Jackson's Really Big Day

In January I wrote a post entitled "Jackson's Big Day," about his senior recital.  I also mentioned in that post that he was engaged to be married, so it was kind of silly for me to call the recital his big day (although it was pretty big) when I knew even then that a really big day was in store just a few months later!  So we'll call the wedding Jackson and the Wonderful, Magical, Not Bad, Very Good Day, even though there's not enough space for all those adjectives in the post title.

As you know, in my previous post, I left off narrating on Saturday, May 28, when Eric and I had retired from sightseeing at Arlington National Cemetery to regroup with the family at our hotel suite in Annapolis.  That very same night, we enjoyed a delicious dinner with Evelyn's entiiiiiire family.  That girl has six siblings and two siblings-in-law, one niece-to-be, and two parents, of course, but by the end of dinner I had learned everyone's names and I still remember them all as I type this (even the unborn baby June!), I'm proud to say.  A little later that evening, we all reunited for ice cream in downtown Annapolis by the water.  As we quickly scanned the sights with what little time we had downtown, Eric was having pangs of regret because, even though it was a bit busy due to Naval Academy's graduation weekend, Annapolis seemed much more his speed than downtown D.C.  Maybe we'll get the chance to vacation there sometime.

The next morning, the Pinder girls (Mom, Annie, and I) had planned to get our nails done before the rehearsal.  Eric's feet were a bit achy from sightseeing and a bit rough from his ballooning adventures, so he decided to tag along for a pedicure, and before you know it, we'd all convinced Dad and Jackson to join us, too!  So all six of us lined up in the massage chairs for mani-pedis before heading off to the venue for the mid-afternoon wedding rehearsal.  Annie and I got to sit in the shade while we watched the wedding party parade by, but I took lots of pictures because everyone looked so cute and happy.

That night, Mom and Dad hosted a lovely rehearsal dinner, complete with Maryland crab cakes, for the wedding party and our families.  They had picked a cool restaurant right on the water, not far upstream from the ceremony venue we'd be heading back to the next day.  I enjoyed a delectable salmon and Eric devoured a fat juicy steak.  We packed some leftovers for the soon-to-be newlyweds to take along on their honeymoon, but we saved a few s'mores dessert bites to bring back to the suite for ourselves.  (What?  They wouldn't fit in the takeout containers.)

Mom and Dad also threw a luncheon at the hotel the next day for all of the guests who had traveled so far to attend the evening's ceremony.  It was mostly our paternal (south Georgian and a few Ohioan) and maternal (central and southwest Floridian) relatives, but we were grateful that a few good friends from Waycross were able to make the trip as well.  Jackson and his barbershop quartet, the Vigilantes, even stopped by for a bite and to treat us to a song.

It wasn't the last treat we'd get from the Vigilantes that day.  After the quaint and lovely ceremony at London Town and Gardens, the quartet serenaded Evelyn with a medley Jackson spent over two years arranging.  It sure was a scorching hot day, but there was beautiful music, remarkably delicious cake, and the most fun dancing I've had at a wedding in the shortest amount of time.  At the end of the evening, we saw the happy couple off to their honeymoon and showered them with rose petals as they went down the path to sail away on the South River toward their honeymoon destination in North Carolina.  Eric got to be in Jackson's wedding party, and I got to spectate and take in all of the little moments that added up to make a gloriously memorable day that I'll look back on fondly for many years to come!

I noticed that my last few posts with pictures included have taken up quite a bit of page space, making my readers deal with lots of unnecessary scrolling, so I decided to condense the photos from the wedding weekend into one big cheesy heart-infested slideshow.