St. Louis Wedding

One of the advantages of having a husband that travels a lot for work is all the free rewards you get from airlines, hotels, and car rental agencies. Hence, Rinar and I decided to go to his cousin's wedding in St. Louis for one day. We left early yesterday morning and arrived in St. Louis at 1pm. Then we grabbed a quick lunch, changed in the bathroom and went to the wedding with 2 minutes to spare.

It was at the Second Presbyterian church in the downtown area of St. Louis and it was gorgeous. The stain glass windows were from Tiffany's and there was an incredible organ as well. Really cool.

The wedding was quite lovely and Megan looked amazing. Everyone had these huge smiles plastered all over their faces. It was wonderful to see so much joy and to be a part of it.

Her cousin Allison from Washington sang "The Prayer" with some guy and it was A-MAZING. Wow. Plus the accoustics in the church were truly heavenly. I wish I could sing in that church, just for the pure joy of it.

Here is the happy father with Mitchell and Michael. But apparently Mitchell is now Ben and has been using this assumed identity for the last few months. Don't ask me which one is which because I have no flippin' clue.

Here he is...Mitchell/Ben/Michael/Harvey...something like that.

This is Rinar's other cousin Angie. She looked so beautiful in her bridesmaid dress. Don't you love the flowers.

Funny thing...Megan has another sister, Morgan. I watched the entire wedding: procession, ceremony, grand exit, the whole ordeal and I didn't see her anywhere. As we were walking out, I mentioned this to Rinar and he guessed that maybe Morgan was at camp or something. I told him he was completely nuts. Do you really think she would miss her sister's wedding? Come on!

Guess who that is?

Yeah! Morgan. I couldn't believe it. We both felt a little silly. We just think of her as a perpetual 9 year-old for some reason. She is all grown-up people.

The happy couple leaving the church. Isn't that so beautiful? Amazing. Then the pastor accidentally stepped on her very long veil and it almost got pulled completely out of her hair. Whoops!

Look at that sweet ride. What kind of car is that anyways?

Rinar with his Aunt Helen. She is one cool lady.

At the reception, cutting the cake. I chose this picture to illustrate that there were A LOT of pictures taken of this moment in their life. There must have been 15 people photographing this as you can see by the blinding light. I hope their eyesight is okay still.

Dad dancing with his newly married daughter. The song was "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong.

Rinar and Paul meet for the first time.

"This is cousin Rinar!"

We made it into the official photographs because we were the only people who came from John's side of the family. I am glad I liked my dress. Rinar's tie even coordinated with it. That's what happens when you have been married for 14 years.

After the wedding was over, we headed over to John's house to play 8 and Back!!! That's right. I actually got to play 8 and Back. It has been at least 3 weeks since I last played it. I almost forgot how to play. But luckily, John and Helen invited over their friends, Chris and Jenn to play with us. They have improved the rules and we actually played with 2 decks. These two were hilarious and I do believe that Chris never stopped talking the entire time we were there. No, that's not true. He did have to swallow once in a while.

It is amazing how funny things are when you play until 1am, going on only 4 hours of sleep. Things were really funny. I laughed a lot. Then the guys decided to play ping-pong for another hour, naturally. I was upstairs waiting with Jenn and Helen and as I was answering a question she asked me, I watched her fall asleep with her face in her hands, sitting on the fireplace. It was quite funny. Poor lady. I hope she gets some sleep tonight.

It was a wonderful little trip and I am grateful we could spend time with our favorite Missourians.