A Weekend Away and a Wedding

Mark and I traveled to Israel in February 2020 and came home and the world shut down soon after. We've been home for 13 months. We've not eaten inside a restaurant in all that time. We've just started attending in person worship. We were supposed to go to the beach in September but a hurricane hit our intended location. This past weekend we ventured forth!! Our friends, Kate and Sean, were originally scheduled to be married in the spring of 2020 and their wedding ceremony and festivities were postponed. They decided not to postpone the marriage and did get married in a private ceremony at Kate's church BUT they rescheduled everything for last weekend. We booked a hotel room, RSVP'd for the rehearsal dinner and the reception, packed our overnight bags, filled up an extra litter box for the cat . . .along with an extra huge food bowl, and headed north. I'm going to be honest - I love staying in a hotel :-). Of course, things were different due to covid restrictions - rooms weren't cleaned every day to protect staff and guests BUT enough things were the same that we still had a wonderful time.

Kate and Sean are so very special to us. Kate and I worked together - she is a youth minister and she served at our church for several years. Actually both Sean and Kate are youth ministers and they both came to our Tuesday night group. Sean and Mark hit it off from the beginning. Sean and Mark are actually as different as night and day in some areas of life but they are so alike in other areas. Kate was our house sitter along with our Harvey (cat) sitter. Mark and I love Kate and Sean as if they were our own and we were so honored to be included in this very special weekend.

On Friday night we attended the rehearsal dinner which was held at our hotel. Friday night was THE FIRST time for us to be in a room with people other than family and take off our masks and eat! We didn't know anyone at the dinner except the bride and groom but ended up at a table with Kate's grandmother and two uncles and their wives and they were so kind to us. The food was yummy and the conversation was very interesting. I planned to take lots of pictures but didn't take a single picture at the rehearsal dinner.

On Saturday, we went for a walk and then made a trip to a local store where Mark wanted to check out the merchandise. It was raining and I sat in the car. The rain stopped and we met our friends who just happen to live nearby at a restaurant - Honeysuckle Local and Social - and enjoyed our first meal in a restaurant!! These friends are the kind of friends where we can go a long time without seeing each other and pick back up as if we were together the day before. We laugh harder with these friends than just about anyone else. Once again I intended to take pictures but was living in the moment!!

We went back to the hotel and got ready for the wedding. The ceremony was beautiful and most people wore their masks in the church and we were seated at least 6 feet from other guests. The church was beautiful and the flowers were gorgeous. Kate's dress and veil were beautiful.

The minister did a great job making the service perfect for a "repeat" wedding and he made it so personal for Kate and Sean.

As soon as the wedding was over, we headed out to the reception. What did we do before Waze? I know we had maps but Waze makes it so easy to get from one location to another. We had been told that parking at the reception would be tough. We couldn't believe it when we found a parking space in the small lot attached to the venue! The venue was so cool - The Cannery. It was a cool facility and another guest told us that she had heard that Adele had performed at this venue. It was built in 1883 and was a flour mill and later a place to grind coffee. Dale foods bought it in 1957 and made jams, jellies, and other things and then it became a music venue! The facility has exposed brick walls and a huge bar.

When we arrived at the venue, this unbelievable flower arrangement "greeted" everyone. It was truly spectacular and there is a family story -- maybe there was a flower giraffe at Kate's parents' wedding??

There were beautiful flowers on every table. It is our understanding that the floral designer and his wife came in from another town.

Servers were walking around with tiny appetizers. These tiny tacos were so cute and packed a punch! My favorite tiny appetizer was a teeny tiny polenta cake with a wonderful topping. Mark loved the Nashville Hot chicken teeny tiny sandwich. I also liked the spoon full of grits with one shrimp on top.

The bride and groom danced their first dance and then the bride danced with her daddy and then the buffet opened. We were so excited to see one of our other former Tuesday night friends and his wife at the wedding. 

We stayed until they cut the cakes and made their toast. We got a hug from both bride and groom and then we slipped out and headed back to the hotel.

We had so much fun throughout the weekend. Mark is fully vaccinated and I was three days post my second vaccination so we felt a little safer than the previous 13 months.

One of my favorite moments of the weekend was on Friday night. Mark and I were standing in the room where the rehearsal dinner was to be held. When Sean entered the room, he was so excited to see us and we felt so loved. A few minutes later, Kate entered and we felt that same love from her, too.

God has blessed us with our own children and their spouses and our granddaughters AND God has also blessed us with relationships with so many young professionals over the years. As I said, we love them as our own. 

It was indeed a great weekend!