Shelby's Life and Whatnot

Mary's Wedding

Weeks and weeks ago we headed to Philadelphia for the wedding of my dear friend and former college roommate, Mary. We arrived on Thursday night, the 17th, and rented our car. We conveniently bought and brought a little portale GPS navigation system. This turned out to be invaluable throughout the trip, although not at first, because the hotel seemed to be located in this bizarre Bermuda Triangle of Willow Grove, PA and we had a great deal of difficulty finding it. Fortunately we did find it and checked in for the night.

Friday we headed to the local mall where there happened to be a Build-A-Bear. Yes, now that I work at BAB, that means that I am compelled to visit a BAB wherever we go. Our store has a mascot named Henry--a stuffed turtle who travels with different employees whenever they go on vacation. That was fun. We then headed over to Mary's where we worked on programs and some last-minute details. Mary was significantly more calm than I was at the equivalent point before my wedding. It may have helped that she was living in the same location where she got married. In retrospect, that's probably one thing I would have done differently about my own wedding. Long-distance planning was killer.

Saturday was the big event. The wedding was held at Cairnwood, a beautiful mansion. The weather was gorgeous--perfect for an outdoor ceremony. Mary spent the majority of the morning taking pictures while myself and the rest of the bridesmaids ran around decorating the tables and taking care of last-minute details. Earlier that morning all the girls had their hair and makeup done. Erica, the 12-year-old Jr. Bridesmaid (Mary's niece) was absolutely in shock about her princess hair updo. It was adorable.

The ceremony was perfect, albeit a bit windy. The cellist nearly lost her sheet music but caught it in time. Mary's veil blew around everywhere, but other than that, it was simply beautiful. Naturally, I cried.

We all moved inside the mansion for dinner. Tables were set up in different rooms and we were all seated in the Fun Room--a group of 3 tables filled with college and high school friends--essentially a large version of the Kid's Table. Two Albion alums were there--Fin and his wife Misty, and Mike Guffey and his wife Kathy. It was great to catch up with them. Guffey is now a doctor (I last saw him when he was in med school in Philly). I really wonder how it's possible for us to all be so old.

Dancing was a blast, as always, and the evening flew by. On the way home, I decided that Kevin really needed to learn how to play Euchre, a card game that's very popular in Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana. Actually it's more of a religion than a card game. At Albion we'd spend hours playing Euchre every night. I easily spent more time playing Euchre than going to class--and not because I skipped that many classes. Finding a deck of cards proved to be a challenge. We first tried a 7-11 but they didn't have any, so we hit another convenience store. I know we looked like a sight--it was 11:00 at night and you had Fin in a nice jacket, Misty all gussied up, and me in a bridesmaids dress with white tennis shoes. We got a handful of snacks to go with our cards and headed back to the hotel. Kevin picked up the game quickly, and he and Misty beat Fin and me the first round.

Sunday we slept in and then headed over to Mary's for a leisurely BBQ. It was great to relax. Kevin coveted their basement (not theirs in particular--he covets every basement). We took it easy the whole day.

Early Monday morning Kevin and I hopped on the train and traveled up to New York City. In retrospect we probably should have stayed in Philadelphia and done Philly stuff, because up to that point we'd been in the suburbs and totally wedding-focused, but we'd bought the NYC train tickets in advance, so we'll just have to take another trip to Philly (aw, shucks, right?).

New York was wonderful, as always. We hit MoMA and I decided, once again, that modern art just really isn't my thing. I really think I've seen my lifetime allotment of Picasso. I was traumatized by the Picasso museum in Barcelona (skip it if you're there--the Miro museum is much better) and I'm just not a big Picasso fan anyway. The most horrifying moment was when we were standing there admiring what is arguably one of Picasso's most famous paintings, the Three Musicians, when a small child ran up and smacked the painting with his hand. The crowd let out a collective gasp and the parents stepped forward and chided him, but it was really appalling. The kid was probably 5 years old--old enough in my opinion to know not to touch anything (and if your child can't keep his hands off of stuff, an art museum should be his last destination). Even afterwards the parents didn't hold his hand or keep him close. Unfortunately the guard was kind of snoozing in the corner and missed the whole thing. In retrospect we probably should have gone over and notified him.

After the museum we walked around some more, hitting two of our favorite stores--The Strand Bookstore and Kate's Paperie. I got Kevin a cool fountain pen at Kate's for being so supportive and such a good sport at the wedding. He was definitely a patient chauffeur and gopher.

Tuesday morning we headed to downtown Philadelphia. Upon our arrival we found that tickets to Independence Hall were sold out for the day so that's one thing we'll have to go back and see. Instead we headed over to the Liberty Bell, then walked to Benjamin Franklin's house (or more accurately, the piece of land where Benjamin Franklin's house used to be, and its small museum), and then to Reading Terminal Market (highly recommend) for cheesesteaks. We were then off to the airport and back home.

Our flight was delayed but otherwise uneventful and we arrived home exhausted but happy. All in all it was a wonderful trip, and we left plenty of things undone so a return trip is definitely in order.

Congratulations Mary and Aaron!