Photo-A-Day #2353

Today was my sister Shelby’s wedding. She asked me to take photos of she and the girls getting ready for the day ahead. I took photos as they had their hair done by our family hairdresser, Amanda. All of the girls came to the house and Amanda and another hairdresser did the girls hair. Eva wanted curls, where this came from I am not sure but that is what she wanted. All of the girls were getting their hair done in long banana curls and I guess Eva wanted that too. She was really good about getting her hair done too. I took a bunch of shots of the girls getting ready, some accessories, Shelby’s dress and more. We were actually pretty well on time too.

Shelby and Tim got a trolley to take them to the church. Tim and his family and the groomsmen were taken over first then the trolley came and picked up Shelby and our family and the bridesmaids. I took a bunch of photos of the girls in front of the trolley and on the trolley and then in front of the fence in the yard and more. He had a nice time taking pictures. Tara pinned on Dad’s boutonniere and then I took photos of Shelby pinning it on him. They hammed it up and I caught some really fun photos of them laughing together. Dad said later on that he didn’t cry today because every time he was about to cry Shelby would make him laugh and every time she was about to cry he made her laugh. There are many special things about my sister Shelby but one quality that always comes to mind is how funny she is and how she can make people laugh and disarm them with her charm.

We finally got everyone on the trolley (ahem, “one more thing” is like a family mantra with us) and we were off to the Church. Now the church and the ceremony are a bit of a whirlwind. Not because I was drinking or not paying attention or anything but because the church had 4 weddings to do today and the organizers at the Chapel were… to put it delicately, a bit over zealous on how fast things had to go. And that is the nicest way I can put that. We lines up and I walked my Mom down the aisle. Eva was right before Shelby and Dad, I think. She wasn’t allowed to throw the flowers in the church and she didn’t make a fuss about that at all even though she had practiced and practiced and everyone told her that she’d be throwing the flowers. But the kid adapted. Gone was the nervousness of the night before. Eva walked a step or two and then waved to one side of the church. She took a step or two more and switched the basket in her hand to the other hand and took another step and waved to the other side of the church. She did this all the way down the aisle. People were so taken with her too. Then she saw uncle Howard and she lit up like a Christmas tree. She was so excited.

Then it was time for Dad and Shelby to walk down the aisle. My sister is a beautiful woman. Both of my sisters are. Shelby was absolutely radiant today and she had on an amazing dress. It suited her perfectly. She and my Dad walked down the aisle to Tim. There were smiles and laughter throughout the whole ceremony. The monseigneur gave a wonderful homily and I did one of the readings. Before we knew it we were out the door headed for the receiving line. The receiving line had to move quickly because the next wedding was hot on our heels. So we loaded up the trolley and headed over to Surf Drive Beach to take photos. Shelby and Tim had some great colors for the dresses and the clothes for the guys. Guys had tan pants and white shirts and sharp yellow ties. They looked casual and smartly dressed for the Cape wedding. The girls had beautiful blue dresses on and bright colorful bouquets. We took photos at the beach for about an hour and then loaded up the trolley to the reception.

The reception was held at the house across the street. That house was on the water so we had access to a private beach and a beautiful yard. Bartenders were at the Bennett Bar (A bar that my Dad and I built, my Uncle Wayne and Roger enhanced and Dad enhanced even more, it has been a part of 3 family weddings so far) and then there was a help yourself Beer Boat (From Uncle Roger, that has been at two family weddings). There was a large tent, dance floor and DJ. The caterers brought around some delicious food and we had an even better meal. The cake was actually cupcakes of various flavors including one of my favorites, Funfetti with strawberry icing. The top of the cake was actually a small cake of the funfetti flavor.

We sat with Aunt Corrine, Uncle Jeff, Madison, Haley, Amanda, Uncle Freddie and Aunt Millie. We had a full but fun table. With Uncle Jeff telling jokes throughout. I had a hard time to keep from laughing like crazy.

We were asked to come out of the tent for a special surprise and in comes a helicopter. One of Shelby’s friends had a friend who was doing a golf ball drop in the morning and would be able to come by and take aerial shots of everyone at the wedding plus various places around the area. What a nice gift.

We went inside the tent and there was the Father Daughter Dance which was done to Tim McGraw’s, My Little Girl. There was also the mother son dance, the cutting of the cake and more fun, including speeches by my Dad, my sister Tara and Chatty Matty. Dinner was blessed by my Grandpa Bennett, who has done the blessing at all of our families weddings. After dinner the dancing started and Eva and Amanda danced nearly non stop for the rest of the night. Eva danced so hard that she finally asked us if she could go to bed. That is some hard partying.

As it got later the sun started to set and we went to the beach and took a bunch of photos with the backdrop of Height’s beach and the sky couldn’t have been more incredible. A wonderful end to a wonderful day. I wish my sister Shelby and my new Brother-In-Law Tim a long happy and healthy life together. We had proud to have Tim as part of our family.

I have tons of photos but need to edit out some dust (I need to clean my sensor) but when I do and this will be after Shelby and Tim get them, I’ll post them up with their permission.

Also, so many great things happened today that I could not fit them all in or gather my thoughts completely. It was a wonderful day and I in no way mean to keep anything out or forget anything. So if you have an anecdote from the day please leave it in the comments.