The BIG Event-- Baltimore, Part 2

There were so many wedding things just leading up to the BIG DAY that a separate post is needed just to cover it all. Courtney (and Michael) did a super job of really thinking through and planning out every event (big and small) of their wedding week. Which made all parts of it so much fun.

Welcome bags for each of the out-of-town guests. They included a variety of local Maryland offerings and were delivered to each guest's hotel room.

On Friday we all moved from Court's place out to a hotel close to the wedding venue. We stayed at the Turf Valley Resort and it was super nice (and the girls got to come too!). ** by "girls" I mean Delia and Lea, but if you are reading this blog then you are probably familiar with how I refer to my other babies** It was nice to all be in a huge hotel, all together, and so close to all of the various venues.

Friday was a crazy-ish day. We had some errands to run, confrontations to have (more on that in a later post), and a million small things on our "to do" list. The main event of that day, of course, was the rehearsal and dinner.

Heading out to the Rehearsal dinner

The rehearsal went smoothly at the Waverly Mansion. (Side note: I love it that they chose a historic site for the wedding- love, love, love it). The actual rehearsal was pretty quick and poor Daddy had the job of wrangling all the grandkids since all of us were in the wedding party, and Mama was on picture duty. After the rehearsal it was off to the rehearsal dinner.

Daddy on baby duty.

Lyle and Will-- Lyle did a scripture reading in the ceremony

Courtney, Angela, and Andrea


Lyle and Me

The dinner was held at The Trolley Stop in historic Ellicott City. The dinner was fun because it was pretty casual and it gave us all a lot of time to catch up with the wedding guests. A lot of our family came for the BIG EVENT. Uncle Ray and Aunt Cathy, Drew, and Sara from Seattle and Aunt Ginger and Uncle Dwight (from Bartow, of course). Jenny was there (hooray!-- More about Jenny in a later post also), as well as some of Court's friends from UF and Dean Allen (Crestridge friend) and his wife, Julie. It was also really nice to (finally) meet all of Michael's family!


Carver was his typical crazy self. Jenny was an enormous help with him. Thank God she was there. Carver was good just a little wild from refusing to take a nap that day, over excited about cousins to play with, etc.

Carver entertained himself by completely destroying the paper tablecloth during the rehearsal dinner. Yes, I was embarrassed, but I've learned to pick my battles. Luckily, Daniel was not there yet-- he would have been horrified.

I would have preferred for Carver to take after his cousin Tommy and take a little nap.


Aunt Jenny feeding him cheesecake...a lot of cheesecake.

How cute is this?

Bailey and Anna Kate

Julie, Dean, and Lyle
Julie, Dean, and Courtney
Uncle Dwight and Aunt Ginger



Tommy, Bailey, and Will

Cora (Angela's daughter) and Bailey-- 2 of the flowergirls

After the rehearsal, Jenny, Carver and I jumped in the car and raced to the bridal store to pick up Court's dress, then back to Courtney's apartment to pick up the girls and take them to the hotel. This was probably the craziest night we had. But, as always, somehow everything gets taken care of.

(Note: Not sure how Michael isn't in any of these pictures. That seems terribly wrong but...what to do?)