Mike & Julia Get Hitched (a couple of times)

This past weekend we headed up to Connecticut for Mike (one of Brad's friends from high school) and Julia's wedding. We were excited to catch up with everyone and have a fun weekend celebrating.

Friday night hanging out with Chris and his girlfriend Ilana:


Brad and Dave catching up over a beer:


And then on to the wedding on Saturday. Julia looked amazing and they both were so happy :) Here they are right after they were married - for the 2nd time!


Turns out that they got a call on Friday from their celebrant (a family friend that had gotten "ordained" in order to marry them) and she was no longer able to make it! (sadly, she has some unexpected and serious family health issues).

So, Mike and Julia found themselves without a celebrant. So, 2 choices - have a "fake" wedding ceremony on Saturday and then truly get married once they returned from their honeymoon. Or, scramble and try to find a justice of the peace to marry them before the "wedding".

So, they scrambled, headed down to the local courthouse on Friday afternoon and got married. They brought Dave with them to serve as witness and got married on the roof of the courthouse, with all the courthouse employees eating lunch around them, and a boombox playing "wedding music". Dave said it was all totally surreal - and hysterical. The upside is that they get to celebrate their wedding for 2 days ever year! ;)

There were so many unique touches at the wedding that really showed Mike and Julia's style. Like unique programs and favor cards and Madlibs at each of the tables - so fun!


A great live band. Mike and Julia - who are both musicians/music teachers - even played with the band at the beginning of the night. Fun to see the bride in her wedding dress rocking out on the drumkit and the groom playing his trumpet!


Natural centerpieces at each table - here's Bob stealing one at the end of the night ;)


And Nutlettes cereal! (a running joke in this crew and now a part of our wedding gift to Mike and Julia)

We had such a blast hanging out with good friends and celebrating! An amazing wedding weekend!

Aruba Aribe (yayayaya!)

We just got back from the most amazing vacation - Aruba!!

My wonderful parents gave us the gift of Aruba for Christmas this past year (they own a Marriott timeshare, so gave a week to me, Brad, Kiera, Ryan and Sharon). So, we basically just had to get to ourselves down to Aruba and enjoy the view from my parent's timeshare:


It was an amazing week of lounging by the pool and by the ocean, reading books, and just constantly chilling out. And of course, lots of tasty frozen drinks like these:


And more drinks in our favorite place - the lazy river!


And of course, an Aruba recap wouldn't be complete without our new friends, the adorable lizards (and yes, I do want one of my own):



There was one day where we actually explored the island. First stop was the lighthouse on the end of the island and some rock formations:


But the highlight of the trip was our visit to the Donkey Farm! AMAZING. I know officially love donkeys (but, fortunately for Brad, I do not want one of my one).


And a gorgeous butterfly farm:


Crazy nights out including a Ryan karaoke special:


But sadly the trip came to end all too quickly. One last of those tasty drinks for the road:


A quick photoshoot on the beach by our hotel:


And we're off! I'll miss you Happy Island!