Jarred & Laura's Wedding

On our way to Atlanta for Jarred & Laura's wedding (3.29.14) Josh and I got so caught up in the ABC road sign game that we ended up in South Carolina. Totally missed the exit and didn't realize it for a good 15 minutes....yikes. After going about 20 miles out of our way, we were finally Atlanta bound.

To give some background info, I've known Jarred since high school. It was his sophomore year, my junior.....I think?? Either way, we somehow formed a friendship via AOL instant messenger.  That's what people did before Facebook. For the longest time, we pretended we didn't know each other at school (other than awkward glances when we crossed paths in the hallway). Once we finally broke the barrier and became friends in real life, we never lost touch. We went to a homecoming dance together in high school, he took me to my first Dave Matthews Band concert during the college years, I visited him in Athens a time or two....he burned me many a mix-CD, then we became adults got real jobs. As the years went on,  I noticed pictures on facebook of him with a very cute new lady friend named Laura and I had a feeling this might be someone special. She looked like a keeper. Not too long after, I got the phone call that he had proposed to her! Never in all our years did I think he would be the one getting married first, but, so it is! I was so happy to be invited to the wedding. 

I wish I had taken more pictures, but since I didn't...I may have to steal a few from Facebook. The wedding itself was very sweet and my favorite part was the reading from the Velveteen Rabbit. I have to add the excerpt because it was so appropriate and I may have to steal the idea one day (with Jarred & Laura's approval of course)

“The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.  "What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?" "Real isn't how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It's a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real." "Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit. "Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don't mind being hurt." "Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?" "It doesn't happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That's why it doesn't happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don't matter at all, because once you are Real you can't be ugly, except to people who don't understand." "I suppose you are real?" said the Rabbit. And then he wished he had not said it, for he thought the Skin Horse might be sensitive. But the Skin Horse only smiled. "The Boy's Uncle made me Real," he said. "That was a great many years ago; but once you are Real you can't become unreal again. It lasts for always.” ― Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

At the reception, Josh and I sat with some of Jarred's friends from high school who I happened to know as well. Also, Laura's maid of honor's family was at our table and they were such genuine, warm, and friendly people. Laura's dad gave a speech that made me and every other girl at the table tear up. Among many wonderful qualities he mentioned about both Laura and Jarred, he said that he could tell Jarred was good for his daughter by the way he paid attention to her and listened to what she had to say. That was the moment I realized how great of a fit they are for one another. I don't know Laura personally, but I've heard nothing but positive things about her. So, Jarred...you have my 110% stamp of approval! (Not that you need it...)

Thanks again for having us at your wedding! I wish you both all the happiness in the world.