Gabe and I got in our limo and the groomsmen and bridesmaids piled into theirs. My parents and Gabe's mom and cousin (he and the rest of the family finally arrived during the gospel reading at the ceremony) got in their own limo. We all left the campus and headed out to the hotel. The photographer yelled at us to wait for him so he could follow us out of the campus and back to the highway, but unfortunately, our driver neglected to wait. But that was fine, because our wedding party decided they needed to stop at a liquor store on the way. So their limo, our limo and (eventually) the photographer all stopped in town while Mike and Dave ran in to buy a case of beer. They got back in the limo and we were on our way again, now Gabe and I in the lead.

When we hit a red light, Dave jumped out of the limo behind us with the case of beer, knocked on our window, and asked "Would you like a frosty beverage?" I freaked out and he ran back to his limo. (I wasn't upset at all - I actually found it pretty funny, but I was worried the light would change and we'd leave Dave in the middle of South Orange Ave!) We made it to the USGA Museum and grounds and took all kinds of fun photos. The back-up photographer met us there and kind of tag-teamed with our photographer.

I must say, I am so happy our photographer stuck it out as long as he did for us. He was obviously not feeling well, but he was still so much more fun and personable then the back-up he brought. The only thing that saved her was our original photographer's assistant, Valerie. She was a kick, and made sure we were all smiling and happy in all photos. She was also great at carrying my train (although it still got filthy) and flowers and snapping off photos with Maria's camera when we asked.

We finished up and piled back into the limo (all 8 of us were in one limo at this point). I drank a glass and a half of champagne in the car and we arrived at the hotel at about 6:15 PM, 15 minutes into the cocktail hour. I still wasn't hungry or even thirsty, but I managed to drink another half a glass of champagne and gulp down about nine or ten hors d'oeuvres. We had our own personal waitress for the night and she was terrific - she brought all the hors d'oeuvres into our "bridal room" during cocktail hour and made sure everything got into the reception. We made it out to the terrace at about 6:45 PM and chatted with a few of the guests but we didn't have too much time since the reception was to start at 7:00 PM and they wanted us ready for the introductions. We saw the DJ briefly and we made some last minute song changes and executive decisions, then we were rushed over to the ballroom...

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