The best-laid plans of mice and men....

If you know the quote, then you'll probably guess how this story goes. But this is the beginning of our wedding story. I'm not sure how long it will take me to tell the story from beginning to end....there are 4 memory cards of photos to incorporate...but here we go:

In February of 2006 G swept me off to Charleston, SC where he proposed to me (you'll get the 'how we met' story later). The PLAN was to present the ring to me on the balcony of the hotel where we were staying. But in keeping with the title of this post, there happened to be two older women playing Scrabble on the balcony and I was in my room running a fever and feeling pretty darn close to death. So the next best thing he could do was plant the ring in my makeup bag....knowing that I almost always wear makeup when we go away. It worked...I cried....and forced myself out of bed and we had a wonderful day in Charleston. I'd share photos from this trip, but that was almost 2 years ago and we're talking about last week.....

So we started planning a wedding. At first it was to be a big wedding....150+ people....in the backyard of the Jernigan House Bed and Breakfast. We struggled through the planning process.....not really getting anywhere and not feeling very excited about the whole deal. During our vacation to Duck, NC this year we picked up a vacation home rental book. One day G came to me and proposed the idea of a beach wedding. It would be a private wedding....family-only...and we would rent an oceanfront home where we would have the wedding and then stay for our honeymoon. For the first time in the planning process, we were both excited.

Our original wedding date was Saturday, October 18, however due to check-ins being on Saturday, we would have to move the date to Sunday, October 19. My parents' preacher agreed to marry us and drive the distance after morning worship to do so.

We researched and toured several houses until we found the "perfect" house. In selecting a home, we quickly learned that only the larger homes were approved for special events due to septic capacities (a little foreshadowing here). So we decided that if we had to rent a 7+ bedroom for a week we could invite our family to honeymoon with us. Afterall, we already had T in the picture who we didn't want to leave behind for a week. What's another 16 people?

So on October 18, 2008 we checked in at the Beach House II in Duck, NC.