Family,  Marriage Confessions,  Weddings

Wedding Weekend Extravaganza, Part IV

April 27, 2010 /

The wedding reception was at Apple Annie’s in Seville Quarter in Pensacola, Florida.

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See those martini glasses in the bottom right corner there? Those were for the MASHED POTATO BAR!!

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My mom made the topper for the wedding cake. Underneath it she inscribed the Bible verse they had read at their wedding ceremony.

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This was the candy bar. There were Chinese take-out boxes that said “How sweet it is to be loved by you” on them and guests got to fill their container with all the candy. This was also the table where the grooms cake sat.

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The arrival of the bride and groom

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My dad toasting the happy couple

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The absolute worst picture of me ever giving the wedding toast.

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Everybody listening to my toast

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Cutting the cake

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Minor incident with the bow on Gin’s dress, but it wasn’t anything a Groom, Matron of Honor, and Mother of the Bride couldn’t fix.

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First dance to Michael Buble’s “Crazy Love.”

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Ginny’s dance with my dad to Eric Clapton’s “You Look Wonderful Tonight”

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Ginny’s sorority sisters singing a goodbye song to her that made me cry way more than it should have

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My dad and mom dancing while the bridesmaids wave wedding wands over them

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Ginny didn’t wear her veil at the reception, so Mom wore it. When someone told her she couldn’t wear it, she replied, “Why not? I paid for it!”

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My favorite part of Ginny’s dress

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Chris and his sister, Annie

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Me, my friend, Sarah, and her husband, Scott

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My dad dancing with all the bridesmaids!

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…STILL dancing

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Chris and Adrianne dancing

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I have no idea what we’re doing in this picture…

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Everybody dancing!!

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Ginny and JM ran out through wedding wands! It was adorable!

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This is sort of a bad picture, but they look so darn happy that I actually really like it!

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John Michael hugging my dad goodbye

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Off to Maui as husband and wife!

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My toast to my sister on her wedding day…

There is a running joke in my family that every time Ginny has a big event happen, I somehow manage to accidentally upstage her moment.  But I know Ginny won’t mind if I share her big day today by telling you all that Chris and I are expecting a baby!!

JUST KIDDING!

When we were growing up, Ginny and I used to play house.  One of us would be the adult and one of us would be the child.  When we were the adult, we each had different “adult age.”  Mine was 22.  At 22 years old, I thought that made you an adult.  Ginny’s adult age was 57.  So you can see why I thought I had a little more time before I had to give this toast.

In the past two years that Ginny and John Michael have been together, I have seen Ginny grow up in more ways than just age.  I’ve seen her become more confident in who she is as a person.  I’ve seen her become more compassionate and more understanding of others.  And for the first time in her life, I have seen her looking forward to the future.  She has never done that before.  It used to be when we tried to talk to her about if she would EVER graduate, she wouldn’t talk about it.  Or when we tried to talk to her about if she would EVER get a job, she wouldn’t talk about it.  But when John Michael came into the picture, I began to see Ginny not just talk about the future, but I saw her get excited about her future.

And I know from experience that when you marry your best friend, you are marrying the person who brings out the best parts of you; the person who brings out THESE parts of you.

I knew Ginny had fallen in love with John Michael and I knew that she thought he was the one, but I was worried about JM.  See, Tillman women have been known to be a little…hard to handle.  And John Michael was just so damn NICE!  I was afraid Ginny would eat him alive!

But one afternoon when we were all home visiting my parents, Ginny and JM and Chris and me all went golfing together.  We were playing best ball for each couple, which is where the couple plays from which ever ball in the couple has the best position.  So, Chris and I teed off and we drove our golf cart on over to his ball.  Then Ginny and JM teed off and their balls ended up on opposites sides of the fairway, about an equal distance to the hole.  But each of them went and stood next to their ball, both insisting that their ball was in the better position.  They yelled across the course to each other for 15 minutes, each defending their ball.  Chris leaned over to me in our golf cart and said, “If John Michael wins this, I think he might actually be The One.”  About 10 minutes later, Ginny picked up her ball, stomped across the fairway, dropped it next to John Michael’s ball, and said, “I don’t want to talk about it!”

And that’s when I knew John Michael was The One.

So, tonight, I’d like to toast my baby sister and her groom.  May you have many fights over stupid things like laundry.  May you have many, many babies (and soon!).  May you make your best memories over a bottle of cheap wine in your kitchen.  And may you have a lifetime of happiness together.

To the bride and groom!

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