A wedding and related events
It’s official. Meg and I are married!
We flew down to Fl on Tuesday the 6th . Funnily enough we were on the same flight as my parents, who were coming down early to stretch the wedding weekend into a vacation week for them. Because her mom had a job interview that afternoon we got picked up by her grandparents and after a quick stop at their house to drop off our bags and freshen up we ran down to the city clerks office and got our marriage license.
We spent the rest of the week doing random last minute errands and wedding preparations. Wednesday afternoon my parents came up from where they were staying and did lunch with us and Meg’s mom and grandparents. It was the first time our families met and everything went great.
Friday morning we got a ride into St. Augustine early and met up with my parents, brother, sister, and sister’s boyfriend to visit the St. Augustine Alligator farm. The place was really cool and had a large number of alligators, as one would imagine. It’s pretty impressive to look down a 6 foot fence and see a 15 foot long alligator sunning it self there on the ground. The swamp boardwalk was also really cool, getting to see all the alligators there in the water. Plus they had little quarter machines that dispensed alligator kibble for us to feed them with. I would have preferred a dead chicken vending machine but oh well. After the alligator farm, me, Meg and my parents met up with her dad, step mom, sister, and brother-in-law, for a nice lunch. Once lunch was finished we got a ride from my parents to our B&B ( At Journeys End ) in St. Augustine. We met with the woman who ran the place, and who was incredibly nice and helpful. She had a great tourist map of the area with restaurants either circled or Xed out. The room was REALLY nice, and after getting settled we sat outside on our second story porch and just enjoyed the few minutes of quiet we were able to get.
After relaxing, Meg was able to get in touch with her old friend Sarah who was driving down with her GF Jen. We met up with them at the visitors center and took them to the Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! Museum. Meg and I have been before but this was Sarah and Jens first time. We had a blast, that place is always a trip. After we got some food and stopped at a few places to enjoy some sangria and other alcohol type beverages.
Saturday morning. The big day! We got up and had breakfast there at the B&B. Everything was really good, though we ate light, not wanting to over do it before the wedding. Then I got shuttled to Meg’s moms hotel and her mom and grandmother went over to the B&B to help Meg get into her dress and do her hair and all that. The weather at the Fountain of Youth was nice, though really hot for late October, even in Fl. People started arriving and I got to somewhat play host, while we waited for Meg to arrive. We had arranged for a horse and carriage to pick her up at the B&B and bring her to the wedding location.
She really looked quite stunning in her dress when I finally got see it and her. The ceremony was only about 15 minutes which was good because even with a slight breeze it was still hot standing there. Worse for Meg in that dress though, at least I only and on khaki pants and a light linen shirt. After we said our “I Do’s” and exchanged rings we got on the carriage, and after pausing for a few pictures, headed down to A1A Ale works where we had our reception. The carriage ride was nice, we got a lot of honks and waves. There was also a bottle of champagne waiting for us in the carriage which was a welcome treat in that heat.
The reception was nice. The room was really nicely decorated and the food was excellent. We really lucked out given I had basically booked everything over the internet. We all enjoyed our food and cake. Plus there was a champagne toast with one…memorable…toast from the brides mother.
Once the reception was over we all went back to the Fountain of Youth site (we had rented a trolley to shuttle people back and forth ). People were mostly on their own for the rest of the afternoon. The original plan had been for everyone to meet up to do one of the St. Augustine ghost tours but that ended up not quite working out for a number of reasons so Meg and I ended up hanging out with my brother, sister, and her boy friend Brett, with Sarah, Jenn, and Doug and Jeff (other friends of the family along with our photographers) for a few more drink around town.
Sunday we had another nice breakfast and ended up being picked up by Meg’s dad so we could spend the day at his rented condo on the beach. For the first time in like forever I got to do some swimming on a Florida visit. The tide was coming in and the rip currents were REALLY strong. But I had fun none the less. Also I got to see some schools of fish in the waves and even a sea turtle!
We spent the night there at her dads (I got WAY too much sun) and then went back to Meg’s moms house Monday morning where we mostly just took it easy and started packing up for our trip home on Tuesday.
We were finally home but not for long. Wednesday night Brett picked us up and brought us out to their house so I could pick up our car. My sister had decorated the back window with ‘Just Married 10-10-09′ and had one of the bows we had decorating the trolley attached to the front of the car, along with a bunch of streamers and balloons.
Thursday we drove up to CT and made our usual visit to the Book Barn and then went up to my parent’s house. See few weeks back a neighbor had found a kitten and to make a long story short our neighbor was taking care of it till she could find it a home and WE had a home so we got to meet the kitten (now named Hawkeye by Meg) and said we would definitely take him back with us to NY. The rest of the weekend was a mix of some nice fall time activities (apple picking and a visit to the Yankee Candle superstore) and picking up stuff for the kitty.
We finally drove back up Sunday morning and started unpacking and getting the kitten used to his new home. He was a bit skittish at first, he spent a lot of time hiding under the futon, but got better after a few hours and realizing that neither of us were going to eat him. Him and Meg are spending quality time together today, and she said he is exploring more of the appt. and has eaten some and used his litter box which is really good thing after the…incident we had last night on the blanket.
So that in a nutshell was our wedding and related activities. We have some pictures up on flickr which you can find a link to off of www.meganandandrew.org and are waiting on the disks of professional photos which could come later this week some time.
Right now it’s good just to be home and able to finally relax. Not that the wedding wasn’t fun or anything, but for the first time in a lone while we don’t have any major events pending or have to stress out about where to book a reception or something.
No idea what we are doing the rest of the time in FL after the wedding. My family is leaving Sunday morning/afternoon but I don’t really know what everyone elses plans are. *I* would like to visit the Kennedy Space Center and maybe the Zoo in Jacksonville but we will have to see what the transportation situation is like.
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