WEDDING TIME

We are back from our first weekend escapade and it was a success. We left Thursday evening for Red Bank, NJ which is about 4 hours away. The next morning, bright and early, Matt dropped me off at the salon where we all got our hair and makeup done. There were 6 bridesmaids total and I can honestly say that they are all so nice, wish we could all hang out more often. We had breakfast at the salon and were there about 4 hours, then off to Patricia’s to change and take bridal party pictures. The photographer was so nice; hopefully she will have posted some pictures on her website soon: http://www.findorionphoto.com/

At 3:00pm it was time to head over to the church, it was such a beautiful ceremony and everything went seamlessly. The only thing I forgot were tissues, which were much needed. Patricia looked radiant and happy; Chris was calm and seemed completely ready to make Patricia, Mrs. Conrad. After the ceremony we headed to a beautiful park to take pictures with the groom and his troop. At 6:00pm it was cocktail time at the Oyster Point, a beautiful hotel overlooking the water. I have never seen so much food at a wedding; there were tons of appetizers and even a pasta bar, all before dinner. By the time dinner rolled around, our tummies were full and happy. One of my favorite parts was when we were introduced, after cocktail hour, before dinner, the DJ turned on the music and we all danced into the ballroom with our groomsmen counterpart, forming a tunnel for Chris and Patricia. SO fun and silly, we were getting jiggy with it. Patricia and Chris had their first dance, then Patricia and her father and finally Chris and his mom, they danced to “Son of a preacher man”, which was very appropriate given that Chris is indeed the son of a preacher man ;)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp4339EbVn8/

Dinner was just as delicious as the appetizers, mushroom raviolis, salad, filet mignon and two types of cakes. There were about 150 guests and a lot of Rice people; it was so nice to see some familiar faces, a mini-reunion. On Saturday morning Patricia’s sister was hosting a bunch at their house, but we were heading to Stamford, CT to see Matt’s family, so we did not get to stay. Nonetheless, I got to see Patricia as a married woman and she looked just as beautiful and happy as the day before, headed to Maui on Sunday. We arrived in Stamford around lunchtime, Matt’s parents came down from MA and his brother was kind enough to host all 4 of us in his lovely apartment. We walked around the town, which is very quaint and had dinner at a delicious seafood restaurant. The next we relaxed, had lunch and headed back to Arlington, 6 hour drive, eek. We had dinner last night with my mom and she left this morning, the living room feels very empty and bare, hopefully she will be back soon.

Oh, on our drive back, we passed Romancoke, MD which I thought was pretty hilarious, maybe I was delirious from being in the car for so long. Get it? Come on, rum and coke. Hi, I live in Cuba Libre land. We also went through a little piece of Delaware, where these enormous, new houses were selling in the $100's! Maybe we'll move there...



More pics can be found here:
http://www.picasaweb.google.com/sofocampo/MahoneyConradWedding/