The weekend of excess

I hate lying. It's one of my least favorite things ever. Which may have something to do with why I can't sleep. I didn't promise you the pictures today, but I said I'd try, and I guess my mind thinks that's close enough. So here I am, at 12:30 in the morning, just 3.5 hours until my alarm goes off to fly home tomorrow.

But here you go: the real wedding weekend post.

Our friends' wedding was outdoors on Long Island (which was much different than I thought it would be, by the way. I totally expected more of an extension of NYC. So not the case!). Since they were already legally married (another "I Do, Part 2," remember?), the couple had their close friend Eric deliver the ceremony. He did a fantastic job!

The ceremony was very personalized. Eric talked about the couple's 8-year relationship and the different things they'd gone through, especially the distance thanks to the Army and the multiple deployments. Instead of a reading, they had two friends read excerpts from different emails they'd sent to each other during deployments. Such a neat idea, and very memorable.

Eric talked about their first wedding. How it took place at a justice of the peace in NYC. How it involved concrete floors, metal detectors, and the bride having to go through extra security because of all the pins in her hair.

As all the guests arrived the ceremony, unbenownst to the bride & groom, we had all received cards to read at a certain time ("You'll know when," the envelope said). At the end of the ceremony, Eric said, "Since I have no authority whatsoever to pronounce you anything -- and since you're already married ..." and had us read our cards. It was a really neat thing to do, and the bride teared up as we read.

The bride & groom were friends from when K was stationed in Louisiana, so it was a nice reunion for us.

The reception was amazing! They fed and fed us, and the place was gorgeous.

K and I carried on our tie tradition (Whenever he's in his formal uniform, once he is able to take off his jacket, he always puts his bowtie on me. This is the first time we've been at a formal event where he's been in a shirt and tie.). (By the way, this is totally my bridesmaid's dress from Danielle's wedding last December!)

All in all, the wedding was a blast. But that wasn't the end of the night. They had paid the hotel to keep the bar open longer for us, so we went back and celebrated more there. And when the bar shut down at 2:30 -- 2 hours later than it was supposed to stay open (the bartender was having a good time) -- we headed to the best man's room. (The bride & groom went to bed at this point.) Unfortunately, the night took a bad turn here, when one of our friends had a PTSD meltdown in front of everyone. Drama ensued, so K took him elsewhere to calm him down so he could get everything out that he needed to. I gave his wife (they just eloped like two weeks ago, and the consensus is that it should never have happened) the key to our room, since she didn't have her key and we weren't sure where her husband was. Almost two hours later, her husband went into our room to talk to her. It wasn't going well, because when we tried to get into our room later, we could hear her crying. Long, late night, and we wound up getting just a couple hours of sleep on another friend's bed (he was super sweet and slept on the floor).

After such a late night, we were exhausted when we had to get up at 9:15. We headed down to breakfast, then set out with the rest of the group (minus the couple on the rocks, who no one expected to come anyway) on a tasting tour of three different wineries.

Thank goodness we had a bus to chauffeur us for the day because by the third winery, we were all feeling the effects ...

... and it only got worse on the bus.

As you can see, it made for the most entertaining bus ride ever.

That night, we all headed out to a nice farewell dinner, which happened to fall at about the same time as the OU game was on. Thankfully, we were near a TV (the bride & groom know me well) where we could see it. As a result, I didn't get many pictures from the dinner, but it was much more subdued than the previous events of the weekend.

When we left the restaurant, K and I skipped the additional partying in the room so we could sleep. Which brings me back to what I should be doing now ...

Feel free to comment excessively on the brilliance of these pictures since I guilted myself out of sleep tonight to bring them to you. But, hey, at least I'll be all caught up for the greatness I'm sure to capture at this weekend's events!