Officiated my first wedding....

My nephew has been contemplating the marriage proposal for some time and last year, asked the big question finally!   Somewhere along the way he asked "Uncle Rick, can you marry us?"  Well a few years back I'd gotten ordained as a Dudeism Priest as a joke, but  ... was supposed to be legit.  However after he asked me, I went to the Universal Life Church Monastery where it just felt..... 'legit.' (they both are btw).  Got the certificate mailed to me, etc to make sure all was above board.   All good and ready to go!

Just Take It Easy, Mankind

Now the question was ... where to do this?  When?  Initially it was to be a Mexico event on the island of Cozumel but...   they have their own process and to keep this 100% legal, we chose to do this in Mississippi.  Now, it was just a matter of dates.  My Brother in Laws' bday (Paul's Dad) is July 2nd and this ... was chosen as the special date.  Never hurts to have a nice long holiday weekend tied to it as well?  So, the date was chosen.  We rented our fav' AirBnB in the area and it was just a matter of waiting until the date.  However in the meantime, we purchased a second home here on the coast in Mississippi so we leveraged the AirBnB for overflow family to stay at, and we'd head 'home' to MS for that weekend.  Now ... I just needed to come  up with the vows.  This was foreign territory for me and outside my comfort zone (it'd been thirty some years since I'd said mine) so .. off to research.  Found a  plethora of examples and was able to leverage the lot to fine tune their own which worked out perfect.

Well....   as we're getting closer I'm getting a notch excited. I'm not only a lil' nervous about my role, but my baby girl is flying in to New Orleans a few days prior, so that drives my schedule to get to MS so I can pick her up (1.5 hours each way to/from MSY).  We always show up early before others to make sure the house is in order, etc... so ...   Tuesday it is.  Jess is in Wed.  Dad is rolling in Thursday.  Wedding is on Friday.  Reception is on Saturday. And we've got my nephew's Baby Shower (ok .. his girlfriends) on Sunday.  Jess is out on Monday.  I've got a schedule ... now... time to roll in and kick it all up!

 Gotta' love it when we are here in MS.... we're just a few miles from my nephew's home.  His new bride drives right by ours everyday to/from work so there are so many upsides here.  Well, Tuesday night they roll up and an awesome weekend begins.  Lotta' sipping and good times..... but I kicked them out at 11pm ONLY because Beth has to work the following morning.  Still, I'm dragging a notch the next morning.. which is how EVERY morning will be since...   it's game on for an entire week.  One of the things down in this area that I still haven 't gotten used to is all the Daiquiri bars.  Dozens of flavors/liquors in frozen machines churning away .. and... you can walk in, order, pop a straw in .. and walk out the door with them. Addicting!  Well, we're doing it this Wed.. and ...  time to head to the airport.. sorta.   Funny thing is .. we were at my nephew's and I'm basing my schedule off the time I'm seeing on his TV screen (which it turns out is an hour off). So,  when we headed to New Orleans .. . we're an hour earlier than expected. No problem; we head to Bourbon Street for his fav' Po Boy hole in the wall!   He wasn't lying ....  NOLA's Po Boys rocked ... and across the street we grab some Purple Voodoo Frozen Daiquiris.... located our vehicle ..and off to the airport on the north side of the city.  We pull up into a lil chaos; obviously busy due to the 4th of July weekend... .grab my lil girl and .... headed back home to MS. Life is good. We all do some catching up on the back porch .. .and ... zzzz

Thursday is finally here.  Family is rolling in from Northern MS and Arkansas.  We'll migrate over to Paul's' where he's got the music cranked up a lil downstairs, coolers iced down with adult beverages and

...   it's just .. relaxing.  Thursday night .... nice change up.  Most of us are here and it just feels... right. Paul's daughter is here and I haven't seen here in about... fifteen + years? Damned time flies. We soon realize nobody has thought through what we'll do for dinner ... so a quick call to Domino's by Beth and seven pizza boxes show up ... perfecto!  By the end of the night lot of dancing ...   music..... good times.  It's a warm Mississippi evening and I'll be jumping in that shower when I get home to cool off, like I will every night. Hell, I'm taking a minimum of two showers a day and changing clothes multiple times....  every shirt I swap out of is drenched with sweat.....love it.  I miss this weather.

 

Hour before the ceremony

Another morning... moving slow. This is the big day .....  Java on the porch, catching up with my baby girl ....   planning on what we do for the next 1/2 day .. .wedding isn't until 7pm.  Kicker is ... the weather. Beth has been worried for weeks now.  The entire week, weather has been great up until now.. but.. it's been raining this day. Supposed to keep raining most of the day.  We've got a contingency plan to have it here at my place downstairs..

Success!

but... that'll suck when it's always been planned as a beach wedding. So... we're glued to the radar screen.  I'm 99.9% sure we'll have a break in the weather.. and .. we do.  Hour before.. it was pouring.  Hour after it.. pouring. .. but ... they luck out and we're blessed with a great evening of weather for the ceremony.  As Beth is being walked

Check out them clouds!

by her Dad, Paul's Dad and my Dad, you can see the looming dark skies behind them, working it's way to us but it we'll make it out of there in time.  Paul has his jeep booming the music for the ceremony from the edge of the sand and overall, the ceremony goes well without a hitch (literally ... sorry Hitch that you didn't make it!).  We didn't rehearse a single thing and I was shocked there were no bumps along the way.... we laughed through any parts that ... maybe we should have rehearsed?  Soon, they were sipping a shot each of Azul Tequila to celebrate, then the Bride and Groom kissed and ...  we had a newly married couple within our ranks!  Within an hour folks were headed home .. out for the night ... . few over to my home.  About the time we rolled up to my driveway, the rain was coming down... we pulled it off!  Congrats Pablo' and Beth!

Saturday we head to Tristons' for the follow on reception, where a craw-fish boil is the main course.  Took awhile to herd the cats but by 4pm the cooker is boiling, drinks are flowing and family and friends are having a great time.   Great time?  Awesome time!   But .... Paul gave his dad a big ass bottle of JD for his B'day and .. .he opened  it... noooooooooooooo!   Lets just say ...  it was party time.  I don't know of anyone that didn't have a good time...  Sober or Induced.

MUDBUGS!!!

Sunday .. moving slow.  Damned that Jack!  But, nothing a few Bloody Marys can't fix.. and .. did.  Today we're rolling over to Triston's GF's Baby shower and Trina's home.  She's got a nice lil' place over in Waveland with a smaller pool in the back that works out perfect.  She cranked up her new grill, made us all some awesome burgers and dogs an a Blackstone grill that made me a believer .. yum!   With all the fixings, perfecto'.  I brought in a gallon of frozen daiquiri with me, so I'm set for the day with a cold drink(s).  Water is a perfect temp and I'll spend half the day floating away in the pool.  But, 4 1/2 hours later... time to roll.  Having my daughter around this week has been a double blessing.  She doesn't drink so I've got a DD which sat fine with me. Back at the house, I slide into my hammock and sneak in a combat nap ...  As always, folks roll in later and we kick it up ...again!  I'm starting to see a trend here?

Good times

We filled up the pool!

Triston ... being a bum

Happy 4th!

There's the wedding cake!

 

Monday ...we'll work our way over to Bacchus On The Beach which was awesome.  Upper end menu, outside seating, sunny day; score!  I'm not even hungry after Lucy made me a small breakfast .. but..

oysters are calling my name .  They have a half dozen diff' options for them, but Raw it is for the appetizer... and Paul orders some baked ones that were off the charts .. and .. they accidentally made us a second dozen of them.. so .. we took 'em!  Jessica got a Tuna Salad with Ahi Tuna that was off the charts...  decadent!   Afterwards .. we headed out for more Daiquiris then back to the house.  Paul and I would quickly find a place to park it for a nap ... I got the hammock, he got the cushioned chairs.  Thank god because I was dragging ass from the previous night and that nap rocked!   Soon I found myself headed back to New Orleans to drop my baby girl off for her trip back to the West Coast .... yeah .. that sucked. On a postitive note, second time we'd seen each other within a 3 month period... I can live with that.  Nine minutes later, home with Lucy .. and for the first time in a week .. we've got a quiet home. Screw it... cleaned up, jumped in bed.. and ...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...   We were beat!

Someone say .. DAQUIRIS?

 

Tuesday, finally had the locks on the new home changed. First time I've ever done that ...   for five doors (3 of those had deadbolts), all keyed identical .. $170 total.... not bad? Grabbed some battery tenders for toys in the garage... .locked up .. headed home.  Eight hours later, Home Sweet Home back in Tejas.   

What an awesome week with my nephew and his bride.  Next up....  I officiate my Nieces wedding towards the end of the month. Maybe I found an income source for my future retirement?

The Bride

CONGRATS you Two!