Alright, we left off at the first look. The girls had Brian keep his eyes closed until I came down and he could see me. Nobody cried, but we were happy to see each other and then it was photoshoot time, but being that it was 4pm, when the ceremony was supposed to start, I was ready to head down to the beach. 

               So the entourage of the 12 of us walked from the beach house to the beach. Kristin was helping me hold my dress so it wouldn’t drag through the street. I just love the photo of us walking. My sister took pictures on my camera. My dad had his camera and there were cell phone cameras all over us. My face was already getting tired from smiling so much.

Brian and my dad each got a boutonniere. Then it was time for everyone to line up and I linked arms with my dad as we walked down the sand and flower petal aisle. It was finally happening, our wedding.

 

              All my friends were so excited and taking pictures and videos. So glad I had them there. We exchanged silicone rings (Groove Rings) because neither of us really expect to wear our rings much. I love my engagement ring, but my fingers swell so much in summer and I don’t like the tightness and then in winter, my ring looks giant and the diamond doesn’t even stay on top and ends up circling around multiple times a day. So it just made sense to not spend money on ring bands we will never wear. I would like to get nice watches to exchange and engrave though so hopefully soon. These rings work and although Brian hasn’t worn his since the first day, I do love mine as it stays put and is designed to work out with and be active as I am. [side note: the Mayor of Folly Beach married us which we thought was cool]

              Now for all the photos to share. I didn’t expect it, but Brian and I took a lot of photos with the photographer after. This meant everyone was standing in the hot sun and eventually headed back to the house, so I didn’t get individual pictures with my friends, but we got our group photo and we all had a nice time. It was also just nice to have a small amount of people so I could spend time with everyone and my friends and I had the days leading up to the wedding as well. I will talk more about the planning in another post.

 

              After the ceremony and photo taking, we all headed to Butcher and Bee in downtown Charleston for dinner. They printed a menu up and I choose 5 appetizers for the table and 3 small plates and 3 entrees. Everyone had the appetizers and small plates and then ordered an entrée from the list. It worked out amazingly well, because in case you didn’t realize, this was all planned online and through email! The food was seriously amazing so I highly recommend Butcher and Bee. I will say it was a little weird going to a restaurant in my wedding dress, but our group was towards the back and I didn’t notice too many people staring. I was having fun with everyone there.

              Afterwards we headed back to the house. Someone, my other friend car needed to stop at Wal-Mart for alcohol…I’m honestly not sure who they thought was going to drink all of it, but they had fun. I had ordered cupcakes from Cupcake Downsouth in Charleston that my dad had brought over before the ceremony. While my order actually got messed up because it was supposed to be 1 dozen regular size and 2 dozen minis, they gave me 3 dozen minis but it worked out well because we had exactly 12 people and 3 dozen cupcakes. So everyone had the opportunity to try every flavor, which were red velvet, peanut butter chocolate and key lime. Brian was highly impressed with the key lime because it had a graham cracker crust on the bottom. They were all delicious!!

              My friends stayed up pretty late, drinking and playing games. I worked on packing up my bag. Brian’s friend Kyle took my dress for me and drove it back to NY state so I was changed pretty quickly. I am glad my friends bonded so well especially since most of them had never met before. Brian and I are already an old couple apparently because we headed to bed around 10. 

              Saturday morning came around and me, Ashley and Brian took a walk down to the beach for one last beach walk. Then we rounded up the gang and headed out to The Lost Dog in Folly Beach for breakfast.

Honestly breakfast took a little longer than I would have liked because we needed to get to the airport. After breakfast, I dropped off Brian at his hotel to get his things and check out while my sister and I worked to clean up the house and make sure we had everything packed. My friends in the other car, disappeared. Apparently they headed down to the lighthouse and unfortunately I was rushed leaving so I wasn’t able to say official goodbyes.

              My sister and I went to pick up Brian and then we dropped off my sister with my parents since she was staying another day and spending the day with them. Then it was off to the airport. Of course you are in a hurry and there is an accident on the highway too. Luckily we made it in plenty of time. However, my friends cleaned up the house and my friend found my marriage license in the second kitchen area. I never put it in my bag..eeek. So thankful for my friends being the last ones to make sure everything was clean and my friend mailed me my marriage license. I still had to order the official stamped one anyway, but good to have your original right?!

              Next stop for me and Brian…Atlanta!!

Thursday morning I heard someone walking around early and I was awake by 6:30am. I am so used to getting up early for work that was basically sleeping in. Ashley was also up. I grabbed myself a bowl of cereal for breakfast and waited for the others to get up. A few of us had a nice walk to the beach in the morning. 

We had a packed day ahead, beginning with a 10am walking tour of Charleston. Being that there were 6 of us, we couldn’t all fit in one car, so Brian met us at the house and drove a few of us into downtown Charleston and dropped us off while he went to pick up our marriage license and then pick up his mom and brother from the airport.

Meanwhile, the girls + Geoff were on a walking tour. We actually had our own guide with our big group. Later, a family with 1 kid joined, but it was mostly us. Again you can see some of the footage of our tour in my sister’s Youtube video of Charleston.

Being that it was my first time to Charleston and I think the first time for all the girls, actually, it was really interesting. We learned about the single houses and double houses and the pineapples people put out for hospitality. Of course, the highlight for my sister and us was walking down Rainbow Row. We ended near there so we quickly took some pictures before getting some much needed lunch.

 

Mercedes and Geoff headed off to find lunch themselves and me, Kristin, Ashley and my sister checked out Brown Dog Deli. It was a bit of a wait, but it allowed us time to decide what we wanted to eat. We also got to sit at the back patio and I didn’t even realize there was one.

When we finished, I realized the aquarium closed at 4 and it was almost 2 so we weren’t going to make it there. We revised our plan and decided to walk down King St and check out the shops. Mercedes and Geoff met us over there. I had heard about the Savannah Bee Company store and I would have loved to buy honey, but I didn’t want to send it home with someone or bring it overseas to Aruba. Honey is one thing I had to be cautious of traveling with because of going to New Zealand. I know every country is different, but I figured that less hassle is better with dealing with customs and TSA.

I did buy myself a chapstick that reminds me of the Chapstick Mint flavor. I also donated $1 to “adopt a bee.” I’ll donate to the bees but I can’t do the whole keeping a beehive thing. Bugs and things just like to bite and sting me…

              While walking down King St, I learned of King Street Cookies. Ummm a cookie shop is a must stop for me (in addition to cupcake shops). This place was AMAZING!! Everyone got 1,2 or 3 cookies. I only got one, the smores. Some people got 3 because if you bought 3, you got a free drink of your choice. I was thankful I brought my hydrate pack with me for the day. I may have looked goofy or like a tourist, but it really helped me stay hydrated, a new must pack for trips. It also held my purse and camera.

              After all the walking, everyone was getting tired and ready to head back. Brian was out with his mom and brother so after a long walk back to Kristin’s car, the 6 of us squeezed in. We got a little lost walking back to the car so it was like a 20 minute detour.

              Once we got back, we headed to the beach for a bit. Brian was out getting groceries for dinner.

             

We had a nice grill and table on one of the many porch areas of the beach house and we were having the whole wedding party (10 people plus me and Brian, so 12 in total) over for dinner. Brian cooked up hamburgers, steak, sausages and shrimp. We also mixed together a bunch of salads and threw together dinner. It was actually all really good. While we ate, we could see the sun set behind the marsh area as well. It was a beautiful night. All the girls wore the Bride Tribe shirts and we took a bunch of photos. Even the guys got in on some photos. Also Brian’s friend Kyle arrived mid day. He drove down and that was nice to have another car.

              After dinner, the parents left and the “kids” played What do you Meme for quite some time. I think around 10, I called it quits. We had been going for a while and the day was non stop.

Friday May 10th 

              Friday was WEDDING DAY!! But since the wedding wasn’t until 4pm, we decided to head out to the aquarium when they opened at 9. It actually worked out well as Geoff stayed behind and the girls all went. We wore our Bride Tribe shirts too. It was also Charleston graduation weekend and we seemed to walk through some of the campus to the aquarium. Luckily we didn’t have too much traffic arriving at 9 and leaving at 11. The Charleston aquarium has been on my bucket list since I met a girl on my Costa Rica trip in 2010 who worked/volunteered there for a while. Since she is currently living on a sailboat (what a life!), I didn’t get to see her, but we had fun visiting. Since our group was the first to arrive in the day and the staff seemed to be eager to talk to everyone, we had many people to talk to and ask questions. They then also offered us a free behind the scenes tour at 10:30am with one of their volunteers thanks to my wedding shirts for letting them know I was getting married that day. So we walked around and it was easy to follow the map as they have the aquarium organized for where to start and finish. We had pretty much made it through everything in an hour and enjoyed watching the turtle and other fish swim in their 42ft tank, the tallest in North America apparently. Then we watched the river otter feeding at 10am. It was exciting to see the otters swimming. Apparently river otters are quite mean and even trainers can not get in the area with them. They throw the food from above and each otter has its respective eating area. After the otter feeding, our guide found us and took us behind the scenes to the food prep area. He explained the aquarium is mostly run by volunteers and it’s a very educational aquarium as they have a lottery system to allow each school in the Charleston area to come to visit for free. We saw the many school groups start to arrive around 10am and I was thankful we arrived at 9.

 

 

Our guide then explained the holding tank area and we got to talk to some divers for a while about the fish they have in the big tank and also their one sea turtle, whom apparently rules the tank. They actually always need 2 divers in there so that one is watching her, because she likes some people and doesn’t like others and she can knock your tank or goggles if not careful. I was also given a fish tooth for good luck as we talked about my wedding. I just realized while writing this I gave the tooth to my sister to hold in her purse and never remembered to take it LOL.

After our tour, it was 11 and time for us to head back to the beach house to have the afternoon to get ready. We made a quick stop at Wal-mart for nail polish and headed back. We had bought bread and sandwich meat, chips and other snacks planning to be home for lunch. So we ate and then I found Miss Congeniality on TV so we put that on while painting our nails and everyone doing their hair, etc. I originally told Brian to come over at 3 for a first look, but apparently he wasn’t listening and I wasn’t ready anyway. Mercedes had straightened my hair in the morning and Ashley re straightened it a bit (after humidity) and my sister figured out how to do my hair for my veil. Around 3:30 everyone was getting to the house. I came out to reveal my wedding dress. Oh and the girls were on “Brian patrol” and keeping him outside for the official reveal. My dad had picked up my cupcake order and he walked in while I was in my dress. It was actually kinda funny, I was just standing by the door in my dress. It was super fun to spin in and the girls were all taking my pictures.

I also had sent my friend and dad down to the beach to see if anyone was setting up. Apparently the organizer was there and we had a little misunderstanding as I thought there would be chairs, but I guess I didn’t order any. I knew the ceremony would be short, so I didn’t worry about it. It actually worked out for the better because everyone crowded around to hear the vows anyway.

Finally we were all ready to go…(to be continued)