THE WEDDING

 Hello, friends!  Thanks for hanging in there with me this past week.  I am not doing well at all.  I am in a lot of pain with my knee and can barely walk.  I finally got to see the doctor and I am getting an MRI next Tuesday morning to see if I have a torn meniscus.  He doesn't think so, but just to be sure.  If that is the case, I will have to have orthoscopic surgery.  Not what I am looking forward to, but I sure would like the pain to go away.

To top it off, I am having difficulty with my stomach and hiatal hernia.  So I am having chest pains that mimic heart attacks.  It's not fun being me these days.  But I try to carry on.  Not that I'm doing that well these days either.  Keep praying my praying friends.  Food is not my friend.

In spite of all of that, I am going to post a happy time today.  Two weeks ago my nephew got married.  Joe and I had just gotten back from the Pinebrook conference.  We were home one day and left for another hotel.

We left in time, but got stuck in a lot of traffic.  Besides the fact that we didn't know where we were going.  We ended up going to the hotel first, checking in, and then leaving for the church.  Another place that we didn't know where it was.

The wedding was on a Friday night at 4:30 p.m.  We were cutting it close and ran into more rush hour traffic.  Plus trying to follow the GPS.  We got there with 5 minutes to spare.

We went into the church and found we were no where near the last people getting there.  My sister and the friends she came with weren't there yet.  And some of the bride's family hadn't shown up either.  And fortunately the wedding didn't even start for another 15 minutes.

Now are you prepared for picture overload?  Here you go.  A lot of these pictures are borrowed from my sister with her permission.  My camera was just not working well.

There were rose petals and candles on the floor all along the center aisle.  So pretty.  I wish I had thought of that for my wedding.

Waiting to walk in:  The Man of Honor (Gianna's brother), the Bride's mother, The Best Man, and the Groom's mother (my sister-in-law).

My brother, sister-in-law, and the best man walking down the aisle.

The Man of Honor and the bride's mother.

And Gianna, the bride, with her father.

Her dress was so beautiful.  The train was all embroidered and ruffled.

And they're married.  Here come Gianna and Terry.  I love the way she is looking at him.

And now on to the reception.  It was held at the Radnor Hotel and was really top-notch.  There was a cocktail hour first.  They served the most amazing hor d'oeuvres.  Waiters came by with trays of everything imaginable offering them to the guests.  Just when you thought you had tasted the best thing ever, another one caught your eye and it was even better.  I thought I would ruin my appetite for dinner, but dinner was served so late that it really helped to hold me over.

When we finally went into the ballroom, each table had a different centerpiece.  I loved the one on our table.

There were white fake pumpkins on a side table.  Everyone was taking the black markers there and signing the pumpkins as a keepsake for the newlyweds.

Here is my brother and sister-in-law entering the room.

And the bride's parents.

And finally the bride and groom.

Their first dance.

The first course was a delicious salad -- romaine lettuce and parmesan cheese.

My friend, Marion and my sister Elaine.

Me and Joe.

My brother, Larry, with Elaine and Marion.

The cake was beautiful.  And delicious too.

I had Chilean Sea Bass for dinner.  It was delicious.

Joe, Elaine, Marion and Marion's husband, Rich, all had the chicken.

My sister took this picture of my brother Larry and his wife Kim.  She said they looked like movie stars.  I agree.

They not only had dancing, but there was a live band.  They played great music too.  If my leg hadn't been hurt, I would have had a dance or two with Joe.  But as it was, I stayed seated and enjoyed the music and watching everyone else.

The bride's family had booked a bunch of rooms for the wedding guests, so we stayed over.  I wish I had thought to take pictures of the room because it was great.  So pretty and the bed was so comfortable.  I mean COMFORTABLE!  The bathroom was the best of the three places we had been in that week.  There was even a magnifying makeup mirror on the wall.

I found this picture on the hotel's website.  This is exactly like the room we were in.

The room came with a free buffet breakfast in the morning.  We went down to the restaurant and were asking for a table when Larry and Kim came up behind us.  So the four of us sat together and had a great conversation.  We had eggs, bacon, muffins, yogurt, coffee and tea.  Everything was great.

After breakfast we split up and headed for home.  Even though we had a great week (except for my knee), it was good to get home and have our own things around us again.  Living out of a suitcase is hard.

Hope you enjoyed seeing all the photos and I didn't bore you too much.  When we got home we had in the mail a "Save the Date" from Joe's niece who is getting married next April.  So we can do the whole thing over again in a few months.

Have a good night everyone.  And a good day tomorrow.

Kathy