The wedding weekend could not have been more enjoyable, exciting, special, or perfect in every imperfect sense. I am still 1000% thrilled that so many of our close friends and family - spanning from Oregon clear across to the northeastern seaboard, and parts up and down, in between - were able to gather together with us throughout the festivities and celebrations. Two of our guests, Leah & Brad, did in fact catch the Dalai Lama at Tulane's graduation, to boot.
Charley and I arrived in New Orleans the Thursday evening before the wedding, & some of our friends and family arrived earlier in the week. I instructed Charley to drop me off at a street corner near or on Bourbon, to meet Janet and Jamie - hometown road dogs - for mingling that evening. Within moments, the gals had me bedecked in a sparkly pink tutu and an equally sparkly Bride To Be pageant sash. And mingle we did. We found my cute friends from Lindale, Kelly & Bruce, as well. Quality, funny, and sharp people, all around!
The following day, Friday, I found myself in a typical Heatherism, involving marathon walking to a florist in the French Quarter for bouquet ingredients. I pushed back hard on the idea of expense on an item that will not endure - flowers - but I succumbed to the purchase since none of my practical bouquet plans came to fruition. So: marathon walking, humidity, running behind schedule, and - ooopsie, leaving the hotel without any money. Never fear, however! Mudda came to the payment rescue - even though she was sitting in bumper to bumper eastbound traffic into New Orleans (in a 15 passenger van with nearly that number of occupants from my crew***) - with payment, and Janet and Jamie came to the taxi-ism rescue.
Friday evening's non-rehearsal rehearsal dinner at http://www.oceanagrill.com/was graciously hosted by Charley's parents and not an unsatisfied palate was experienced by a soul. More mingling, and the group - mostly intact, moved on to a must-see-once-if-you-haven't-yet NoLa destination: http://www.patobriens.com/patobriens/ From there, Anne & Rick knew of a genuine jazz music venue, http://www.fritzelsjazz.net/, where I along with my three boy cousins ventured to - along with Rick and Anne. Fritzels is adorable, authentic (to me, anyhow), and precisely what I've always wanted to see in New Orleans by way of music. Here are a few photos taken from our front bench view: ("No Dancing," ~I shall refrain from the obvious religion joke to be made here~ this rule was in place strictly due to the sliver of walking space available for walking-in patrons and roving waitstaff - everybody else is expected to have their rears planted on a bench)
I seem to recall me and the boy cousins closing down Fritzels, but not before we made new friends from Texas - who were invited to the wedding the following day (you only get married once, right?), though they did not show. I didn't take that personally. Anyway, at this point, the timeline skews and grows sketchy. We've pieced together much of the night through photographs, and I know there was fried shrimp partaken of around 2am. Because that's always a stellar idea. At some point before daybreak, the boy cousins walked me back to http://www.sonesta.com/royalneworleans/ and the bridal party, along with hair and make-up professionals, were rather insistent I leave the bed, shortly thereafter. The nerve of them. I will forever adore Jamie's response to Charley's query of "Should we send her a wake-up call from the front desk?" of: "Oh no, Charley, we've got this."
I'm convinced it wasn't a volume of beverages ordered through the night that impeded my morning energy, but rather the sheer variety of colors and textures in said beverages. Suffice it to say, my body replied with:
The wedding ceremony began and concluded without a hitch, sans a brief moment of "Where is the groom's ring?" because that apparently doesn't ONLY happen in romantic comedies. Poor Sharby sprinted back to the hotel - after swapping out her heels for flips which were smartly in her purse, and back to the wedding venue, minus the missing ring, only for the pertinent parties to realize that the ring was in fact with the groom.
I am still singing the praises of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnaud's and their outstanding customer service to a large group and wedding event needs. I dare say not a bad time was experienced by any!
My Aunt Julie embodies my personal energy level that still hasn't quite recovered, in this photo of her taking a break in the honeymoon suite, before someone broke the ice and retired to their own room(s):
The morning after, Charley ensured that a few wedding guests arrived at the airport in time for their departure back to the real world, which allowed me to enjoy a cuppa coffee with Andrea and David, before they exited for Portland, at http://www.nolanosh.com/nosh/Home.html. As the menu dictates "Don't forget to add rosemary salt to your eggs!" And I didn't. Forget, that is. A nice eggy touch, I must say! We caught "the cousins!" again for a quick snack before darting back to Texas. A few guests remained in town another night, but I am assured they arrived back in their respective hometowns in safe fashion. Happy anniversary weekend to Stefanie & Herman, and happy anniversary summer to Anne & Rick - precious people, all of them. Anne and Rick honeymooned in New Orleans thirty years ago, actually!
I snagged this photo from my new (one of two terrific ones) sister-in-law's Facebook page, which is apropos for a "morning after" in the French Quarter:
Until next time, Crescent City.
***My favorite three little humans, taking a break from their arduous riding duties en route from east Tejas to New Orleans.
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