Beach Wedding and Baby Names

Foster and I really needed this past weekend. Although my bridesmaid's duties made it hard to spend a lot of time relaxing or spending time with each other, it was a much needed get away. This weekend was the much anticipated beach wedding of my friend since Fifth grade "Joe" with the man of her dreams "Joe". It was a four day wedding festivity, and many amazing things went on, so I will probably be talking about it for weeks. However, I am going to focus on the wedding itself, and the breathtakingly beautiful bride. Of course, there were a few interesting kinks thrown in along the way, but everything turned out perfect in the end.
I got a call from female Joe (we will refer to her as Joe and him as Joey so there is no confusion)two days before her wedding, and she informed me that she was devastated because she had gotten news that this was blocking her perfect beach view from the house they rented:

That's right, that big construction project is smack dab in front of the massive beach house we were staying in. This is what the back of the house should look like from the beach:

To say Joe was upset was an understatement, but she realized at this point, there was nothing she could do about it, and she was just going to enjoy her wedding weekend.

The whole wedding party stayed in this house for the weekend. It was 8 bedrooms and all except for one room had their own bathroom. It was so convenient and fun. We got the opportunity to meet some really great personalities and hopefully new friends. I was thrilled to get to spend some quality time with Joe's sister in law. She is currently 25 weeks pregnant with a MUCH wanted baby. Their struggle with infertility was heartbreaking, and the announcement of their pregnancy was music to my ears. She was present at Rosie's funeral, and admittedly stalks me on the internet. I hope after this weekend she feels comfortable calling me, and we can get together in person so she doesn't have to rely on stalking me for updates. Thanks to our tragedy, she went out and bought a Doppler to monitor her baby. I am glad that she is taking the precautions that can prevent the same tragedy happening to them.




After a lot of scrambling and stress amongst the bride and the bridal party the two days leading up to the wedding, Saturday seemed to go pretty smoothly. We all banded together to get the house set up and ready for the big event. She chose a beautiful magenta and green as her colors, and it popped!



Things seemed to be going really smooth with all of the preparation for the big moment. The girls were all getting ready and every one was getting along and enjoying each others company. For some reason I decided to put on my dress prior to doing my hair, because when I had put it on in the past, there was a struggle with the zipper where some of the fabric puckered. As the girls helped maneuver the zipper passed the bunched fabric, we celebrated as it made it past the pesky portion and zipped easily the rest of the way up. I took a deep sigh of relief, and heard that dreaded sound "RIIIIIIIIP". The zipper split up and down from the trouble spot. What we thought was puckered fabric ended up being a weak spot in the zipper. I was horrified and devastated. I did not want to be a complication in Joe's wedding. Luckily, all of the girls came together and brainstormed an idea. I was trapped in the dress because the pull part of the zipper was stuck on the top, so they sewed me into the dress. they wrapped the accompanying sash around my waist, tied it, and then sewed it into place, covering the split. It worked out perfect, and solved the problem.
As we all finished getting ready, it was time to take pictures. Joe looked like a dream. She was so elegant. When we stepped outside, we realized there would be another challenge. The wind was unrelenting. It was blowing everything. The time we spent on our hair was pointless as soon as we stepped outside. The clouds were rolling in and gave the impression they were going to open up and dump rain on us.
Lucky for all of us, the wind blew and the clouds were present, but the rain did not start until after the majority of the party was over that night.

As the ceremony started, I could not help but watch the groom. This was an especially tender moment. Joey's dad recently passed away, so although this was a happy day, there was an air of sadness about it. As Joe walked down the boardwalk, Joey looked with anticipation, and as she crested the stairs, Joey's tears started streaming. I thought for sure that since I had been to more wedding than you can shake a stick at this summer, I would not cry, but when Joey started crying, I lost it. The pastor did an amazing job, and had some beautiful things to say. I WISH I had asked for a copy of her words, because they were so inspiring and painted a perfect picture of the difference between new love and lasting love. Foster and I were talking about it last night, how wedding ceremonies bring us back to the day we said our vows.

After the ceremony, the party started. the food was great, the setting was magnificent, and the company was fun. It was a small crowd, maybe fifty or so people. They had cake, beautiful decorations, and even sparklers!! It was perfect.

Unfortunately, the Army needed Foster this week, so we had to leave really early Sunday morning. We had to retreat to our room around 930pm and missed out on the late night partying. From what I could tell, it was still going strong around midnight, because I heard music and people still up around that time.

One project I was bound and determined to get accomplished this past weekend, was to get pictures of Rosie and all of her angel baby friends' names on the beach during a sunrise. The first morning Joe and my mom decided to accompany me. I was honored that they wanted to help me with this. The sunrise was beautiful, but unfortunately, I wrote the names in sand that was too dark to read. The next morning my mom and I set out and re-tried. Too bad the sunrise was not as spectacular, but it worked, and I got some great shots. Here are a few of the pictures from those mornings (If you cliick on the picture, it will show you it bigger and brighter):

This was one of the most amazing sunrises I had ever seen. To the right of this shot were storm clouds with lightning dancing through the storm further out in the ocean.

Rosie's name in the sand. Thank you Mom and Joe for all of your help. Over 30 baby names were written and photographed for their parents.


"My precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

I am blessed to have been a part of this amazing weekend. I thank Joe and Joey for letting me be a part of their special day, and I am honored to have such an amazing friend.