Wedding and Birthday Weekend!

As you may can tell from my silence since last Thursday, we had quite an eventful weekend. Mom arrived Friday night and we headed straight to bed so we could wake up early and to the beach!

We had a little snag in our plans when the handle in our shower got stuck and we had to turn off the water in the apartment so it made getting dressed quite difficult. Luckily, the maintenance man was here in 10 minutes and had it fixed in 20 minutes. But, we left later than planned and it took a little bit longer to see this sign:

But once we got there we met my grandfather and my uncle and his girlfriend (they live in Hawaii) for lunch in the hotel lobby. There were floor to ceiling windows with the most gorgeous beach view! After lunch, we checked in and got to see the view we'd be staring at for three days. 

Every room in the hotel has a beach view from the front and a wonderful view of the marsh (is this the right word for it?) outside the bedroom window and down the hallway. 

Just ignore the roof and big truck.. 

Before getting ready for the rehearsal, we had some drinks by the pool bar with my uncles but sadly, it was pretty cold and we had to give up and go upstairs to get ready. 

The rehearsal dinner was at a restaurant on the river called The Pilot House. If you've ever seen One Tree Hill before, it was at right across the river from the River Court! It was a lovely evening of everyone getting to know each other and we got to spend a lot of time visiting with my uncle and his girlfriend since we rarely see him and we've never met her before. 

Christian and I were sharing a suite with my mom and there was a living room/kitchen and then a bedroom with two full beds.. #aca-awkward. So we got quite creative and Christian and I pulled the other mattress out and laid it on top of the worst pull out mattress I've ever seen and it ended up being pretty comfortable. We also slept with the door open so we could listen to the ocean all night. It was awesome! 

Sunday was the wedding and my birthday so we started the morning by sleeping in and then laying out on the beach for a couple hours! 

We got caught up laying out, eating lunch and getting ready that we were almost late for the wedding! Luckily, we weren't the only ones and the bridal party was a little behind, too. So I was able to snap a picture before the ceremony started!

Here are some scenes from the reception!

Big picture - Bride walking to her chair for the garter

Small, top right - my grandparents and all their kids

Small, top left - garter removal

Small, bottom right - mother/son dance with my grandmother

Small, bottom left - Christian trying to catch the garter

After the reception ended, Christian and I got into our comfy clothes and headed down to the beach for a walk before my birthday officially ended. I absolutely love nightly beach walks so it was a perfect way to end my birthday and spend a few minutes alone with my man. 

Sadly, Monday we had to leave the beach so I made sure to go up to my grandparents room and get a snap of their view. They were on the 7th floor and the corner room. Where we had walls, they had more windows and could see the end of the island and the next island over - gorgeous!

Their bedroom window!

On the way out, we ate lunch with my family on the Intracoastal and watched boats come in and out and it was delicious! I hated having to leave them because I don't see them very often, but the next time we see my uncle will be for my wedding so the weekend kind of kicked my butt into gear and I need to get to planning ASAP!