Fifth Family Wedding

We had 11 grandchildren. One died at age 2.5
The first marriage was 2008 - she had a son in 2012 and is now divorced
The second marriage was 2016 - he has three boys born 2015, 2019 and 2020
The third marriage was 2017 - she divorced in a year and is now in a committed relationship - he has a son and she just had a daughter in 2021
The fourth marriage was 2019 - he has a son born December 2020
This was our fifth grandchild to get married
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The Preparations

J and Andrea

J., my youngest grandson, the son of my youngest daughter E. was getting married on Saturday July 24th in Blacksburg, VA Because of the pandemic J and Andrea planned a very small wedding. (They did the planning themselves) They weren't sure when they planned it how many guests the state would allow them to have (at one time the limit was 10).

In the end, the total number of guests at the wedding was 66 people. It was only the families of the bride and groom (mother, father, siblings), grandparents of the bride and groom, and the aunts and uncles of the bride and groom (no cousins). Plus the wedding party of 3 bridesmaids and 6 groomsmen and some Significant Others

We had given them our main present in June, but they had a cast iron frying pan on their list of things that they wanted. And I had inherited two of them from my mom. So we put one of them in a box with two cookbooks (on cooking things with in cast iron pans) that Bob ordered and some dish towels, and I added the photos of my grandson when he was younger. Bob was looking for wedding wrapping paper and cards for about a month. I already had some wedding wrapping paper. So after we found that for him, he wrapped the package.

Present that Bob wrapped

I decided what to wear at the wedding and got packed. Then I found a dress that I had ordered and it hadn't come in time to wear to Rob's son's wedding, and changed my mind about what to wear and had to repack. I decided not to take the scooter - just to take the rollator which is a type of walker which I can sit on if I get tired.

My son Rob offered to drive us down to the wedding - a 5 hour drive which would be difficult for Bob. So I gladly accepted. Rob was coming down here on Friday (another 5 hour drive from NJ). I thought he would leave Friday after work and spend the night here and then drive us down on Saturday. Since the wedding was at 5:30 pm on Saturday, I was a little worried about getting to the hotel in time to change clothes and then drive half an hour to the wedding. But I thought it would work out.

E (as the groom's mother/family) is doing the rehearsal dinner on Friday. She inadvertently said that the out of town guests could come. But basically everyone coming to the wedding is out of town including the wedding party who are all flying in from Texas. The brides mother is coming in a WEEK early. Her grandparents are driving up from Florida and her aunts and uncles are driving up from SC. So if all the out of town guests attended, it would be 40 people. All of Andrea's family and none of J's family because Bob and I and Rob and B and D were coming down on Saturday. J was upset because he said he didn't want a lot of people at the rehearsal dinner that he had never met, and Andrea didn't want her aunts and uncles there either. So E had to walk it back and say that just parents, grandparents, siblings and the wedding party would be at the rehearsal dinner. As it was, that was going to be more than 20 people.

We just have a hotel room for one night and the cat sitter is only doing one day. So when Bob and I were invited to the rehearsal dinner Friday night, I declined as we wouldn't be there on Friday.

When I talked to Rob on the phone I found out that he took off work on Friday and was driving part way down on Thursday night, so it would be possible for us (but not him or Kathy) to go to the rehearsal dinner. We'd both have to change our hotel reservations, and change the cat lady's dates. I debated over whether I should do that. And decided not to. I was comfortable with that decision (not to change) but I was regretful.

Wednesday 21 July 2021

We were the last to know.

On Wednesday night before the wedding, my children were discussing on FB chat their schedules for getting to the wedding (B was riding her motorcycle over and D was coming down Saturday morning), and I found that Rob was taking off work on Friday and coming partway down from NJ after work on Thursday and driving the whole rest of the way on Friday.

Whoa.

So I called the hotel and extended the hotel reservation, informed the cat lady by email that she needed to come an extra day, RSVPed to the rehearsal dinner, and told Bob. He had bought a chicken to roast for dinner Friday so he was a little upset, but he put the chicken in the freezer.

Friday 23 July, 2021

Rob arrived about noon, and we started off. Although he took off work, he was actually still working - having many conversations on his phone as he drove. It was a fascinating window into what he does. He works for a company that does specialized hauling. He had a load out in Ohio which was over height and he needed to arrange for a truck with a height stick to go ahead of the load so that it wouldn't get stuck under bridges etc.

But the main thing was he was transporting huge beams of steel into NYC. The trailer that the beam was on had 16 axles and required a man in front and another man in the back like with a long fire truck to steer the trailer. With the load it was 14 feet wide. He had to get permission from 4 different organizations to take the load into the building site. This particular day, they were going over the George Washington Bridge at 10 pm and he needed two bucket trucks (to raise power lines) because the load was taller than usual and they hadn't told him it would be that tall.

As we went across the Nice bridge (on US 301 between MD and VA) he remarked that a rival company was building a crane for the construction of the new bridge, and said that he had thought of bidding on that project. So I took a photo of some of the cranes as we went across.

Cranes from the bridge

On the bridge heading for VA

He was also telling us that they had started construction on the bridge that they normally come out of NYC on, and they were going to have to take the big trailer apart on the site (8 axles in each piece) and put it on flatbed trucks to take it out of the city.

Rob's trailer

bAbout 1:30, we stopped at WaWa for a bathroom break and Rob and Kathy got something to eat. I asked for a Breakfast sandwich (egg, bacon, cheese biscuit) and they were out so they got me a bacon, egg, cheese sausage panini which was good but too much for me to eat.

breakfast sandwich

Rob couldn't get the hotel on his GPS in the car so he put another hotel at the interchange, and that hotel was on the other side of the highway. When we turned around, we went by the site of the rehearsal dinner.

We got to the hotel (a Holiday Inn Express and Suites) about 5. I gave them my ID to check in, and girl checking us in asked if the reservation was for Robert, and I said it was, but that there were two reservations for Robert as my son is also Robert. This was confusing to her. Finally she asked if she should charge the reservation on the card that was listed, and my son asked what the card number was - it was his card. When I changed the reservation, apparently my card number got lost. So I gave her my credit card for my room and his reservation was charged on his card. We were in 304 (almost at the end of the corridor), Rob was in 307, and B texted that she was in 309.

I tried to phone 307 but the phone wouldn't work. Bob didn't believe me and tried it himself, but he couldn't make it work either. So I called down to the desk on my cell phone and also told them that the outlet next to the sink was dead, and that I wanted a tub seat for the shower.

The rehearsal dinner wasn't until 6:45 and E said she would come to the hotel and pick us up. As we were leaving the man came up with the shower seat and to fix the phone and the outlet. I knew where it was because I had looked it up on google maps. E had rented a van (she was worried that there wouldn't be a car for her because of the shortages due to the pandemic). So it was E and her husband Bill, her two daughter, Phyllis (Bill's mother), me and Bob and we all fitted in the van. I think our children and Bill's brother TJ went out for pizza

Mother, brother, bride's father's mother and father

The dinner was a buffet because Beth said that she had to deal with various dietary problems - nut allergies (her youngest daughter and one of the groomsmen), lactose intolerance (brides' mother), and gluten allergies (older daughter and one of the bridesmaids). The buffet had various stations set up. Buffets are normally hard for me, but I thought with the walker I would have a place to put what I picked. Well I did, but it couldn't handle two plates and a glass, so someone helped me out.

I sat at a table with some of the wedding party and we had an interesting conversation.

There was a slide show on a big screen which I found out later that our youngest granddaughter had done - apparently her teacher was impressed with it and gave her an A on it. (She is 15 and in high school). It was side by side photos of the bride and groom at parallel points in their lives - J with his grandmother and Andrea with her grandfather etc. If I had known that she did it I would have taken more photos of it.

Slide show in the background

After we ate, there were speeches and toasts.

Brides mother giving a toast - lady in the white blouse is the mother of the bride's mother

E introduced me to one of the groomsmen whose last name was Sullivent and we discussed his ancestry. J and Andrea opened the present that Bob had wrapped. It was so well wrapped that he had to have a knife to get into it.

J and Andrea

We came back to the hotel. We co-opted the breakfast area tables and played Mexican train dominoes. It was me and Phyllis (the two grandmothers), Rob, his wife Kathy, B, E, Bill, TJ, and our two granddaughters. We arranged ourselves in enough teams so that we had one free train station. I went to bed about 11 but I think some of them played on until 2 a.m.

Setting up and Putting the trains in the station

Granddaughter playing Mexican Train Dominos

I did some research on Ancestry to try to figure out where the Sullivents came from.

The cat lady sent me a message that she had seen the two girls but Orange was nowhere to be found.

Saturday 24 July, 2021

The wedding was not until 5:30, so we got up and went to breakfast in the hotel (which was good) and then I went swimming in the hotel pool, which was heated. It was very relaxing, plus I did some of the exercises that I do in water aerobics.

Then E and Bill took all of us out to lunch at a place called Macado's. There were 14 of us, and they tried to put us all at one table, but five of us split off and sat at another table so we just had 9 at our table.

Groomsmen at luncn

Building a tower with the menus

Granddaughter hiding her face - getting ready to eat a big sandwich

Bob, E and Bill

I had a cheese quesadilla which was just enough for lunch.

My quesideilla and B's sandwich

Bob wasn't sitting next to me (I usually suggest things for him to order that he might like) so he ordered chicken salad which was far too much for him to eat.

Bob's salad

Now it was time to go to the wedding. It was a drive of 15 miles (taking about half an hour) through the deep country on three digit Virginia roads. (629 to 624 to 630). We were told not to take photos of the ceremony, so I didn't even take my camera- just my cell phone.

E and I had tried to figure out how I would get to the wedding - looking at the site on Google maps. After the rehearsal, E told me that I could be driven up the hill and could wait under the pagoda. So Rob drove along the side of the hill and I got out up there. He and Kathy and Bob went back to the parking lot and walked up the hill. It was cloudy and there was a breeze so it wasn't too hot.

Wedding set- up

DJ setting up equipment

Bride's grandmother

My wrist corsage

D, Rob and Dave (D's husband)

It was a beautiful view. It looked like rain but the clouds made it cooler and there was a breeze. The grandmothers were escorted down the aisle and then my escort took my rollator away. The ceremony was nice, although the preacher was a very long winded. The sun came out at the end. E had said that Andrea was facing the sun and the Js job was to stand so his shadow shaded Andrea's face. He did that very well.

J and Andrea walking back up the aisle

We had photos taken at the arch. Then Rob drove up the hill and got me and we went down to where there were snacks. While the photos were taken of the wedding party.

Wedding party

Bride and groom at the bridal arch

The bride changed into wedding sneakers and a dress with a shorter skirt. I sat down at one of the tables and Bob brought me some water and some cheese and snacks.

We all went inside and I sat at the first table I came to - which was unfortunately right next to the DJ's set-up. Before we could eat, J and Andrea had their dance, and then they cut the cake and fed each other. He fed her nicely - she put the cake in his face.

Finally they brought out the food - family style, but we had to get our own drinks. B brought all of us water. D and Dave, Rob and Kathy, Bob and I and TJ were all at one table. They gave us chicken (which I didn't eat - it was dry), pulled pork (which was good) roasted vegetables and Caesar salad. They brought the cake back sliced, and we had some. Some of it was gluten free.

We left after the cake before the general dancing - I was tired. Dave (D's husband) was having some intestinal problems, and so was Kathy. Rob had to stop for her on the road so she could use a portapot at a construction site. We narrowed it down to some cheese dip that they both ate which apparently was sitting out too long in the hot sun. That was one thing they both had that none of the rest of us had sampled.

We had been warned that there was no cell signal and few signs on the way back (E said that she wandered around for about 15 minutes before she found her way back to the highway), but I had the directions printed out (from Goggle maps) so there was no problem.

Sunday 25 July 2021

We packed and left about 8 (after breakfast). Bob brought breakfast up for me. I had mostly packed the night before. We were back by 12:30 but we stopped at Arby's to get lunch and there was a delay because said I wanted a milkshake and they had to fix the milk shake machine.

Orange was in the window watching for us.

Rob and Kathy left about 1 to drive back.

My next trip is to Ecuador I was going to just take the rollator. But I got so tired on this trip even with the limited walking I did (I spend a lot of time napping), that I changed my mind and want to take the scooter too.