The Wedding

The big party weekend is past and I'm recovered, or as much as can be expected considering my age and the circumstances.

We arrived in Hilton Head on Thursday and met with Barb, Bill, Ruth, Tom and Bobbi, and Jim. We went out to dinner and had a lovely evening. The old people were all tired, but those in their 20s just love to push the envelope. And they pushed in a bad part of town.

Jim got in around 3 AM, sorta. His brother got him to the room door, but couldn't quite manage to get him into the room. This woke the mother, who was not amused. The father, like all fathers around the world, pretended to sleep through the fracas. All we knew in the morning was that Jim got home late and with only one shoe. We later found out the baby brother lost both shoes.

We met at Joe and Sarah's house and then separated. The kids were going parasailing. We worked around the house and got things in order for the Rehearsal Dinner that was happening that night, sans rehearsal. Erin had to get back to the house and work on the wedding cake. Really, she had to start making the wedding cake.

We were at Wal-Mart around noon to get the beer and wine and paper products for the party that night. We ran into Erin and Aunt Leslie. Shopping.

We got everything on the list that could be gotten at Wal-Mart. I thought it was a super Wal-Mart, but it wasn't. We went to the grocery store to pick up all the things we needed there. Dick waited for them to slice – s-l-o-w-l-y slice up some lunch meat while I did the rest of the shopping. We got home just in time for Mitch, Joe, Aiden, and Dylan to throw together a sandwich and take off for the boat.

Matt had said the kids could come since it wasn't a regular parasailing trip, but a special outing for the groom and his friends. Aiden was going to draw me a map of all they saw. They were going to see sharks and monsters. I got no map. Instead, Aiden went up into the sky with his Dad and they parasailed together. How fun is that?

Next we were ready for the party. We picked up ten pizzas from Fat Baby and got to spend a few hours of calm before the storm. We got back to the hotel and tossed and turned in anticipation of the big day.

We got the Plantation House decorated and it looked beautiful. The chairs were set up outdoors for an outside wedding. The fountain in the pond splashed, fish jumped, flowers bloomed and the whole wedding was beautiful.

The Bride and Groom were lovely. Their children were adorable. The guests were celebratory. The whole thing was freaking exhausting. But lovely.

We got the place cleaned up and the kids returned to their house by 9.30. Walking up to the house, Aiden proclaimed, "That was the BEST party." You really can't get a better approval rating.

We headed back to the hotel. Tired, but happy. We are now officially in laws. We met all the other Hysell/Blush folks for breakfast and then got our belongings and the dog and headed back home.

The Bride and Groom finally could relax. As Sarah said, "I have my life back." All the work and planning, the sweat, worry, and toil, were worth it. It really was the BEST party.