midwest trip - emily's wedding

A million years later, I'm 90% done with get all of these vacation photos sorted! I wasn't kidding about just how many pictures there are. I was going to start my little blog series of our trip with a good ol' fashioned post about being on the road, but quickly discovered that most of those pictures are of 1. someone sleeping 2. someone eating 3. a sunrise 4. a sunset or 5. scenery. *snore* You're welcome. & actually, some of the scenery still made it through so...

We made the 18 hour drive to my grandparents house in St. Louis in one day (Please hold your applause. Actually, don't. It was seriously impressive.) but Jared & I packed up the very next morning to head up to Indiana to jump into wedding festivities with Emily. As my maid of honor, Emily pretty much kept me sane on the days leading up to our wedding, & it was all we could do to attempt to return the favor. We really loved having some down time to just catch up & introduce Jared to her family + our old stomping grounds.

Em & I spent four of the best years of our lives (I mean... You know.) living next door to each other in Carmel, Indiana. We tried to take Jared on a tour of Carmel, but as 10-14 yr. olds, our lives revolved around anywhere we could scooter to. Our lifelong friendship was forged in about a 2 mile radius of our houses. Needless to say, it was a pretty short tour.

The next 48 hours were wedding wedding wedding = my happy place. Emily & Trent had their ceremony in a chapel on the St. Mary's College campus where Em graduated from this year, & it was a truly beautiful ceremony + mass (but also appropriate amounts of funny - Cheers to Father John, the best priest I've ever had the pleasure of drinking with). I sobbed. I always do, even when I'm the planner, so you'd think I would have especially mastered the subtle eye/nose wipe or at least remembered to wrap a tissue around my bouquet but NOPE. It's fine... It's fine. We made our way to the lake that we spent many a summer weekend on to enjoy the reception at the club house. Emily loves the 4th of July more than any human being I know (besides like, Francis Scott Key, maybe), so it was only fitting to end the evening setting off wishing lanterns before the lake's firework show started. Perfection.

We spent 4th of July in the car driving to Indy, but that didn't keep us from dressing to match the holiday. Hurray America!

 But also, corn.

 

Home sweet home!

BRIDE!!!

But also, turbines.

 

Between the rehearsal & gorging ourselves on Italian-holy-yum at the rehearsal dinner.

After the ceremony with my love on the gorgeous grounds of St. Mary's

Lakehouse reception!

So, it's a well known fact that my dad sings to my mom every time they dance together. But this was like, INTENSE. We laughed, but so did mom. 

 

So happy my baby sister made the trip with us!

Oh, you know. Just photo bombing the dance floor. Please take note of our audience on the right *buries face*

Blogging is a full time job, derrrr.

Bride & her mama, sweet Anne.

During the sibling dance. Presh, right?

Emily made a special request that we dance to "The Luckiest" at my wedding, so it was only fitting that we do the same at hers.

Sobbed. I sobbed. Again. There's a video to prove it.

Pro-tip in regards to wishing lanterns: Test them first. Then game plan accordingly.

But my, they were gorgeous.

This fireworks show was probably an hour & a half long. Tres impressif!

I can't wait to see the professional photos, but in the mean time, these + our videos will do. It was such a precious day, & I am SO excited to welcome Emily & Trent into a lifetime of family vacations & married couple get-aways. 

Up next from our midwest adventure - Jared's dreams come true at Busch Stadium! Well, baseball dreams.

Which is actually just my segway out of this post so I can eat the macaroni & cheese that I just pulled out of the oven. Awwwwwwyeahhhhh.