Hannah & David

Holy moly, aren’t they adorable? That *might* have something to do with why I took so many photos that it took me two and a half months to get them all processed (over 900 altogethr) and the decent ones (423) uploaded. (If you want to see them all, they’re here.)

First, a couple shots from Hannah’s PA wedding shower back in April:

(There are a few more on Flickr, but I forgot to get out my camera until people had started leaving, so I mostly just took pictures of Hannah and Lydia 🙂 but Hannah has a bunch of lovely pictures – including some of other people on her blog!)

Roadtrip Day!

That Wednesday, I got up obnoxiously early, loaded up the last bits, took a little detour into the city to pick up Hannah’s friend Jess – who had arrived from Perth, Australia the night before – and headed up to Massachusetts! Being July 3rd, we expected the traffic would probably be less than pleasant and could add an hour or two to the drive, so we left plenty early to try to avoid as much of it as possible.

Of course, that didn’t really work at all, and it took us a solid 10 hours (and three full-stop traffic jams) to get from Philly to northeast Mass. I was very happy to have Jess along to keep me company and we had lots of quality time to get to know each other! Fun fact: her parents and mine got married in the same church, just a couple years apart! (First Presbyterian in Bethlehem, PA! Small world!)

We got up there just in time to head straight to the nail salon, where Hannah’s assorted womenfolk were gathering for manicures and pedicures. (It was conveniently located right next to a coffeeshop, where we acquired some much-needed chai before settling in.) Apparently I didn’t take any pictures there – must have been too tired busy laughing and relaxing and catching up with Hannah and her family and meeting her Massachusetts friends and the ladies of David’s family!

Oh, and being indecisive about what color I wanted. They used this fancy nailpolish/gel hybrid concoction called Shellac, which you could layer to make additional colors… so of course I ended up asking for a combo they’d never tried before! It worked out just like I hoped! (Taken at the end of the trip, still impressively unmarred):

(Actually, it still looks pretty good, if a bit grown out, 2+ months later! The fingernails lasted about a week.)

Afterward, a few of us headed over to Hannah’s adorable little apartment and ate delicious wraps from a local place they love, and hung out a while. We were all pretty wiped, though, so before too long we said TTFN and I headed off to find my home for the week – Hannah’s dear friend Willa’s attic guestroom:

I could not have asked for a better place to stay! Willa, her husband Rennie, and their daughters Camilla and Fiona are all super hospitable and awesome and treated me like family. When they say “make yourself at home,” they really mean it. And their home is pretty much my dream house. 🙂

Rehearsal Day 🙂

The next day, a number of us had “secret plans” – rehearsal for the epic flashmob song & dance extravaganza that Hannah and David put together with the help of choreographer-extraordinare, Greg, to surprise… well, everyone coming to the wedding who wasn’t in the flashmob!

Once we’d sung and danced through “Life’s A Happy Song” (from the most recent Muppet movie) enough times that everyone was feeling reasonably comfortable with it – and thoroughly silly and tired – we dispersed. The wedding party headed to the actual wedding rehearsal, and I wandered off to find new shoes to wear to the wedding, since I’d forgotten it was on grass and only brought heels (and sneakers, but not ones I wanted to wear with a pretty dress)!

Then it was time for the rehearsal dinner / 4th of July picnic at… one of David’s relation’s houses.

(I lost track of whose was whose!)

We ate, we drank, we chatted with Hannah and David and their families and friends from various times/places…

Hannah sang a song she’d written (for David, though she didn’t know that when she started writing it!)…

Siblings and cousins toasted and roasted…

The small ones were adorable…

And a good time was had by all. 🙂

This is a really long post! Go to Page 2 to keep reading!