...yes I'm goin' to Carolina in my Mind.

Weeeee! More wedding fun!

This is the only picture I have from the ceremony. (Photo credit goes to CAL - you're the BEST!) Standing with the best man (the groom's father, wah) and watching the bride walk down the aisle.

With my BBFF (Best Bridesmaid Friend Forever) shortly after the ceremony. We did it! We took a trolley to the reception site. It was a chilly evening and the trolley had open windows. We were cooooold! 

The bride with her formerly second - now third! - family. After we got off the trolley, we hightailed it to a private room so that I could fix her bustle, take her veil out and put her hair pin in. I was nervous as hell about doing everything right but succeeded at all three tasks! When we finished up and opened the door to head to the end of the cocktail hour, the very first people we saw was my family. Which made me so very happy.

My photos don't do her dress justice - it was phenomenal. Two words: cascading tulle. The bride and groom danced their first dance to one of my ALL TIME favorite songs, "You Make My Dreams (Come True)" by Hall and Oates. AEV didn't divulge all of the details of the reception... So many fun surprises! When this song started, my heart leaped. Her and I crazy-danced to that song before BCV came in the picture. Have loved it for so long and was just so happy they chose it - it fits them to a tee!

And then I was up! You've likely already read it, but I do want to note that this speech was four years in the making and I tweaked it within an inch of its life up to 10 minutes before I actually stood up to read it. (I literally borrowed a pen from the gentleman seated next to me.) And I could not be happier with how it turned out. It was everything I wanted it to be and more. Best of all, a bizarre calm came over me as I walked to the mic. I didn't shake, I didn't read too fast, and perhaps most importantly, I DID NOT CRY.

Daddy!

Mommy and Perri!

My beautiful best friend and the love of her life. On our way to the after party. The perfect end to the perfect night. I wish I had many more photos and anecdotes, but I think the story ends here. For now. (There are still professional photos to be had.)

One more thing. The groom and his mother danced to James Taylor's "Carolina in my Mind" in case you were curious about the title posts from today and yesterday. It was one of the few moments of the weekend that I actually got a little misty-eyed. Monday morning, I listened to it on my iPhone and realized that tears were streaming down my face. For the first time I let everything sink in, and out came all of the emotions I'd pushed aside for so long. This past weekend was the first time I've ever really felt like an ADULT. Someone who isn't related to me by blood loved me enough to entrust me with the huge responsibility of standing beside her on the most important day of her life. My best friend is married. I am in love. We're in our late twenties. We work. We volunteer. We're responsible. We exercise more than we drink.

We're grown ups. I never thought I'd live to see the day.

So congratulations to my AEV and BCV. No blog post could ever do justice to how much I love you both, but I think you know.