Happily Married!!!!

Meredith and Adam got married on Friday, officially making all of my college friends married! It is very strange to know that I am all done being a bridesmaid and will no longer spend a large percentage of summer weekends at weddings.
Their day was "fabulous" to quote the florist's promise. Meredith was absolutely beautiful. I just could not stop looking at her, or stop telling her how wonderful she looked. It wasn't even the MAC makeup artist or her hair stylist or the killer dress; it was her joy at being with Adam.The ceremony was perfect. Meredith's aunt sang a beautiful song about everyone gathering together that made Amber and I (the weepy ones) cry at rehearsal. Meredith walked down the isle, on her father's arm, behind two of her family friends, kilted, playing bagpipes. Her friend Carla (who also went to Spain with Meredith, Amber, and I) read a moving poem that she wrote called "You Just Knew." It echoed what Meredith has said to me so many times about just knowing that he was the one from the very beginning, even before they were officially dating. The pastor is a family friend, and he gave a very personal reflection about their relationship. He also talked about the three words for love in the Greek language and how our one English word "love" should incorporate all three loves in a marriage: romantic love, brotherly/sisterly love in Christ, and I can't remember the last one. Whoops! (Maybe Gary can add it.) Gary and I have loved this reflection on love since we first heard it when we were engaged in a Sunday homily by the priest who officiated at our wedding. Meredith's favorite part of the whole day came when the pastor asked her and Adam to turn around and look at all of the people who came to be present at their wedding. He had them make eye contact with the congregation while he reflected on our love for them. They exchanged vows in their loud teacher voices as they looked lovingly into each others eyes, while Amber and I wiped tears from our faces. Meredith's step-dad and long-time family friend Cindy sang a beautiful song called "The Prayer" while they lit their unity candle. The newlyweds exited the church behind the bagpipers. Very moving. The reception was super fun and it was gorgeously decorated with pink orchids. We had appetizers outside on the patio to the sound of steel drums by a live percussionist. I loved their head table--a HUGE round table that they specially rented. Of course, it was all decked out with orchids and candles. My favorite part of the reception was not her sister Chelsea's touching toast nor dancing with my friends, but was watching their first dance. Meredith is a dancer (her mom owns two dance studios) and Adam is athletic/coordinated. They danced to Louis Armstrong's "You Give Me Ideas" and her mom had loosely choreographed it. Meredith said they hadn't practiced it in a long time, but it looked like professional ballroom dancing. The dance radiated love and joy to finally be husband and wife. What made the wedding so special, though, was the phenomenal guy Meredith married. It made me so happy to see all four of our husbands together and know that I truly like them as people and consider them great friends. We are all so lucky to be friends AND to have such wonderful marriages. I wish we all lived much closer!!! From left to right: Gary, Kim, Brian, Angie, David (college friend), Meredith, Amber, Mitch. Adam isn't in this photo because this was taken before the ceremony in the bride's room. I love this picture of Adam about 20 minutes before the reception ended.

At brunch the next day, Meredith's bridesmaid Jen made two leis out of the orchids she took home from the reception. She made them at 1:00 a.m.!! Adam had already taken his off.

We didn't take many photos with our camera. My battery was dead before Gary came with new ones and we were taking a ton with Meredith's camera for her. Angie's blog has more--keep looking on her blog for a link to her husband Brian's flickr account--he took many photos and is going to post all of them online. The photographer's pictures will also be online.

Congratulations, Meredith and Adam!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Also, happy 5th anniversary to Amber and Mitch on July 6th!!! They were the first in our group to get married. Their 18 month old son Nolan was in town, too, and you should see his sign language and hear him talk!! He is so big! We took cute photos of him but on someone else's camera.