Derrick & Katie's Wedding

This weekend was spent celebrating Derrick and Katie's wedding in Jekyll Island. Derrick is my best friend's, Cassie, brother. So really, he's like my brother too. I'll never forget the time we were all just hanging out and he said, "Jamie, whenever you get married, I want to meet the guy. I have to approve first." Of course I just laughed at him and said, "Okay." And he said, "No, I'm serious. I have to meet him first." So yeah, I consider Derrick a brother. And Katie is the sweetest person you will ever meet. So I was thrilled to be able to celebrate with them on this exciting occasion.

Friday morning Alison and I left for Jekyll. The six hour drive absolutely flew by. It did for me anyway. Isn't it weird that we can get to parts of Florida in only five hours, but it took six hours just to get to the other side of our state? We discussed this in the car. So weird. Anyway, we got there just in time to freshen up for the rehearsal dinner which was held in at the Beach Pavilion.

This is our hotel. Not the Pavilion.

If you know me, you know my love of seafood. Seriously, I'm a seafood junkie. My dad grew up in Miami and has family in Cocoa and Melbourne. There is also family in the Bahamas and when he was little they used to boat there all the time. Needless to say, seafood as pretty much been a staple in our family since I can remember. Lobster, shrimp, fish, calamari, clams, crab legs, conch....seriously, I could eat it all every single day. So when I found out the dinner was low country boil, I was more than excited. And it didn't disappoint.

This was the view from dinner. Stunning.

The three besties. <3

And Travis T. My dream is to have him and Will in a room together at the same time. The amount of laughing that would take place would surely kill me. Those two are the funniest people on the planet.

After dinner, Cassie, Alison and I walked down to the beach to dip our toes in the water and to take some pictures.

Me and C.

And of course I couldn't leave without representing KSIBTU since it was K's b-day!!

After a quick little visit on the beach, we headed back to the hotel. Side note: I find it fascinating that I've seen the Pacific Ocean more times in the past three years than I have seen the Atlantic in the past probably five (at least) years. And I only live six hours away. Anyway, what did we come across on the way?

Why, this gorgeous sunset!

Once we got back to the hotel, we ran into some of the wedding guests in the lobby and sat around and talked. Mostly about our wreck. Everyone wanted to know what had happened, how we were, and how all the insurance stuff was going. Everywhere we went we were greeted with, "Oh....you were the three in the wreck!" Yes, yes we were. Anyway, after a while we headed outside to the pool for a lingerie shower under the stars. And it was so much fun. Gifts were opened, drinks were consumed, and lots of laughing ensued. Katie was given advice by all the other married ladies and then that's when the craziness began. Pool boys were asked if they wanted to be dates for the wedding. Valet boys were asked if they had friends they could bring to be dates for the wedding. And when we were infiltrated by another wedding party, they started called all the single men they knew who were there to see if they wanted to be dates for the wedding. Really, it was hilarious. In the end, no dates were had. After a long day of travel, it was finally time to head back to the room to rest up for the big day.

But not before a little "Cupid Shuffle" action in the room.

The next morning, while everyone else started prepping for the wedding, Alison and I decided to try our skills at riding bikes. I honestly can't tell you when the last time I rode a bike was. Seriously. They say it's something you never forget, but I had my doubts those first few minutes behind the handle bars. I was literally doubled over in laughter the first ten minutes. At least. And it didn't help when Alison ran right off the sidewalk. Gah, that still makes me laugh out loud. Anyway, after a little while, we got the hang of it. And it was a beautiful ride! We rode down to what they call "Driftwood Beach" and after walking around for a bit, turned around and rode back.

This is what most of the ride looked like.

Driftwood Beach

I drifted onto shore with this here tree ;)

After our ride back, we ran up to the room to grab a few things (snacks, haha!) before heading back out to do more exploring around the island. First, we drove the same route as our bike ride so see just how far we had gone. We thought it was going to be six miles, turns out it was 10. Sweet. Then we headed towards the beach.

On our way I had to stop and take a picture of this for the QuadPod :)

As we passed the beach, we saw that the sandbar was out really, really far and people were out walking across it. We decided to hit a few shops, grab a few souvenirs, drinks, and some lunch before heading back to the hotel to throw on our bathing suits. But when we got back to the beach, the sandbar was already gone. Bummer. We had about an hour before we needed to be back at the hotel so we settled down to catch some rays. And it was so windy. Like, our towels wouldn't even stay on the ground windy. Then after about five minutes of laying on the towels, I turned to Alison and said, "Is your towel wet?" We had decided to lay on the "hard sand" for reasons that are beyond me and why is the sand hard? Because it's wet, duh!! Then I sit up and turn to look at the water and what do you know, it's about two feet from us. Hello, high tide!! So we moved the towels a bit. And then decided to just leave altogether. Alison had just bought her towel for $6 at one of the shops so she decided just to throw it away. My towel was one of our nice beach towels from home and when I picked it up, I kid you not, it weighed at least 20 pounds. Aaaand, it ended up in the trash too. What? How was I supposed to get that sand-filled, waterlogged towel back home. No worries, we have enough beach towels in my house to towel a small army. So after that little fiasco, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

Ready for the ceremony to start!

Mr. & Mrs. Derrick Manley!!!

The besties after the ceremony.

After to the ceremony it was off to the ballroom for lots of yummy food, speeches that had the whole room crying and lots of dancing!!

"Reid's Girls"

<3>

<3>

Mr. T again. After his awesome speech. Seriously, in between laughing hysterically, there wasn't a dry eye.

Me and C on the dance floor. Probably after "Cherry Bomb." Check out that hair!! Yep, I've been dancing alright.

Sparklers!!!

And they're off!

It was seriously a great weekend all around. It was great getting away for a few days the week after our wreck. Just to be able to relax and enjoy such an awesome occasion with awesome people was just what the doctor ordered.

It was a beautiful wedding and I wish Derrick and Katie all the happiness in the world.

Until next time Jekyll Island, it was real.