Wonderful Weddings, Part I

It is that time of the year again, yes, you guessed it, wedding season! Showers, bachelorette parties, ceremonies and receptions. We have had several friends over the past few months become engaged or married so I will share a little about each of them and there events in this post. The first blushing bride is my wonderful coworker, Kate Woods Bartlett, who was married on March 26 in Auburn and had her reception at the beautiful Fountain View Manor. Leon and I made the short drive to Auburn and attended the wonderful ceremony, where Jack, Kate's now husband, looked at her adoringly the entire time. It was so romantic and you could see the love between the two of them over-flowing. Following the ceremony, everyone made there way across town to Fountain View Manor, where we enjoyed delicious food, wonderful specialty drinks, a fabulous band and a wonderful time with all the other guests.



The beautiful bride
and handsome groom.



Ths picture says it all!



All of these event occured within a few weeks of each other, so forgive me for not having them in order or for not having a date at all. Several months ago, my freshman college roommate, Courtney Luster, became engaged to her wonderful fiance, Chris Hanchey. Their friends and family helped them celebrate this wonderful occasion with an engagement party held at a family member's home in Courtney's hometown of Wetumpka, AL. It was a wonderful celebration and it's always good to see Courtney and many of our other friends from our Troy University day's gone by. Courtney and Chris will be getting married on June 18 in Atlanta and Leon and I have already made our reservations to attend the big day.



The newly engaged couple
opening their gifts.



Anna & Me at the engagement party.



Now, this next one will have A LOT of pictures to go along with the story. Anna's (pictured above) little sister, Laura Tyler Patterson, was recently married to her college sweetheart, Matt Patterson. But, before the wedding was the bachelorette party! I was able to tag along with Anna, plus I knew Laura from high school so it wasn't awkward. Our trip started when Anna and I left Prattville and headed to Birmingham first to pick up Laura and several of her friends. Laura's friends bought these cute little car decals and flags to hang on the car that said things like "Bachelorette on the Loose" and "On the Prowl". It was very cute and we got several honks from others while on the road. Next, we were on to Tuscaloosa to pick up a few more girls and then on the road to NEW ORLEANS!



The bride-to-be
ready for the party!



Once we finally arrived at our hotel in NOLA, we all got settled in and enjoyed a few yummy snacks and drinks and then had the lingerie shower. Laura got lots of cute things and after we all got ready to go out and explore Bourbon Street. Now, if you've ever been to NOLA, then you know the first thing you notice about Bourbon St. is the stench! Whew, we couldn't have missed that and all the people and craziness if you tried. We spent the entire night visiting several different bars and had a great time dancing the night away.

Laura & Jessica w/ the
crazy guy's light saber.

 

The next morning after everyone slowly woke up, ate some breakfast and took showers, we all ventured out into the French Quarter. We enjoyed watching all of the street performers and artists and after filling up on some delicious Cajun food at lunch, we walked down to the river front and then eventually back to Canal St. near our hotel to catch the afternoon Mardi Gras Parade. The parade was pretty good but the funniest part was when one of the tractors pulling a float quit working and another float tried to pass and nearly ripped off one side of the other float. Eventually another tractor came to take over and all was well in the parade world.

 

All the girls!

 

Anna & Me in NOLA

Saturday evening was eventful for sure. We went to dinner at a very nice restaurant, which I cannot remember the name of at the moment, which turned out to be a bad idea. Not only did we have horrible service, our orders where wrong, food was cold and we were not very happy girls. But don't worry, we didn't let this get us down for very long. We picked back up where we had left off the night before and had one final night of fun on Bourbon St. We visited several more bars and Laura was even sung to by the piano players at Howl at the Moon. And of course, we couldn't have ended the night without some pizza from one of the many pizza places along Bourbon St. Sadly, all good things must come to an end and Sunday we all packed up and headed back home.

Me, Laura, Anna & Lynn

Now, the fun doesn't stop there, in April, Laura and Matt said "I Do" at a beautiful ceremony at Frazer United Methodist Church, followed by an elegant reception at the Capital City Club. There was a ton of delicious food and a great band that everyone danced the night away to played all evening. It was a wonderful start to a beautiful life together for Matt and Laura.

These are several of the weddings and wedding related events we have been to so far this year. There are more to come but I figured this blog is already long enough, so I'll save the rest for another time. 

Leon & I after the
wedding with everyone
at Alley Bar.