Reunion via a Wedding

I had a really great weekend, and I hope you did too!

A high school friend got married, which means…informal HIGH SCHOOL REUNION!!!

Every time I get back together with high school friends in a big group, it feels so good and I have so much fun. It’s just easy – that’s the best way to describe it. We all decided to plan an annual summer reunion now that the weddings are winding down.

The reunion began on Friday when Rena came in to town. She lives in Ohio now – way too far from Wisconsin!

Rena and Finley

Finley and I met Rena and her sister at Karben4 (supporting Appleton natives). The three of us shared the super board which had a variety of meats, cheeses, and dips and later finished with dessert.

Chocolate tarte from Karben4

I don’t have a picture to prove it but I celebrated International Beer Day with a Lady Luck, a red ale. It was delicious.

Susan, a best friend of mine and my maid of honor (5 years ago!!!!), arrived Saturday afternoon with her husband. Along with Rena, they stayed at our house Saturday night. Susan had to finish getting ready for the festivities, and she had a little mishap.

Susan and her black plastic covered bangs
Apparently when you set a hot flat iron on black plastic, it melts, adheres to the flat iron, and then sticks to your hair. Whoops! We all had a good laugh but luckily it came out.

My other high school friends stopped by for a drink before heading to the wedding. I miss these girls!

High school friends (and Fin) pre-wedding

The wedding was in Edgerton at a place called Over the Vines. This was a beautiful venue for a wedding, and all of the details Bree and Nate put into it – wow!

The ceremony was outside and was sweet and informal. The bridesmaids wore coral dresses and cowboy boots and the groomsmen had tan suits with coral accents. The weather was perfect and made for great photo opportunities.

After Bree and Nate made it official, it was cocktail time.

A group selfie to show off our mason jar mugs
Aren’t these glasses awesome? Personalized by the guests themselves. What a fun idea!

We took time from catching up and drinking to snap some pictures.

Besties

The reception was held in an old barn on the property. Again, I cannot stress what a gorgeous setting it was for a wedding! You know what else was gorgeous? Bree and Nate.

The happy newlyweds

We all had such a wonderful time, and thankfully have weddings that bring us all back together.

High school friends together again

You may have noticed I didn’t mention Brody or Finley in my wedding recap. That’s because they had their own date at home. This was the longest I had ever been away from Finley and obviously the longest Brody had ever been alone with her.

Brody did awesome and had a wonderful time. Finley even smiled at him for the first time. We had both been nervous about the bottle situation (I’ll write about that in a future post), but she took the bottle at both feedings with no crying! I gave Brody his space to do his thing and only looked on the wifi video monitor a few times to see if she was sleeping.

I did very well being away from her. While I missed her and Brody, it was liberating to be an individual for a while again. There was only one moment where I felt some anxiety being away from her. This also makes me feel much more comfortable about leaving her with a babysitter next weekend while we go to the Great Taste of the Midwest with Bridget and JP.

Yay for weddings!

Questions:
What was the best wedding venue you’ve ever been to?
Mamas: How old was your little one the first time you left him/her for X hours? With a babysitter? Overnight?