Mr. and Mrs. Hedges

Congratulations to the newlyweds, Brian and Keesha Hedges!



We enjoyed a full week and weekend in Northern VA to prepare and celebrate this past weekend's wedding. There were 19 people at my in-law's house, including 7 children ages 10 and under. While there were moments we all looked for an excuse to go to the store, run a non-essential errand or just lock ourselves in the bathroom, I was amazed at how well this actually worked out. As long as you were limber enough to get through all the suitcases, beds and toys you could survive.

The wedding festivities began on Friday with a ceremony and luncheon for about 35 family members at Pinzimini, a yummy restaurant at the Westin in Arlington. We had our own private room, which was great for the 10+ children that were there, so they could run around and play freely with toys and games. Some friends of Brian and Keesha's joined us later to celebrate, and our afternoon lunch turned into 11 hours at the Westin. It was a fun evening and great to spend time with people we don't get to see that often. Here are some pics from Friday.


Geoff and the beautiful bride.


The girls playing after lunch (Mary-Michael was rarely alone and untouched the entire trip with all these doting girls).


The grandkids - Makenzie, Mary-Michael and Jace.


The kids - Melissa, Geoff, Keesha and Kameron.

On Saturday, a small bus picked up the Lawrence side in Alexandria and took us to Sonoma, a wine bar in DC. We joined about 130 others for a lovely cocktail hour that lasted until about 6pm. From there, the little ones went home to hang out with a sitter and all the adults headed to the after party at Restaurant 3, which is Brian and Keesha's "Cheers" as they call it. All the bartenders and waiters had shirts on that said "We love Brian and Keesha," which was really sweet and a true testament to how loved they really are. The only sad moment of the evening was watching VCU lose, but otherwise, we closed down the place and left around 1:30am. My old self is not used to these late nights nor several hours of dancing. It was a fabulous time though. Now I need a vacation to recover from my vacation! Here are a few pictures from Saturday.



Us with the bride at Sonoma.


Mother of the bride, sister of the bride and us!


A moment alone - Grandma and Grandpa treated us to a lot of time to ourselves. Thank you!


And the dancing begins!