From the Observation Deck

First—congratulations to my friends Steve and Sandy who took the plunge, tied the knot, exchanged vows, got hitched, gave up their freedom, etc., etc., in other words, got married this last weekend.

The wedding took place in the town where I grew up so it was nice going back home and seeing old friends again. On Friday I drove to Pennsylvania, dropped the dog off at the rent’s house and headed on over to the rehearsal dinner. After some yummy food and drinks and lots of laughs over fun toasts, we headed on out to Buckley’s Tavern. In this area of the country, bars are called Taverns and there are only about two within a half hour of my folk’s house. My friends made me laugh so hard I actually hurt myself.

On my way home I dodged a couple of deer and a fox and managed not to drive my SUV into a tree. I’ll talk about the back roads of Chester County in another post but let’s just say when you’re not used to the one-lane bridges you’ve got to be on your toes.

So that brings us to Saturday. I slept in, ran some errands, had a lovely lunch with old friends who weren’t going to the wedding, then ran over to the Mendenhall Inn to check in. This place brought back memories. As a kid I went to church across the road and as a teenager was in a serious car wreck in front of the Inn. Okay, time for new memories.

The service was lovely and we all drove back to the Inn (not a Tavern this time) for the reception where we got to eat freshly cooked, very yummy crab cakes. More fun toasts, laughing, dancing, stories, and catching up takes us to the “after party.”

Let me begin by saying that the bartender was really up-tight and went a bit too far when he called for security because of the duck thing. The patron was in fact a trouble-maker but the decapitation of the wooden duck was an accident and it could have happened to any of us. (Not me of course, I just take the photos of all the incriminating stuff.) So party-pooper barkeep closed down early and forced us to go hang out with the security guard on the porch. Thankfully the bride and groom gave us goody bags with little bottles of wine and snacks to get us to that two a.m. hour when we finally called it quits.

That brings us to the wedding breakfast. This is where the parents of the newly married couple are still all smiles and the rest of us dutifully and sincerely thank them for the free booze—I mean the lovely dinner and dancing—through bleary and bloodshot eyes. I got to see baby Bubba for the first time which was really nice. But when my friend Amy made him cry I knew it was time to make a hasty retreat.

The drive back to the parent’s house to pick up the dog involved a skirmish with some pugs and another deer. (I kid you not. See photo below.) On my way back to Virginia, I was tempted to stop at the Herr’s factory for a tour but decided to skip it on this trip.

Finally, I must say, the best part of the whole wedding was the time spent with some of the kindest, funniest, loyal, awesome friends a gal could ever have. Blessings to Sandy and Steve and may you live long, loving, pug-free lives together.