a lot of laughter and a few tears throughout the toasts, which is the way it should be!

Wordless Wednesday

We Survived!

Frank and I had one heck of a week and weekend, and I'm happy to report that we made it through to the other side! A quick recap:

Thursday: I had to skip class due to a work commitment. My company's Board of Directors was in town for their annual meeting and we had a reception for them on the Hill. The reception was held in the LBJ room, right outside the Senate floor - the room was really nice and from what I hear, the food was awesome! We got a lot of Senators and a fair share of Representatives, along with a lot of staff. The entire event was a success, but I was happy to have it end as I had been standing in 2.5 inch heels on slate floor for about 5 hours... Then I met Frank at my office and we set off for Cary, NC. Frank was a saint and drove the entire way down. I was so tired that I was bordering on delirious and having trouble answering simple questions. We arrived at Win & Gregs' around 1am, went straight upstairs to bed and slept until 11:30 the next morning.

Friday: woke up around 11:30 and considered going back to sleep. My high school friend Adair called from the road and we set up plans to meet up in Durham for lunch and then wedding prep. We got to Durham and met up with Adair, Shannon, and Melissa & Kevin at their hotel then drove .1 miles (across the street) to a Mexican restaurant for a wonderfully predictable lunch! After a lot of the usual fare and a few pitches of margaritas we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the evening's main event.

Ta Da!

The wedding was beautiful! Abigail looked absolutely amazing and the look on Jason's face was wonderful. The music came from a string quartet off to the side and it made the sound seem to float over the pond to the ceremony site. I didn't take pictures because I forgot and I was so taken with the entire thing (sorry mom), but I'm on the email list so I'll have pictures as soon as they are ready! The reception was in a building looking over the wedding site and I LOVED the lights at dinner

It was a great wedding and I'm so happy for Abigail & Jason - I can't wait for them to move to DC next fall!

All for now, I'll fill in the rest of the weekend in another post