Sandor and I (along with the rest of the Charleston crowd) headed to NC on Friday the 12th to start the weekend of parties that was Julia and Joe's wedding! We stopped by Brandy and John's house, which was going to be our jumping off place for the weekend, to change and grab a bite to eat. The pup dog stayed with her brother while we continued onward an additional hour to Asheville. Friday night we joined those who had been there for the rehearsal and following dinner for dessert and bluegrass. It was a gorgeous building and much to my sugar-fiend delight there were delicious desserts to enjoy. It was also fun to hang out with everyone and find out what some of the people I pretty much only see at Julia/Joe parties have been up to. When we left them all at midnight to head back to Granite Falls a good portion of people were headed out for some later night partying...not I said the sleepy Becky!
The next morning we headed to Biltmore for a brunch. It was held at a beautiful location and the food was INCREDIBLE! Possibly the best biscuits and gravy I've ever had in my life, bacon, sausage, eggs, danishes, awesome potatoes, and fruit, not to mention a totally separate table with omelets to order, and a third one for waffles and toppings. It was one of those meals where you are disgustingly full but want to keep eating because the food is so good!
Julia was originally supposed to leave halfway through the breakfast at which point Joe was to show up so they didn't see each other on the morning of the wedding. That didn't really work out, which was nice since it gave Julia more time to say hello to her fan base :)
After breakfast Sandor and I headed off to spend our day exploring Asheville. With as often as we go to visit Brandy you would think we would have visited Asheville, but alas we had not. The first store up was one of the places Joe and Julia were registered, New Morning Gallery. It was AWESOME! We had such a great time looking around the store, and we even ended up getting their wedding present (thankfully there was one last thing on the registry that was right in the price range we wanted to spend! it was meant to be!). Afterwards we headed to downtown, picked a place to park and wandered around. It really was quite fun. We picked up sandwiches for Jason, Holly and us and met them at the hotel they were staying at to change for the wedding (this kept us from having to drive an hour back to Brandy's and then an hour back for the wedding - and much simplified our day).The wedding was great. We ended up with a good spot in the church where we could see the whole ceremony. Julia of course looked awesome and even started crying which I thought was super cute because it was so unlike her. After the ceremony we headed out to the reception location, which unfortunately was the ONLY place I had not printed out directions for. There were directions on their site and I figured we would be following Maia and Ad who knew where it was so I didn't worry about it. So, when we arrived outside the church and couldn't find Maia and Ad I was a bit concerned, but still figured the directions would get us there. Little did I know these were the most out of the way difficult directions possible. It ended up taking us nearly 45 minutes and we drove pretty much the extent of Biltmore Ave, which changes names a good 3 times. By the time we made our 4th turn around somewhere Holly, Jason, Sandor and I were laughing hysterically at the whole experience, although I don't know that Sue and Eddie thought it was quite as funny trying to follow us. We FINALLY arrived and just so happened to do so at the same time as the bride and groom.
Once we were there we enjoyed the delicious food and drinks (well the rest of the group did, it was Coke and Ginger Ale for me) and towards the end of the night took up dancing with the rest of the crazy crowd. With Julia being Greek we got to see some Greek dancing which was really fun, and Sandor even was pulled into the circle at once point which we though was hilarious. I think that with the exception of cutting the cake, taking some pictures, and coming to see us for a few short moments to try on her new eyepatch (to be explained shortly) she danced the whole night! It was great fun!
So, the eyepatch...earlier in the week we had called to see how Julia's pre-wedding week was going and found out she was getting a sty in her eye and was quite pissed about it, naturally. When Maia told Jason this he searched for wedding eyepatches online and lo and behold they actually do exist. They thought it was so hilarious, but they were a bit overpriced for a joke. Thankfully Sue came in and saw them and in all her craftiness said she could make one that night. And make one she did! Thankfully the sty went away so Julia had nothing to worry about, but her wearing it was hilarious!
All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. Full of fun and laughs, which in my opinion are a pretty good indicator of a weekend. And Julia and Joe are officially the Byrd-Dukes as we like to refer to them :)
Great post!
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