Before the Hurricane, Love in NYC

A lot has happened in New York in the past two weeks. Namely a Hurricane of epic proportions. But the weekend before the storm, we were there celebrating a very special occasion. In a small intimate ceremony at the NYC courthouse, Jeremy's sister Jess got married.

It was a small ordeal but one of the best weddings I've ever been to. I think what made it especially fun was the last minute excitement of it, with only about a month or so of planning ahead of time. Several of us family members flew in from all corners of the country to celebrate Jess and Mike, for a grand attendance of about 16 guests.

The couple say that sometime next year they hope to have a bigger celebration, but I think they will find it hard to top the one they already had.

We arrived Thurs evening, along with most everyone else. Lots of late night frivolity ensued, but not so much that we couldn't get up for our early call time. Dressed and ready to wed by 9:15.

We met at Jess's apartment and she was brilliant enough to rent a party bus which was the perfect size to get us all to the courthouse together. Look closely and you can see that her shoes were a beautiful cobalt blue.

This is Mike. We met him over the summer and approved right away. Tessa loved him. Oh and if you're wondering where the kids are in these pics...they were having fun doing a weekend sleepover with Mamaw and Papaw back in IN. That's right, a kid free weekend!

I'm not sure why but this is one of my favorite pics. So natural. So New York.

At the courthouse there were a million people waiting to be married and we recieved a deli number and put on our patient faces. It was only a little over an hour's wait.

I'm seriously incapable of taking a normal picture. What's wrong with me?

The ceremony was in a little chapel room with a very boisterous officiant, and our little crowd of family snapping pictures like the paparazzi. Jeremy took video of the ceremony and some other stuff throughout the day. Hopefully soon he will edit it together to share!

After the ceremony we were going to head to Central Park for pictures but got caught in traffic. Even party busses get stuck in NY traffic. So we ended up on the library steps instead. 

There I go again, being a picture dork.

These mums at the library were the perfect backdrop. I wonder what they looked like just two days later when the hurricane hit. 

After that, we all ended up at a super fancy restaurant and mostly stopped taking pictures. It was epicly delicious. I think Jeremy is still having dreams about it.

The next day, Mike's family hosted a brunch and then we all hung out and toured around the city while the newlyweds escaped for a couple days to themselves. They had plans to go back to work Monday, but the Hurricane rearranged that for them and they got an extra honeymoon and were mostly unaffected by the storm. Amazingly we all got out of town only hours before the airport was closed, and everyone made it home safely.

It was an awesome wedding and the Hurricane ending made it truly like something out of a movie. We were honored to share this day with Jess and Mike. Welcome to the family Mike, and good luck navigating our craziness!