Extrovert Stretch

It's been a very social week.

Wednesday, Casey and I had dinner with Casey's brother and sister in law in their new home. It's a beautiful, big house with lots of really nice details...wrought-iron staircase, marble counter tops, custom wood blinds. Unfortunately, they have hardly any furniture yet...but it's going to be a great place to host parties sometime soon. We really like hanging out with them..so we better get invited to some of those parties, Aubrey!
Thursday began the festivities for my good friend, Stephanie's wedding. Stephanie's mom hosted a dinner for the bridesmaids at Hibiscus, a really fancy restaurant that I've heard much of but never have gotten to go to. I mean...you ask where's bathroom and someone walks you there, and when you get back, your napkin has been refolded at your table setting. But, the really amazing part is the food. Cheese platter, amazing. Osso buco, delicious. Grilled broccolini, smokey and fantastic. Mac and cheese, beyond indulgent...and the chocolate cake! I may never recover. It was such a treat. The company was wonderful as well, so it was a really special evening.
Stephanie, the bride, and the chocolate cake!

Friday was the rehearsal dinner at "The Little "Blue House"...which was literally a little blue house transformed into a private restaurant. Really fun ambiance.

And the wedding. It's been quite a while since I've been in a wedding, and I forgot about all the running around and details and fuss. Stephanie was really well organized, but she had also designed a very personal and detailed wedding, so there was still lots to do...some maneuvering to prevent the groom from seeing the bride last minute. Some of the details include homemade fudge (made by the bride) in these pretty little favors, streamers with ribbon to wave as the bride and groom exited, picture boards, individualized and very thoughtful gifts for the attendants. And the flowers were just beautiful. Stephanie, Daniel and their families really worked hard to plan a beautiful and very personal wedding.

Personally...my wedding was about 1000% simpler, much smaller, less fancy and detailed...but a lot less stressful for the bride and groom. Of course, that is Casey and I...low maintenance and thrifty! Both are good, of course, and it really was beautiful. I love weddings, and it was wonderful getting to be the part of seeing my friend Stephanie finally get married (after 6 years of dating)!

And as the Maid of Honor, I had two major responsibilities: give a toast, and make sure that the dance floor actually got used, because Stephanie really wanted dancing at the wedding. And as proof that I've become more extroverted than in the past, I pulled off both just fine. I got some laughs with my toast (without any resorting to jibes at anyone's expense) and a few touching points, and I kept the dance floor warm with my Zumba moves. It was really fun, especially when the little kids came out and danced too. I burned off some cake calories and had fun too.

Another nice part of the wedding is that my best friend from college, Megan, came from out of state for the wedding, so I went to church with her and her family today and out to lunch. Eggs Benedict and old friends. Really good stuff.

Of course...the introvert in me is totally worn out now! And there's darling Emory Kate's first birthday party this afternoon too. I don't have much concentration left for Medieval French literature today...so I may be cramming to get it all done tomorrow. :-)