Eric & Kelly's Wedding

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31161134@N05/sets/72157608026809793/

This past Friday night, I flew to Charlotte, NC, was picked up at the airport by my mom & Steve,shopped at the Trader Joe's, drove to Rock Hill, SC where they live, had dinner at a little restaurant they enjoy, stayed up til 1:00am, slept restlessly, got up at 6:00am, chatted with them for a bit, borrowed their car and set off for Fripp Island, SC. The drive was supposed to be 4 or so hours, it took more like 6 because I followed mapquest's directions. I arrived at the island at 2:00ish. Took a quick bike ride with the groom-to-be, said hello to the sleepy bride, met a bunch of people who were hung over from the wild rehearsal dinner/ shin-dig the night before, helped set up the reception area, received a lesson from Kelly, the bride, in loading film in a medium format camera - only to later discover that the batteries were dead in the camera, changed clothes, loaded film in the Nikon I brought with me, road in a golfcard/bike caravan to the wedding site, hoped for rain not come, hugged people, said hello, watched the bride & groom get married on the dock (very sweet and beautiful setting), took a few photos, posed in a few photos, headed to the reception, took a few more photos, chatted with people I haven't seen in a long time, had a few margaritas, watched people dance, ate some fantastic food (seafood boil - lowcountry style and Marble Slab Creamery Ice cream instead of cake - nice touches), watched my good buddy from high school, Brian Love, have a dance-off with a guy at the party, he was impressive - he did the worm and other breakdancing moves, started dancing myself, found a microphone - talked into it - thought that was pretty fun - tried to get others to talk into it, too, danced some more, gave up on the nikon ( i couldn't see to focus any longer) and used my mom's digital camera to capture moments, was informed the party was ending, helped clean up, went back to the house where all the friends were staying (16 of them, I think), chatted and ate potato chips, watched people make paperbag jewelry, talked about bikes and cars and new orleans, couldn't find a free spot on the floor, so slept in my mom's car instead (it was actually very comfortable), got about 3 hours of sleep, rain kept pouring down and I was worried that there would be flooding on the island, the sun came up around 7:15, I started driving back shortly thereafter, lots of huge, scary puddles on the island, and the rain kept coming, drove out of the rain in about an hour, the ride back to Rock Hill was much quicker because I didn't use mapquest directions - maybe 4 hours, got back to my mom's, ate lunch, showered, had a nap, chatted with my mom & Steve, waited for my sister and her family to arrive, went to the park with them for a picnic, set up the picnic and was told by the park ranger we were in a reserved area, picked up the picnic and moved to the other side of the park, played soccer with my nieces, Kayla (6) and Kendall (2), went for a walk, swung on swings, listened to stories, told stories, headed back to my mom's for birthday celebration (Jen's birthday was last week, mine is this week), was showered with wonderful homemade presents from Kayla and Kendall - plus a video of them singing the birthday song to me, ate cake and ice cream, played in their nonnie-made store upstairs, hugged them goodbye several times, headed off for the airport with mom & Steve, flew two hours back to New Orleans, arrived to a sick James waiting for me, drove the half-hour home and made it to bed close to 1:00am.