Abbye & Billy's Wedding!

Finally, the wedding of the year! We had been looking forward to our best friends' wedding for forever. At least, that's what it felt like. We've known Abbye and Billy since we were freshmen at UF. Their wedding was in St. Petersburg, Fla., since they are both from there. We decided we would drive the 10 hour route since Paul is such a seasoned traveler and flying is expensive! We planned to leave Thursday, but the Saturday before that Paul got an awful stomach bug which lasted until Tuesday. Luckily, he seemed so much better on Wednesday, so we packed up and left the next morning. (Included in our packed bags was trash bags, Clorox wipes, paper towels and ratty old towels... so we were prepared for the worst and praying for the best.) Despite our preparations, the bug seemed completely out of Paul's system and he was a happy camper in the car!

Since we were driving through Gainesville, we had to take the opportunity to visit with Dad, Jess and Malena. They surprised Paul with a birthday party! I dedicated a separate post to this. It was a wonderful party and Paul loved every bit of it! After a few hours there, we got back into the car and drove the last couple hours to Quinn and Erika's apartment. It was a total BFF weekend. We love these guys and were so happy we got to spend time with them!
 

Their dog Stamps has always had a special place in her heart for Michael. Now she got to meet Paul and they loved each other! It was adorable. It was so fun to watch them run around and play. Their other dog, Basil, was a little more shy of Paul. Paul called him "Bagels" which we all agreed was a pretty good name too.

Paul's first Mr. Potato Head creation. Notice the eyes sticking out where the left arm should be.

Paul trying to help Dad win at Madden by distracting Quinn.

All dressed up at the rehearsal dinner!

Erika and I! :)

Cuties

Paul passed out during dinner. He had played hard all day!

So cute.

The bride-to-be and me!

Passed out Paul with Dad and the groom!

The groom, his men and a bonus.

We love each other. :)

Paul loved helping Erika water her plants! This made me really look forward to having some of our own this summer.

My hair all done up and ready for the wedding!

I love this picture. It was such a perfect, beautiful day. This was on the balcony of a room at the Vinoy Renaissance Hotel in downtown St. Pete. All the ladies got ready together there.

I absolutely loved our dresses! So gorgeous.

The bride all dressed up and ready to go!

Obviously, as I was in the wedding, I don't have any pictures of the ceremony, which was at the beautiful Sunken Gardens. It was outside and set against this gorgeous floral backdrop. The readings, although I don't quite remember them, were so perfect for Abbye and Billy and their beautiful love for each other. I feel so lucky to know them and to be able to call them some of our best friends (this includes Q & E of course!). Now if we could just get everyone to move to Pensacola, that would be perfection (Abbye, did you catch that Friends reference right there?)

We lucked out with Paul because Michael's cousin Doug (and Paul's godfather) lives in Tampa and was happy to entertain him at a nearby park for us for a couple hours leading up to the ceremony and through the ceremony itself. This let us really focus on our friends and made it so we weren't worried if he'd be good during the ceremony itself, since we were both in it. We are so grateful to Doug! Paul loves Dougie and had so much fun playing at the park.

I have to say, I would have liked a few more pictures of the reception and I did get some good ones, but all day I had felt kind of under the weather, and walking back down the aisle after the ceremony, I was glad to have Michael as my partner because I was worried I was going to pass out. Thankfully, I made it down the aisle and to a bench. It was kind of funny because the bridal party was full of doctors to be (Billy and Abbye and several of the party graduated from med school in May and of course Michael would also be a doctor in May) so I was well taken care of -- although water was all that I needed. Anyway, as the night went on, I felt worse and worse until I had to hide out in a room downstairs by myself so I could lay down. I felt awful because I was so looking forward to the reception and just wanted to laugh and dance and eat with everyone! But I managed to do a little of that before I crashed.

After the wedding!

Waiting until it was time for the girls to walk out!

Trying not to pass out and appreciating this nice big mirror in a quiet room.

Delicious dinner.

Paul and Abbye!

Paul being adorable with Abbye's niece Marian.

Paul dancing with Erika.

Cake!

Paul had some great dance moves!

Paul actually made it through the entire reception, which lasted until about 10:30. He fell asleep in the car, but woke up in time to see me get sick in the bushes at Quinn and Erika's apartment. He loved to tell this story for about a month after. Paul's bug became mine and I felt awful for the next few days. (This made for an interesting/horrible trip home, but Michael was amazing and took care of Paul and I and did all the driving!) But no one else got sick (to our knowledge) and we had such a wonderful time with our friends!