USA Part Deux. San Diego for BT and Joe's Wedding

One of the best excuses for travel is a wedding. It is the reason for my first, second, and upcoming third trip back to the US since moving overseas, so yeah, I love them!

The wedding of Brittney Taylor and Joe Cournillaud brought me back to San Diego for the first time since I left last July. It could not have come at a better time. By March I was pretty homesick after a long cold/wet winter in England and some tough times around the holidays.

The day of the wedding turned out to have perfect weather and I was so excited to see so many of my friends that live all over the US in one place!

The lovely setting.

BT, I know you are thinking these are not your flowers and you are right! I didn't get a picture beforehand so I found this one online. I wanted to share the breathtaking setting with everyone reading this :-)

Here comes the bride!

They wrote beautiful vows to one another. I am constantly in awe of people who can do this with such grace. I would have turned into a blubbering mess if I tried to do this at my own wedding.

You may now kiss the bride!!

Mr. and Mrs. Cournillaud :-)

Cocktail hour. The first of many Pi Phi photos that night. Here we are still looking classy posing in front of the vines.

Later in the evening when we were able to snag a photo with the lovely bride.
SISTERS!

With one of my besties, Jordan.

Finally got a shot with just me and the bride. How gorgeous is she?? :-)

Dancing the night away.

Some of my favorite San Diego girls.

Yeah, we managed to have a pretty good time.

Thanks BT and Joe for throwing a great party! So happy I got to celebrate with you!!

Back in the USA! New Orleans for Jordan and Elizabeth's Wedding

In November 2010, I made my first trip back across the pond since moving to England to attend the wedding of Jordan and Elizabeth in New Orleans. I would not have missed this wedding for anything! Elizabeth was a former roomie of mine in San Diego and Jordan and I are very good friends. I got to play cupid with these two and introduced them in 2006.

It is funny being friends with people who like each other. Shortly after that initial introduction, they both told me privately they were interested in the other. A couple of weeks later, we had our 1st (of what became an annual) Halloween party. My girlfriends and I always had a group costume and since that first year, Jordan would join in with our theme in some sort of way.

For this party, we dressed as "The Madres". A female baseball team version of the San Diego Padres. Jordan was our ball boy.

Let's just say Cupid's arrow firmly struck for these two that night........

......or maybe it was the shots that finally gave them the courage to agree to a official first date :-)


These two have been great friends of mine through the years and even caught the bouquet and garter at mine and Bill's wedding!! Jordan proposed just a few weeks later :-)


Fast forward a year to their destination wedding in New Orleans!! It was so great to spend time with some of my favorite people who I missed so much!



The setting was a gorgeous property in Louisiana called Oak Alley Plantation.

The ceremony site.

The wedding started at sunset and was gorgeous.


We danced the night away under the stars (and heaters!!) to celebrate the happy couple.

The day after the wedding I continued on back home to Milwaukee. To be continued....