Emerging from Sunflowers, Tulle, and Sparklers

Everything they say is true:  your wedding lasts only one day.  The dress is only worn once and then it is cleaned, sealed, and pressed into a box for about a million dollars.  Above, mine is hanging in my childhood room, picture credit to George Stegall.

I don't have my wedding pictures yet, so I am unable do an in depth play by play of the weekend at the moment.  I have three from the big day on my camera.  I managed to get my hair do.  I had not seen it, as we were limited on mirrors at the cabins.  I trusted Jan Reed, and I think it turned out super cool.

And here are two of my home girls, Jessica & Alana, who are usually up to no good:

My flower girl, Mia, was rocking her Stella&Dot ring I gave her.  We compared rings, and she told me mine was awfully pretty but she was quite sure it was fake.  We then did some ring power with Whitney, a triple knucks, if you will.

I'll move on to Post Wedding and will work back eventually.  The honeymoon was the best week of my life.  The wedding ended with a fabulous fireworks display put on by Harold, Amy, and Joseph Banks.  It was amazing.  The pontoon boat was decked out in balloons and tulle, and after running through the sparklers, John and I eased the boat out into the slough to watch the fireworks.  I sat in his lap and we shared a bottle of champagne.  I remember looking back at the bank where all of our friends and family were standing and I felt so much love.   My parents and his parents worked so hard to make the weekend possible for us, and we are so grateful for them.

We cruised to the Howells where a limo was to pick us up to deliver us to our hotel in Atlanta.  Thankfully he was running late, and it allotted us time to take a shower.  I pulled about 1000 bobby pins out of my hair.  Mrs Jane tucked us into the limo with extra BBQ sandwiches and chips, which we devoured.  I was asleep by the time we hit 280.

We arrived at the Marriott around 3:30am.  I had forgotten we were losing an hour to the eastern time zone.  John set the alarm for 6:30am.  "Three hours of sleep?  Are you kidding?"  I moaned.

Three hours later and none the worse for wear.

I was awake enough to tell him to get that sticker off those jeans.

Three cups of coffee and a few hours later, I forgot I was tired when I saw this view from my airplane window.

"John, we must take an airplane picture."  I rocked the most tropical dress I own, and I didn't fool with make up that morning.

We take a taxi to the Gansevoort and are greeted with rum drinks in the open air lobby.  So fabulous.  The clerk escorts to our room, and when we walked in, I  knew right away something was not right.  We had booked the small studio and were standing in a top floor full condo.  John was running around getting excited and the lady left us.  I quickly grabbed his arm.  "JOHN- we got the studio, we did not get a room with a full kitchen and dining area!"  He pauses and looks around.  "Are you sure?"  he questions.  "YES, I'm positive, this room is double the price.  You call down there right now, there has been a mistake."  John points at the bottle of wine and the note "Mr. John Howell and Guest."  "They knew we were coming?!"  

He calls the front desk and the lady says "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you we upgraded you guys."  Que us running around the condo fist pumping and yelling "UPGRADE!"  The below is picture is a little dark.

I messed up the covers because I jumped up and down on the bed yelling "Upgrade!"  Below are some views of the beach area.

The hotel Hobie.  We took it out several times, it was SO fun.

Our room was the left building, right top corner balcony, below the penthouse =)

First hour we were there, we hit the beach, and put the waterproof camera to the test.

I could NOT open my eyes, it was so bright. 

Tossing the thumbs up

Stay tuned for more!