After my nap, I was ready. I got to read a psalm at the wedding, so I went to the rehearsal, which was probably unnecessary, as it was perhaps the shortest rehearsal I’ve ever been to. Thanks I’m sure to the lack of wedding planner. I highly recommend this approach. My planner was all over us and rehearsal took about two hours. Ridiculous. But not this time, we were out of that church and on our way to cocktails in under an hour!

The rehearsal dinner was held at a swanky little restaurant and decorated beautifully. It was great fun to be reunited with friends we’ve made in Atlanta and to see everyone all dressed up for a change. I borrowed a fantastic little dress from Lorelle and Steve looked handsome in his linen shirt and pants. Sorry, Steve also left the camera behind for once, so no pictures of this night. But there are plenty of the wedding, not to worry.

The food was fabulous, the speakers both funny and sweet (and blissfully short winded!) and we all headed off to continue the party – until 4:30 a.m. The bride, smart girl that she is, headed off to bed before midnight.

Four-thirty is really early to go to bed on the day of a big, huge, southern wedding. But this didn’t seem to phase anyone we were with, so we held in there! Saturday found us up too early at 8 a.m. drinking coffee (boy BB sure wishes sometimes she drank caffeine) and munching on fresh muffins. The day was sunny and humid and it was lovely to walk through the parks in the morning. Lots of people were already out, walking their dogs and taking their morning coffee too.

Wanting a nap (okay, wanting a full-night's sleep, but seeing as how it was too late for that) we headed back to the room, where we encountered a phenomenon you all might be familiar with: a tornado had hit our room while we were out and there was stuff everywhere and it all needed to be packed up into bags that were looking suspiciously small. Why are you packing, you ask? We decided (very wisely it turns out) to stay in the Westin the night of the wedding. Had we known we’d be up ‘till all hours the night before, we would have stayed there two nights, but hindsight and all that . . .

So back to the nap. There wasn’t one. Ever. All day Saturday. There were phone calls to be made, emails to write, the aforementioned packing to do and a trip to Tybee island to complete all before Getting Ready. Long about 11 a.m., we called our friends Mark and Anne and rallied Mark out of bed to head out to the beach with us. Anne opted to enjoy her “Heavenly” Westin bed. Good choice. But not as good as Tybee Island, I’m happy to report.

Tybee is about a half-hour drive from Savannah through lovely marshlands and pretty little riverlets. Our first goal once we got to the beach was food. We were all starving and needing a little hair of the dog. We found the perfect spot in Time To Eat. An open air patio, out of the sun (sun bad for hangovers) and with lots of good fried food (good for hangovers) and more of the best Bloody Mary’s I’ve ever had (sorry Bill, you make a darned good one though!). We chowed down on crawfish, which came complete with waiter-demonstrated instructions; home-made onion rings; buffalo shrimp (think buffalo wings, but with shrimp); and a shrimp burger.

I was feeling better at this point, but dying for a nap. Three and a half hours of sleep just isn’t enough for me anymore. Go figure. But, we still had to go swim in the Atlantic, something Steve nor I had ever done. We strolled down the beach for a bit to get away from the crowd a little and jumped on in. The water is about the same temperature as here, which is to say, nice and warm but just a little cool and refreshing. We swam and played and bodysurfed for quite a while, finally killing the last of the hangover. (Which was good, because did I mention that we never got a nap?)

Back at the Westin, we checked in and were given a lovely corner room with a river view and our very own “Heavenly” bed. Which we still weren’t going to get to use until much, much later that night. Getting ready was pretty fun as we never get dressed up. I got to press Steve’s shirt and everything. Whee.

We met up with Henrik (one of our good friends from here in Tam) in the Lobby and offered him and some others a ride to the church. The wedding itself was just lovely and blissfully short for a Catholic wedding. The priest even cracked a few jokes and put Brian on the hot seat on a couple of occasions. Good times, folks, good times.

Since what you want is really pictures and not a blow-by-blow of the wedding, that’s what you’ll get. The wedding, suffice it to say, was absolutely gorgeous. The ballroom’s three sets of French doors were open all night and led out to the gracious lawn overlooking the Savannah River. The lit-up paddle boats cruised by and the lights across the water sparkled and shimmered. It truly looked like a fairyland. We danced and ate and drank until, well, our customary time for these things, 4:30 a.m. And this time, even the Bride stayed with us.

There are lots more pictures to be had! Click here.

Labels: photo, wedding