Okay, so I promise this will be the last post about our crazy long fun-filled entertaining road trip. If you havent been following along with all of the posts you can catch up by clicking on these links: roadtrip, Tennessee, CT Wedding, and CT Wedding 2.
To recap real quick we started off by driving to Tennessee from South Florida. In Tennessee we stayed on our friend Billy's parents farmmountain property. We were there for 3 days which included the 4th of July. Then we drove from Tennessee to my family's property in New Jersey. It was a quick visit, just for the night. Then off to Connecticut for our friend Michele and Wills wedding.
So next on our trip was camping. See the bride and her family every summer rent a spot at a campgrounds to put their trailer on. Instead of heading off directly on a honeymoon the bride and groom decided to make the weekend fun filled by hanging out with friends and family while camping. (yes, for those wondering, they are still going on a honeymoon to Lake Tahoe I believe next week). Hubs and I decided that we wanted to do the whole real camping thing. Meaning we brought a tent and an air mattress and slept outside. However a few friends rented a trailer so there was a shower and bathroom nearby Thank.God.
Surprisingly the tent was pretty comfortable. I was kind scared at first because Im used to camping in South Florida where the humidity makes it absolute hell. But in CT it was actually a lil chilly at nighttime. We brought a portable battery operated fan and didnt even have to use it (except during the day when it was hot). And because there is a bunch of different sites that the group of us had rented we got around by golfcart, which we just so happen to deck out with "Just Married" decorations for the bride and groom.
So after pitching the tents, we decided to blow up some tubes we had snagged at a local store and take advantage of the lake that was at the campgrounds. It was overcast all day, but we didnt let that ruin any fun we had. And Ill have to say is the water up north is waaaaaaaay colder than the water down by us. But with a few beers in us I dont think any of us really noticed after a few mins.
The boys then decided that they were going to try using the tubes to go down a river that flowed behind the campsite. And yes my friends, you do see an air-mattress being used as a floatation device. (lowers head in shame, we are truly a little redneck at times.....)
After the boys ventured through this I decided I would be the first brave girl to test out the river and brought my waterproof camera with us for the ride.
Once the rest of the girls realized it was safe and fun, we proceeded to go back to the store and get more tubes for everyone to have fun. (we may have also but a slip and slide.....)
Our 2 nights at the campsite were filled with food, laughter, a little bit of rain, and alot of fun. We had a cookout with the rest of the brides family, followed with some good old rope swinging. We also cooked smores the last night we were there.
We may have taken another ride or two down the river. Oh and since the pics may be a little to hard to see I thought it would be nice to let you know what the guys shirts said in the one pic:
Lohse's Shirt (red): "Choose Wisely" (from Super Mario Bros, standing on the tunnel)
Billy's Shirt (green): "Life is Crap"
Chad's Shirt (black): "Im the Designated Passenger"
So to sum everything up, we had an absolute awesome time. I wouldnt suggest being the only girl in the car on such a long roadtrip (note to self either fly or convince a girlfriend to go with me), but according to my boys, they no longer consider me one of the girls.......great......
Continuing on with my road trip posts, this one is all about the PARTAY! (aka wedding reception for Michele & Will). Ill start with the decorations. I have to give some major props to Michele. See the bride and groom both live by us in south Florida, but the bride is originally from Connecticut. She managed to get everything organized for such a large wedding in a completely different state. And on top of that, all the decorations were not only perfect, but so meaningful too! (oh and total photographer fail, i forgot to get a pic of the ballroom all decorated before anyone went it. oops)
And because they were all so meaningful, I have to explain these pics to you.
1. birdcage envelope box - no special meaning that I know of, but it looks cute
2 & 3. little lollipop favors that are supposed to look like flowers in pots (so cute) that have tags used as place cards for which table your supposed to sit at.
4. the groom used to play on the Rutgers football team in college, so instead of a guest book they had a helmet for everyone to sign with their picture on it ( i know clever huh?)
5. picture frames with collages used for the table numbers. The table number corresponded with the a seperate picture of each of them at that age. We sat at table 15 (right next to the dance floor was perfect) and the pics were of them each at age 15.
6. (Now this is my favorite and it is the story I promised in this post) Ill start off with the story of how the lovely bride and groom met. Michele, as originally stated, is from Connecticut. Which means she doesn't really have the knowledge of all the neighborhoods in south Florida. After living several years with different roommates in apartments, she decided it was time to purchase a place of her own. Us native south Floridians tried to warn Michele of certain areas to not buy in. But Michele refused to listen to us and bought a beautiful townhouse in a gated community right smack in the middle of Lauderdhill, ahem "ghetto" for those of you who arent familiar. Because she did have 2 extra rooms she offered 2 friends to move in with her. So boxes, beds, tv's, and lots of makeup were brought into this "bad" neighborhood. Well fellow inhabitants of the area must have been steaking out the place seeing that it was 3 beautiful young women who had moved in. Ill give you 3 guess on what happens next, and the first 2 dont count.A few days later one of the roomates comes home to the door wide open. No one else was home, so she immediately called Michele who quickly left work to go home and call the police. Insert Knight in Shinning Armour, Officer Will. As Will pulls up in his Lauderdhill police car, the 2 girls immediately notice the attractive man in uniform. Needless to say the rest is kind of history as the two exchanged numbers and quickly started dating. Turns out Will just happen to grow up in the same neighbor hood as the rest of us so we already knew him. Ok back to the point, so this little decoration (#6 scroll up again so you can see) was a surprise from Will's Police Department back home who sent this up to the wedding. Its a figurine of Will in his uniform carrying his princess Michele, who also happens to be holding a football. Now you might ask what is that plastic bag with a brick in it behind the figurines? well that my friends, that is the evidence bag from the station with the brick that had went through the window to break into Micheles house. Now do you see why I love the story? :)
7. At last, but certainly not least, the bride and groom decided to honor the brides brother who battled cancer, with a donation to the Make a Wish foundation as their favors for the wedding. (i know my heart melted a little too)
Some things you may see here: the beautiful bride. First Dance. One of the bridesmaids actually sang the song for their first dance. It was absolutely beautiful. Father Daughter Dance. Mother Son Dance. And the last 2 pictures are absolutely epic. The MOH (aka brides sister) had been joking the previous couple of months that she was going to rap at her sisters wedding. Michele thought she was kidding. This was not the case. She told a bunch of us (bridesmaids, groomsmen, close friends, etc) that she was going to do this and she would queue us all when it was time. She literally made up this entire song of Michele leaving CT, partying in SoFL, moving to the ghetto, getting her house broken into, meeting will, getting engaged,.... i think you get the point. The best part was it went along with the background music to Fresh Prince of Bel Air. It was absolutely hilarious. I believe there was a video camcorder, so when someone finally shares the video of it I will def share it with you all.
And then of course the infamous cake smashing in the face cutting. Not Surpirsingly it was the bride who started this little mess. I love how I captured the actual moment she smashed it on his face.
PRICELESS!!!
Next came the bouquet and garter toss. It was actually kinda weird for me and hubs. It was the first wedding we had been to that we were "allowed" to go out on the dance floor for this part.
The rest of the night went by pretty fast. But I guess thats what happens when you combine friends + liquor + music + family + liquor + dancing = good times :) Unfortunately I didnt get alot of said dancing pics, well, because I was dancing :D
All in all, the night was beautiful, everyone had fun, and we couldnt have asked for two better people to begin their happily ever after together.......
p.s. I think the bride enjoyed the night too, she was totally exhausted by time it was over ;)
So our road trip began with our first stop in Tana-See, but the real reason for this escapade was to get to Conneticut for our friend Michele & Will's wedding.
Technically, we did have one small stop in between Tennessee and Connecticut, but it was just for one night so we wouldnt have to pay for a hotel. We decided that we would stop in New Jersey at my Aunt & Uncles house and leave before lunch the following day to make it in time for the rehearsal dinner.
It was a relatively quick visit and really only consisted of a bite to eat down by the jersey shore, some ping pong games, and a little bit of ring toss at my family's picnic facility up there. As I said, we had to get back on the road the following morning to make it to the hotel in time for the rehearsal dinner. Surprisingly the trip from NJ to the hotel in CT was only about 2.5 hours (relatively short compared to the 16hours we drove the previous day).
So the wedding festivities began that night with a buffet style rehearsal dinner and of course a few glasses of wine. The bride and groom were nice enough to also make us some absolutely appropriate munchies for later on that evening (aka popcorn, m&m's, and marshmallows in a cute little bag) that my husband kept on stealing from all the tables to take with us.
You might notice that all the wedding festivities pictures will start to look sooooooooo much better in quality. This might be because I kinda stole the newlyweds brand spankin new DSLR camera they got from the in-laws. Let me tell you something. They almost didnt get this little puppy back after the wedding, I think I might have fallen in love again (sorry babe).
The next morning (or shall I say afternoon for those of us who drank a lil too much wine) is when the bridal party starting getting ready for the big day. Although I was not in the bridal party, Michele had plenty of girls (8 to be exact) who would be standing by her side up at the alter. Ironically, when I went to go check on her all the ladies had disappeared to get their hair done at a local salon and Michele was left by her self to get her makeup done. So what did I do? I whipped out aforementioned stolen camera and started snapping away.
Once her makeup was done, the bridal party started to slowly trickle in. Mimosa's were poured. Dresses were put on. Smiles were shown on all. And it seemed like everything moved pretty quickly from there.
Isnt her dress gorgeous? Once the bridal party was on the bus, and the beautiful bride was in her limo, all headed to the castle (yes you heard me, they were married at a castle) for photos, it was time for the rest of us to get ready and head to the ceremony. There also might have been a few pre-graming shots of baby Guinness and of course a lil bit of Captain.....
Isnt my hubby handsome? Everyone kept saying you could for sure tell he was one of the Floridians, as he sported his Sperry TopSiders with his suit. He thought he was a stud, Id have to say I didnt disagree ;) Sorry, of topic, back to the ceremony. As mentioned, they were married at a castle, St. Clements Castle to be exact. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous, and the ceremony had a to-die-for view overlooking a waterway with mountains. Truly, it was like it was right out of a childrens story book; a princess marrying her knight in shinning armor (Ill share their story of how they met in my next post, and youll totally understand where Im getting that form).
I do have to admit, although I think I captured the entire ceremony beautifully through the camera, I feel kind of like I didnt get to actually watch them get married. I dont know, maybe other photographers feel this way too? Or is it just me? Like I was there, but not really there. I was behind the camera capturing the moment, but not in the moment.
So, I think thats enough pictures for today. Im going to save the actually wedding reception for another post because literally I think in total I snapped like 450+ photos with this camera. (I wasnt lying when I said I fell in love, babe; this is your subtle hint, new camera wink wink)
Did you know "Tana-see," the Yuchi Indian word meaning “The Meeting Place,” is where Tennessee actually got its name from? Nope? neither did I..... so now that I got my one and only history lesson for you out of the way lets get down to the good stuff
As I mentioned in yesterdays post, our first stop on this crazy road trip was at our friend Billy's parents house in Tennessee. We spent a total of 3 days here and it was so nice just to be outside enjoying the hot fresh air. With plenty of land to explore and three 4-wheelers and a side-by-side, I think it would only appropriate to say we covered every inch of their property.
And for you entertainment I also took a little video tour via the 4wheeler. (dont forget to pause the music on the bottom of the page before pressing play on the video)
Did you watch it? Well then you may have heard that I was afraid of cows. Not like the "hey look theres a cow over there" but more like "holy cow?!?! how close do they get to us? Can you make them stop?" Im not kidding people. These cows were not shy whatsoever. I guess they think that you have something and let me just show you how it went down. It started off like this:
you see, they were all nice up there on that little hill. minding their own biznez. Then I turn to look the other way for like 2 secs and when I turn back around it was like bam..
yes, that is the handlebars of our 4wheeler you see in the bottom left corner. Now, i dont know about you, but i feel as though these cows were invading my space. And it sure didnt help that the boys were trying to feed them, and get there attention by trying to kiss them.... yes you heard me right
If you look extremely close on the pic with the close up of the 4wheeler you can see that the cow actually left drool all over the handlebars. I seemed to think it was pretty hilarious when one of the boys went to start it up, and OOOPPPS, i might have forgotten to tell them it was on there......
Okay, enough with the 4wheeler and cow pics. We did do some other things while there. Like shooting guns (i even got to shoot, but of course since im the "photographer" i didnt get any pics of me doing this. insert sad face)
But let me tell you, that old Ford tailgate, it didnt stand a chance against the 4 of us ;) Man im really starting to sound like a redneck. I hope I dont scare any of you off. Please I promise to add some pics that you will like.
How bout this one?
Me and the hubs on 4th of July. Kinda looks like we're on a golf course. Let me correct you. We're NOT. Its a farm.
Oh, wait. I got another! How about this beautiful sunset looking over the mountains? (FYI- SOOC)
Since we spent our Independence Day in Tana-See, it was only appropriate to go stock up on fireworks and set them off in the fields. While we were buying the mortars at a tent down the street, I just happen to stumble across a very cute rottweiler puppy in a box. I wanted to still it, but the owner quickly came and claimed it before i could. Plus i dont think I need anymore animals in my house
Basically, out time in Tana-See was great. Here are some random pictures of our time there.
Some things you may see: pickles (lots of them, they had a fresh garden with lots of veggies and made lots of pickles), firewood stocked up for the winter, old haunted house on one of their properties, rainstorm (so bad it struck 2 trees with lightening and tore off the roof of one of the equipment sheds), more puppies! (i almost took one of these home too, but again too many animals already), slingshot-ing smoke bombs, boys passed out from long days, pigs (oink oink), horse (if you see the top right pic, that was his parents, she has a broken arm from falling off the house in the other pic about 2 months ago), some fishing, and of course me and the hubs.
OK, I think Im done with Tennessee pics. Only about a thousand more to go through, and 2 more places (Wedding and Camping) to post about.
p.s. we starting tearing down the shelves and wall today for the kitchen remodel. Can you say EXCITED!!!!!! look forward to future post....
Let me just start off with the fact that YES.I.AM.CRAZY. crazy for thinking it would be a great idea to go on a roadtrip with 3 guys (hubs. his best friend Billy. and another friend who we call Lohse.) Dont get me wrong, we had alot of fun. But I think I am in major need of a Girls Night - AKA NO BOYS!!!! and Im completely ok if its just a sleepover with some skinny girl (note to those who havent tried it - they get better after the second glass) So any takers? pretty please? im now begging you....
Moving on.
So I mentioned here that my family has this crazy paranoia about flying. Im used to doing the whole road trip thing, and driving for days at a time to get places, but somehow I also ended up with the whole motion sickness gene which unfortunately I cant always control (thank you lord for the inventor of Dramamine!) Surprisingly we were all up and ready to leave the house at 5am on Sat July 2nd. Well as "up" as can possibly be at that time. One of us, who shall remain nameless at this moment in time, decided to stay up the entire night opposed to sleeping since we had to wake up so early. Said person also had his phone getting blown up at 4:45am when he was nowhere to be found. Turns out he hadnt gotten home from the bar yet.
We took my car, since its the biggest, and hubs and Billy rotated on driving. Yeah, ironically, even though my family is afraid of flying, Im personally afraid of driving. Not like around town driving. But highway driving. Add in the thought of it being dark outside, being in a place i dont know, rain, and the occasional semi-truck next to me and I start to freak out. (yep I was definitely already getting made fun of within the 1st hour of the trip because i had my pillow covering my face as we drove through a thunderstorm around West Palm Beach, FL)
The plan was to make it to Billys parents house in Tennessee before dinner time. So 10.5 hours later we pulled into their driveway welcomed by their 6 dogs (Dot, Taz, Stubby, Harley, Spook, and Raven)
Altogether their family owns approximately 900 acres of property between Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina. They actually live basically right on the borderline of Georgia and Tennessee. There is a place in town that you can actually have 1 foot in each state. Of course I didnt get to do this and if your wondering why please refer back to the first paragraph where I explain that I was with 3 boys. Instead all I got was this lousy pic out the truck window while driving by getting yelled at by whoever was driving that they couldnt just park in the middle of the street. Obviously. Reason I said to park. So I could get out. stupid boys.
Our time in Tennessee is a whole 'nother post in itself. So Ill leave you with this awesome panaorama I got of their place. And yes, see that mountain? We were on top of that mountain on the four wheelers right as a horrible storm was starting. I shit you not, lighting was like within feet of us when I finally said I had enough!
click to make larger (its soooo beautiful up there)
