Brian and Jennifer's Wedding

This afternoon, we headed over to Eden State Park for Brian and Jennifer's wedding.  They were married under the shade of giant old oak trees in the green in front of this antebellum mansion... it was absolutely gorgeous.  (It was also mosquito heaven... and our bug spray was in the car - yikes.  Fortunately for Katie Anne, it seems that Carlton and Trisha are also mosquito magnets, and they drew a lot of the bugs down to their end of the aisle.  Katie Anne only got bit once on the wrist and once on the side of her nose!)

It was a much bigger wedding than I expected... there were probably 150 guests in attendance.  There were 9 attendants for both the bride and groom and a flower girl, ring bearer, and cross bearer.  The ceremony was very touching and heartfelt, but it was also very long.  Fortunately, Katie Anne did wonderfully at the ceremony... she was virtually silent for two whole hours while we were there!  She sat in her chair and enjoyed people watching and fruit snacks, and then she stood in front of her chair and used the seat to play with her toys after the "bride song" as she called it.  She really did whisper the entire time, and we hardly had to say a word to her.  Once, when Saunders told her to stop whispering so much, she started to cry ... as she said, "Daddy hurt my feelings.  I am whispering.  I am trying really, really hard."  Poor baby!  It was a very big challenge to give to a two-year-old, but she handled it like an old wedding guest pro.  Here are some pre-ceremony and ceremony shots.

 

Our pretty princess watching the wedding party get lined up

Enjoying some fruit snacks before the bridesmaids come down the aisle

Here comes the bride!

The wedding ceremony

The "airplane babies" come in handy again!

Play-doh is also a quiet wedding game

Katie Anne even shared a pack of Play-doh with a little wedding guest, Macy

There they go - Mr. and Mrs. Rushing!

Now that the ceremony is over, Katie Anne tests the whirly capabilities of her new dress

Exploring the grounds with Aunt Trisha

After playing so nicely during the ceremony, Katie Anne wasn't exactly in the mood for a photo session, and we didn't push it because we knew she'd given her all ... especially considering that she'd spent the morning at the beach and had about a 25 minute power nap before the 2:00 ceremony.  So, there are not a ton of pictures.  Here are the ones we did take!

 

 

A Jones/Rushing Family Group Picture

And, one last beautiful girl by the reflecting pond photo...

A Low Country Rehearsal Dinner

On Friday night, our vacation group was complete - Carlton, Trisha, and Vespa arrived from Moultrie!  So, we all traveled together to the rehearsal dinner.  It was a low country boil at the Watersound Beach Club, and we had a great time!  We had a tough time finding the place at first - there's a "baby turtle ordinance" right now, which means that almost all the street lights, pathway lights, etc have to be turned off.  This is due to the baby turtles hatching on the beach and trying to make their way to the ocean, and the lights from the communities on the shore confuse them.  So, we made several wrong turns and u-turns, but we finally found the beach club!

The rehearsal dinner was really wonderful - there was the traditional low country boil fare of giant shrimp, corn on the cob, etc.  There was also a gumbo station, a salad station, a red beans and rice station, and some delicious rolls and hush puppies!  We ate outside at a big table beside the pool, and we had a fun time visiting with Aunt Emily, Uncle Hugh, Brian, and Jennifer as well as a lot of their friends and family.

Saunders enjoying his low country boil

Why do I always get stuck with Miss Silly Face?

Carlton and Trisha

Katie and Vicki

Somebody was really cutting up at dinner

Okay, here's a sweet smile

 Carlton and Aunt Emily

After dinner, it was Play-doh Playtime!  Carlton loved making Play-doh animals with Katie Anne, but he quickly learned that all creations are made at her request... do not get creative.  Just do what she says.

 

Carlton made a really good model of Vespa, and Katie Anne provided the big orange ball of "dog food".

Trisha with her Carlton-and-KA-created strawberry

After our Play-doh fun time, we headed inside the beach club for many toasts and a little Brian mini-roast by one of the groomsmen.   Brian gave a very sweet toast to his future bride, Jennifer.  We took pictures of the toasts, but they were really dark.  Here's a picture of the girls sitting down on a windowsill, listening to the toasts.

Wedding Meet & Greet

On Thursday night, Jennifer (Saunders's cousin Brian's bride-to-be) and her parents hosted a meet-and-greet party for the wedding guests at their beach house.  They had trays of fruit and cheese, seafood dips and crackers, pasta salads, and big bowls of Brunswick stew with homemade corn muffins.  We visited with the guests and enjoyed dinner.  We got to meet several of Aunt Emily and Uncle Hugh's friends from Alabama as well as the family and friends of the bride.  Jennifer's parents have an amazing big deck over the dunes, and they had lit their staircase with tiny white lights and candles.  It was so beautiful outside!  After dinner, we went down to the beach for smores by the fire!

Saunders and Katie Anne took this nice photo together...

And then, look at this goofball photo poor Mommy got...

VJ and Aunt Emily...

Walking down to the water's edge...

Time to roast marshmellows!

The fire plus a two-year-old made us a little nervous...

... but Katie Anne did very well with them and stayed clear of the fire pits.

After we ate our roasted marshmellows - Katie Anne wasn't a big fan - Katie Anne just got to run around on the beach.  She had a great time being a little crazy person out there!

 She got very tired at about 8:30 (9:30 Georgia time), so it was time for us to leave.  She didn't want to go, though... so this picture is when she decided that she and I were leaving and walking to Panama City (you can see the lights in the distance).  This is about as far on our journey as we got.  :)

The Jones Wedding

For our next event on Saturday, we hurried home, changed clothes, and went to Lionel and Phyllis Jones's wedding at The Church at Liberty Square.  Saunders's family has known Lionel for many years ... he worked at the hospital with Doc, he lived in the Jones's basement for a while many years ago, and Saunders took Shinkendo (swordfighting) from Lionel when we first moved back to Cartersville.  Saunders's parents were both in the wedding ... VJ was a bridesmaid, and Doc was best man.  They both looked very, very nice in their spiffy clothes, and the wedding ceremony was very touching - lots of great music!

 

 

 

 

The wedding ceremony...

The bride and groom ...

Jumping the broom!

We didn't get to stay long at the reception - just dropped off our gift and left before the bride and groom arrived because we had to rush home and change again for our third event of the night - our reunion!