Wynel's Wedding Weekend Pt. I

Chile. This thing is about to be so detailed, there's no telling how long it'll be. I took 233 pictures. Yes. You read that right. Sigh. I'm kind of not even ready myself. I don't know how much the bride wants floating in cyber space so some pictures will have to wait. But heeeeeeeeeeere we go.

Wednesday I call Wynel as I walk off the plane to let her know I'm here. She says, "Already?!?! Yay!!" My baggage comes off the carousel like this.

and this.



USAirways. Y'all know y'all are trippin. WHY is that giant dent in my bag accompanied by a rip? I rolled my bag straight into their baggage services office. The lady said she had a bag she could give me. I'm looking like does she really think I'm going to take someone's disgusting, re-purposed suitcase?!?! But she rolls out a brand new piece of luggage. That's more like it. Simple black which means I'm really going to have to put some sort of identifying stuff on it if I'm ever to find it in the airport. It was about time for a new one anyway, but still. It's a bit shocking to be greeted by that foolishness.

I head outside and am reminded of the fact that I'm in the south. It's about 3:15 and blazin hot. I start taking off clothes and am like THIS is why people wear so little clothing in the south. Not because we're fast but because you have to stay cool. I still have on jeans and a t-shirt but that's better than the jacket and black t-shirt over it that I needed in Pittsburgh on THE FIRST OF AUGUST. So sad (for Pittsburgh). That jacket never left my suitcase again. Whoooo! But the humidity was stifling. It was oddly comforting. I mean it is August. It's really not supposed to be comfortable. Sweating as you walk to the mailbox. Only being outside for more than the walk from your car to the building before 8 and after 7. The heat is supposed to choke you until you die. These sorts of things. That's how I've always known it. So while I like cooler weather, it's not natural in July and August. At some point it has to be summer. If it hits 95+ (notice I said if) for more than 5 days, then I'll retract that statement.

Biiiiiiig hug. Then the tug of war to get my ginormous pieces of luggage into her car. We head to Subway to grab some food, then back to her house. She drops us off then goes to pick up her mom and aunt. They come back to the house, then Sinclair gets there (the now hubby) and we all go to dinner at Ocean View Pier.


The restaurant is on the top floor of that building.






I went a bit crazy with the picture taking. I couldn't help it. I really had to restrain myself to keep from running onto the beach. The only reason I did is because I knew we were coming back. For dinner I had Yuengling, fried oysters and french fries. I'd never had fried oysters before... not to my remembrance. The only reason I got them is because I saw them on the menu and they reminded me of this guy I met 5 years ago from New Orleans who had the most fantastic accent. He was in Charlotte for a convention. I'll tell that story later. The point is he loved oyster sandwiches which sounded disgusting to me. But I got oysters anyway. Turns out they were delicious! Mmmm. I did not take a million pics of food this time. I tried to control myself. So yay!

Then we headed to her cousin Janet's house where Wynel and I went for Thanksgiving after we left Sinclair's family's house. They started talking about the Minnesota bridge collapse. WHAT?!?! W doesn't have cable and all the rest of us had been with her or on planes all day. I have never fiended so badly for AP wires, newspapers, the internet and CNN. Well... that's not true. Katrina and Virginia Tech had me like that, too. The Sago Mine tragedy is in our viewing area so I was right in the middle of that. We flipped to CNN and it was a taster. Good thing she gets the Virginian-Pilot. Still not enough but 1) at least its not the Daily Mess and 2) it's better than nothing. After that we headed back to W's and I crashed. I'd been up for 24 hours. Too bad we were up early again the next morning. We had lots of shopping to do, but first Wynel made us breakfast.



How gorgeous is that? Strawberries, blackberries, yogurt and granola clusters. Do it big then! After that we headed to a wholesale flower shop to get a look at the flowers she was using. BEAUTIFUL calla lilies.


The purple callas and white roses were for the bridesmaid bouquets. The bride's bouquet was white roses, purple & white callas and white callas. Gorgeous.

For lunch we had MEXICAN!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOOO!! I LUUUURVE Mexican food. So much that I want to marry a Mexican IN Mexico on cinco de Mayo surrounded by tacos, burritos, taquitos, rice, black beans and margaritas. Help a sista out. Look you don't care about a lot of the stuff we did. There were the hours and hours and hours we spent making these insane favors. I mean insane. Guess who didn't get a picture of the finished product or walk out with one? Yeah. Me. Son of a... There was more last minute shopping, then the rehearsal. I was a stand-in since some of the bridesmaids weren't in town yet. After that we headed back to Aunt Trisha's house for the rehearsal dinner. Yum. O. Ribs, fried fish, green beans, potato salad, salad. For dessert I had german chocolate cake, angel food cake with strawberry topping, and a fruit cup. I know that was a bit ridiculous but it was vacation.

After the rehearsal dinner we headed to W's friend's house to say goodbye. She was heading on a mission trip to Africa. We ended up having an impromptu bible study over that Zachariah verse. Turns out it was a prophetic verse and represents God's promise and eventual deliverance from Babylon which represents sin. How did you explain that better in 3 minutes than that woman did in 20? Please let me give you her number. She needs your help. After that we prayed and W had us all in tears because she said such sweet things about each of us. Fantastic.

Then we headed to her friend's bachelorette party since her friend's wedding was the following day (Friday). But by the time we got there it was over. So we just hung out for a while relaxing. Then we headed back to Wynel's. By this time it was 3 in the morning. We were supposed to go to the beach at 8 but were too tired. No go on the beach. BOOOOOOO!! That meant I knew we weren't going because her and Sinclair were going to the beach alone Saturday morning (the wedding was Sunday night) and I knew we'd be too crazy on Sunday to go there. So no beach for me BUT that means the bright fab bikini will make its debut in MIA. What better place, really? That's just the first 2 days. 4 more to go. But a sista has to get up from here.

Still to come: "Dunkin Hoes at Bardos" "I was ready to fight her over Kaeger, both of them matter of fact" "THE deluxe, slow jams get the draws tape??"