Nashville!

I spent this past weekend in Nashville, Tennessee celebrating the wedding of my younger cousin, Deanna. It was a great weekend!

Wayne and I drove up on Friday afternoon. Ryan stayed behind with the girls, and Dianne planned on bringing their girls up on Saturday while Zac stayed with Dianne's mom. Wayne and I don't have much time to just sit around and talk, so this was a nice time to catch-up. I have a great big brother! It was a pretty easy drive up. Dad met us in the lobby of the Renaissance Hotel. He and mom had a room on the 20th floor, and Wayne got a room on the 19th floor. For some reason, they gave me a room on the top-level club floor - 25! I had fun teasing them that the Marriott group must like me the best since they gave me card-key only access to a floor. Of course, the cool club-level amenities are only available during the work week, but it's still fun to say I had a room there!

We had a little bit of time to relax before we rode over to the rehearsal dinner with Mom, Dad and Granny. It was great to see Granny too; it's been way too long. When we arrived, we found a very excited Deanna and met her fiance, Matt. He seems like such a nice guy, and we're very happy to have him join our family. Of course, it was wonderful to see Johnny Wayne, Nancy and Jason too. I feel like we don't get to see our Tennessee family nearly enough; life gets so busy. The dinner at Valentino's was delicious; thank you to Matt's family for hosting such a nice dinner. We had appetizers that included shrimp, calamari, mushrooms and scallops. I had grilled salmon for my entree while Wayne had beef medallions; both came with mashed potatoes and asparagus. They had several other options to choose from, but we were both pleased with our choices. For dessert, we enjoyed strawberry cheesecake, but others had tiramisu or chocolate tort. It was all delicious! We sat with two of Deanna's bridesmaids and one of the girls' boyfriend. It was nice to get to know them a little better. Of course, after dinner several toasts were made to the bride, groom and their families. Overall, a lovely evening.

Once we got back to the hotel, I changed into my pajamas, read a magazine for a few minutes, then took two Tylenol PM tablets and promptly fell asleep about 1 AM. I didn't wake up until 10:45...wow, that was nice. I took a quick shower and then of course had to order some room service. You all know it's my favorite meal no matter what the entree is! However, the Renaissance's club sandwich and sweet potato fries were very good. After eating lunch, I drove over to a friend's house. Becky (Cheek) Richardson and I were sorority sisters, and she lives about 15 minutes from the hotel in Nashville. Her husband was out golfing that afternoon, and I got there right after her little boy went down for his nap. We had about 2 hours to just talk and catch up with no interruptions. It was great to see her again! It made us decide we want to try to get some of our other college friends together soon for a little reunion; we're thinking Chattanooga in January will be an easy, family-friendly spot.

I got back to the hotel at 3:45, changed clothes and met Wayne's family at 4:15 to walk over to the church; it was only about 2 blocks from the hotel. McKayla and Molly looked adorable in their dresses, and they were so excited to get to come to the wedding. The ceremony was beautiful. It was fun to see how excited Deanna and Matt were. You can definitely see they have a very special relationship, and we cannot wait to see what their future holds. Deanna looked gorgeous in her dress by the way. She's already a beautiful young woman, but she was gorgeous all dolled up! Fun little tidbit about it: the dress had pockets! I've never seen that on a wedding gown before, and you didn't notice them at all, but sure enough, there were little pockets where she was smart enough to stash a few Kleenex. The ceremony was led by their pastor, and I really liked how he made many personal references throughout the ceremony; he talked to them and not everyone in the audience.

After the wedding and a few pictures, we all headed back to the hotel for the reception. What a great choice for a reception. There was plenty of room inside the ballroom to mingle, dance and eat, or you could step just outside the ballroom if you wanted it a little quieter. They had so much good food to choose from too: a pasta bar (LOVE these!), carving stations for ham and turkey, veggies, fruits...it was all so good! Of course, my favorite part of any reception is the wedding cake and they didn't let me down...yum! McKayla and Molly had a blast dancing pretty much the whole time. I'm not much of a dancer myself, but I love to people-watch; dance floors are a great spot to people-watch so I had a blast. Of course, we received regular UT updates (yea to the Vols for winning!) which only picked up the mood even more. It was also so much fun to watch Deanna and Matt as they had such a great time together and with their friends. During their first dance (it was a nice slow song, but I don't know the name of it), the music suddenly stopped and Michael Jackson's "Beat It" started playing. They started doing his dance from that video...perfectly in sync I might add...which cracked us all up. That played for a couple of minutes and then it went back to their "regular" first dance song. How cute are they?! When it was time for the party to end, they left through a walkway of bubbles and went up the escalator. It was such a wonderful evening. Thank you so much to Johnny Wayne and Nancy for putting together this fantastic and beautiful day. I can't wait to see the pictures!

I love weddings, so I can never go right to sleep after one. I watched a little tv, read some magazines and finally drifted off about 1:30. I woke up about 9:30 and laid around in bed until 10. I talked to Mom and Granny a little before leaving and then hit the road about 11:30. I made it safely home exactly 4 hours later which was a nice drive. I played with the girls and just had a nice evening. It was a good way to come home. It was nice to have a break for a couple of days, but I always love coming home to my wonderful husband and girls.