Bridesmaid-in

Last month my middle school/high school friend Bernadette got married!! It's rare that I'm able to attend a wedding let alone get to be a member of the bridal party so this was an extra special weekend for me. The Thursday before Paul and I headed down to San Diego to spend some time with both our families. Friday morning the bride and her maids had appointments for mani/pedi's before we got together for the rehearsal + dinner. It was so fun to be a part of all the pre-wedding festivities! After the rehearsal, the groom's parents hosted an incredible dinner at Stone Brewery. Paul and I were so excited because we had wanted to go to Stone forever. Their IPA is currently Paul's drink of choice and we've heard the food is equally incredible. It must be, because each time we went we were turned away due to a 2 hour wait!

Well our expectations were definitely met. The dinner party took place in their lower beer garden. Great food, drinks and friends :) The next morning all the bridesmaids got together for hair + makeup. I got my hair done but decided to do my own makeup. Hopefully it looked ok! Bernadette was freakishly calm and we had so much fun that morning. The entire wedding was great the rest of the day/evening…nothing major happened except for the limo breaking down on its way to pick us up before the ceremony, oops! I've been to my fair share of weddings and 90% of the time I'm at work so in a sad way weddings have lost their emotional factor for me. I've teared up from time to time but it's very rare now, so I was not expecting to cry at all during Bernadette's wedding. I was solid until their first dance. I think it was just at that moment I realized how incredible it was to be in that moment watching my friend of over 10 years dancing with her husband. It was a flood of emotion and I say flood literally because the tears were seriously flooding. I actually had to turn my back and let it all out, plus I rate about an 8 on a scale of 1-10 of ugly criers. It's real guys.

I thought back to my first memory of Bernadette. All our cheer adventures. Being the only 2 who were able to pull an all nighter together the first night at Nationals in Florida when we were in 8th grade. Track meets in high school, more cheer memories. Getting ready for homecomings and proms together, crying our last night before leaving to college. I was a mess guys. But I just love my Berna. She is a once in a lifetime friend and I couldn't be more thrilled to see her marry Casey. A few more iPhone snaps below…

My husband teaches me everything I know style wise...