Abby and Adam's Wedding

http://dantewilliamsphotography.blogspot.com/2010/06/abby-adam.html

Ok, I just got so excited when I noticed that their professional photographer, Dante Williams, put some pictures from the wedding up on his blog. Check out that link. They are awesome. Although, I must say, curiously lacking in the Oliver and Elliot department (really, I hope that will be rectified soon, they looked so cute! how could he have missed that?!?!) Dante was a good friend of mine from highschool. It was fun to see him at the wedding. I hadn't seen him since freshman year in college.

Anyway, somehow I don't have any pictures of the wedding weekend myself. Ryan and I were both in the wedding so we were more than a little busy but I so wish I could illustrate this post with some pictures. If anyone has photos, please, please send them to me!!

Abby and Adam got married on Saturday, June 5. The wedding weekend got kicked off in grand style with a backyard barbecue at their house. Ryan was the grillmaster extraordinaire. We had all sorts of kebabs and our favorite grilled corn with honey-chipotle butter. YUM! It was just the Winkel/Ford parents and siblings, plus bridesmaids and groomsmen and their significant others but it was exactly the right mix of people to be fun and high energy but also totally relaxing. We brought our favorite Raleigh babysitter, Beth, up for the wedding. She very ably kept the kids entertained riding trikes and jumping on beds downstairs once the party kicked into high gear (actually they were evidently in a much higher gear than any of us given all the soda and candy they were sneaking!!)

The next day my mother's friends hosted a girl's luncheon for Abby at the Carriage House on the Upper East Side. My mom has the most amazing group of friends from her college days. These women have known each other since they were 18 and are just the most interesting, beautiful, smart, loyal and caring group of women. I adore them. They are the reason I chose to go to a women's college. I saw these enduring friendships that started for my mom at Manhattanville and I wanted that, too. In addition to "Les Girls", they invited two of my aunts and my dear godmother, Ann Woodward, who, having only known my mom since grad school (1973) was a relative newbie!! Anyway, the lunch was great, filled with good food and conversation and tear-jerking toasts.

Friday night was the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner at the Maritime Hotel. The dinner was held in their rooftop terrace. It was so 1960s-South Pacific-retro-funky. We had a lovely dinner and then danced the night away once the DJ started spinning. My Brennan cousins really know how to party and totally whooped it up. We finally went home at 11:00 but I suspect that they shut that place down.

Saturday morning Abby and I took a jaunt to Chelsea Market to procure provisions for a bridesmaid's lunch that I was supposed to host at her house. I had some rather conventional ideas about what we would serve but Abby came up with a much better option in the form of delicious antipasto and other savory delights from the Italian market. We had a lunch with the bridesmaids and a few other of Abby's friends from college/camp/medical school and then it was a mad dash to get hair and make-up done and into our dresses before 4:00. Adam and the groomsmen were over at the Maritime Hotel getting ready in the swanky honeymoon suite.

The wedding was at St. Jospeh's church in the Village. Abby wanted to walk (so as not to wrinkle her dress) but it was so HOT. Luckily, just as we were leaving her house, we caught up with one of the buses they had rented to take everyone from the church to the reception in Brooklyn, so we were able to hop right on! It was pure serendipity.

The wedding ceremony itself was beautiful and blessedly short. Oliver did a great job as ring bearer (even though he had one hand stuffed in his mouth the entire time down the isle...it was better than at the rehearsal when that hand was down his pants!) My favorite memory is of my mom smiling and clapping for the newlywed couple as they walked back down the isle after the ceremony. She looked so pretty and had this look of pure, exuberant joy on her face.

After the ceremony we boarded the double-decker buses and headed to the Brooklyn Botanical Garden for the reception. They had cocktails out in the garden by the reflecting pond and dinner and dancing in the conservatory. It could not have been more perfect (I know, I feel like I am gushing and being completely hyperbolic, but it is true!) It was just an amazing, beautiful, completely happy occasion. Ryan and I have this really wonderful memory of leaving our wedding reception just on cloud 9, thinking that it was just the most perfect, magical night. We feel the same way about Abby and Adam's wedding. It just seemed to glow from within. We know they felt it, too...can't you tell from their smiles!?