Joy and Casey's Wedding Weekend

Dear friends,

How’s life? Summer going good? I’m sitting in the Detroit airport waiting for my flight to Memphis. From there I head to Lubbock for (cousin) Joy and Casey’s wedding! I slept about three hours last night after a long day of work Tuesday. A new guy at church, who is remarkably NOT a sailor was awesome enough to drive me to my 7am flight from Providence.

I am so excited, under the delirium of sleep-deprivation, to see my family and spend time with them in Lubbock, and then to spend a couple days back in Searcy to absorb some time with my dear ones there! As much as I am enjoying living in New England, I have missed the undercurrent of understanding that is present when communicating with people of the same faith. Even when our backgrounds are different, I don’t feel like I need to explain, for example, why I have all these odd “pre-requisites” for dating someone (aka, a Christian), or for other little nameless things…

Oh, starting to load the plane. More later!

Picking up a few days later…

Had a couple chatty seat buddies on the first two flights. One was a nice woman who had done some overseas travel and we talked about the usual stuff. The second flight I sat by a kid whom I thought would be the typical earphones/iphone teenager, but then he asked me what I was reading (A Wind in the Door, by Margaret L’Engle), and he pulled out a heavy horror book, so we read for a while then chatted for a while. He’s a military kid, loves to read, writes a blog of short stories, also grotesque horror stuff, plays guitar and wants to be in a band, kind of genius tendencies, and claims to be an atheist, but if you want to believe in heaven, he believes you’ll go there. That logic doesn’t make sense to me, but if you have a mind to, pray for Joe to find the Truth some day! The third flight I sat by a college age guy who slept.

I loved flying in over Lubbock! The fields were brown and tan, and some had circles of green in them, and with the roads and drainage ditches and such, it looked like a quilt! I would have gotten a picture, but I was on the aisle, and dude didn’t seem like the type who would appreciate me reaching over him. Basked in the heat wave that hit me when I stepped out of the airport! I know, call me crazy! But the weather is one of the major un-expected things I’ve had culture shock over.

Cynthia, Glen, Mom, and Rachel picked me up. We stuffed my luggage in on top of us, and went to see the family and settle in the hotel before us girls went to Joy’s “Bachelorette Party”. Enjoyed a lovely meal, and meeting some new friends amongst the other bridesmaids (there were 10) and honorary bridesmaids. Went to bed approximately 21 hours after I got up from sleeping about 3 hours.

Friday morning, I got to go see the reception area with Mom and Aunt Nancy to provide a little moral support and opinions from my catering background. We met the other girls at a tea room for a Bridesmaid’s Luncheon. It was so sweet! Joy gave each of us girls a personalized mug, a bridesmaid bag, and the flower for our hair for the wedding. As she gave them to us, she told everyone a little history and what we meant to her. There were tears. Rachel and Cynthia and I walked around the store that the Tea Room was in for a little while after. There was some great stuff at fantastic prices!! Then back to the hotel to rest a bit before the Rehearsal and Dinner. The other girls went to a Zumba and PiYo class to work off some of the sugar we’d been consuming, but I was just too worn out! Dinner was a Luau, and a good time was had by all. After the Luau, we had a slumber party… and practiced our moves for the flash mob dance we were going to do at the wedding reception!! I never in my life thought that I would do such a thing, but lo and behold, I did! It was fun. I’ll let you know if there ends up being a youtube video of it.

Saturday started early, with Cynthia, Rachel and I heading over to help start setting the reception and wedding hall. Several of the groomsman, Michael, Glen, and several other family members worked hard all day to get all that ready, and they did an amazing job! Stuck with it through till almost 1 am, when they had broken everything down and delivered it back to the house. I left after the first hour or so to do the bridesmaid thing. Thankfully a couple of the other girls did my hair and make-up. (Thanks Rebecca and Lydia!) Enjoyed some time visiting with them at the Salon while we all waited for each other, then headed to the Hall to get ready for a quick rehearsal at the actual location, and pictures! Everyone looked lovely or handsome respectively.

The ceremony went great! The flower girls and ring bearer’s were adorable of course. Joy was gorgeous. Casey nearly made me cry right at the start. His face said it all. Reception… Michael was the DJ. People headed out to the dance floor at some point during the family photos. I was not the only one doing the cupid shuffle in place while we waited for everyone to get situated for our big family photo with Casey and Joy. After a while, the floor cleared out, and we did our flash mob dance! It was good, but I know I forgot a couple of steps and turns. It’s ok though, the point was to have fun! When the time came, we showered the couple with dried lavender, and they were driven off in a ‘68 Mustang convertible! I thought it was so sweet, Joy wore the same dress her mother wore when she left her wedding thirty something years ago!

Then we all cleaned up, and went to bed. The end! I’ll do another post of Searcy times…