Wedding and a baby!

... Not mine. 

But the next best thing happened last weekend: my best friend FINALLY married the perfect guy for her! After a 2.5 year engagement, Lauren and Christian said "I do" on the beach in New Smyrna, Florida. 

I had the honor of standing next to Lauren. She looked absolutely gorgeous, btw. 

Here is a shot of all of us girlies the night before. We went to a local restaurant called The Garlic, and I HIGHLY recommend. The bruschetta was amazeballs and the wine was a'flowin. 

Wedding day was perfect. We had our last sleep over (well, at least as unmarried BFF's) Friday  in my hotel room. Ray's stupid work made him come in Saturday morning, so he couldn't come up Friday night as planned. It all worked out for the best, and the bride, flower girl (Lauren and Christian's daughter), and I cuddled up and got our beauty sleep for the big day. 

It was POURING when we were on our way to get our hair done. If you know Florida, you know what I'm talking about. The out-of-nowhere rainstorm where you can see nothing around you and swear you are about to float away. I told Lauren it was definitely good luck... which I'm not sure is true, but I think everyone says so to make the bride feel better and like her day isn't completely ruined. 

Luckily, this bride was no bridezilla and it didn't phase her a bit. 

Here is a quick synopsis of how I feel about getting hair done for weddings: 

If you know the hairdresser and have seen his or her work, go for it. If you don't know the hairdresser but have time to go ahead of time and do a trial run, DO IT. Otherwise, you are better off doing your hair yourself. Bless the woman's heart who did ours, but it was the laziest excuse for an up-do I've ever seen. She did both of our hair in a record 45 minutes, which to me is just not enough time if you really care about making a bride perfect for her wedding. She used those dumb wide bobby pins, ALL of which fell out of Lauren's hair before we even left the hotel for the ceremony. Luckily Lauren is so easy going. If it were my day, heads would have been rolling out of that damn salon. But I digress. Lauren would be gorgeous bald, so it didn't matter.

The beach was HOT as a mo'fo but luckily the ceremony only lasted about 10 minutes. We meant business. Here is the Bride, Groom, myself, and Ryan, who stood with Christian. And of course a shot of the bride and yours truly.

 

The reception was at a local beachside restaurant, and we drank and partied the rest of the day away. Here is my favorite picture of my hunky boyfriend and I from the day :) 

After the wedding, the newlyweds went off to Punta Cana, DR for a week and we had the pleasure of having their daughter stay at our house after their out-of-town family members had returned home. 

Things I learned in my weekend of parenting:

1) Improvising is everything. Raining outside and nothing do to? Blanket forts entertain for hours. 2) Netflix is a necessity. No commercials, no problem.

3) I have no idea how parents refrain from posting every funny thing their kids say on Facebook. I lost track of all the random shit that came out of Jackie's mouth. 

 Perhaps one of my favorite lines of the weekend:

"Jackie, what's your favorite color?"

"Blue caterpillars with stripes."

We had a blast :)