Alex and Laura's wedding

On October 10th, Alex and Laura got married in St. Louis.

We flew out on Thursday so we'd be there in time for the rehearsal. When we got in town, we got our rental car, ate some McAlister's Deli, then went to Mid Rivers Mall to pick up Connor's tux and my tux. Unfortunately, the tuxedo for Connor was terrible. The jacket was a good length on the arms and around the shoulders, but it was surprisingly tight at the waist. Connor's not a chubby boy, but the way the tux fit it would barely button. We also noticed that the crotch on the pants was nearly down to his knees. It did not look good. We ran around the mall to every store we could find to see if we could find a last minute tux, but nobody had anything. At Men's Wearhouse they moved the button for Connor's jacket, but it was all still pretty bad. We took both tuxes with us, and Andrea called around and found another store that was near where we were having the rehearsal dinner.

We went back to the hotel to change for the rehearsal. Everyone else was staying at the Omni, but we stayed at the Embassy Suites instead. It was about half a mile away from the action, but having all the extra space was nice.

Paige and Connor looked extra cute in their outfits.

We went to the Botanical Gardens for the rehearsal. It was a little drizzly and pretty cold when we got there. We also had a long walk through the grounds to get to the area where the ceremony would be. On the way, Chris mentioned that a "youth" had been shot by a police officer on Shaw street, which was right next to the Botanical Gardens. There were protests all over the area and we were pretty concerned it'd disrupt Alex and Laura's big day.

At the rehearsal, Paige and Connor learned their parts, but they were awfully fidgety. They had been sitting still all day, so they weren't really in the mood for it.

Andrea snapped a bunch of nice pics of everyone.

After the rehearsal, we went to Pi Pizza for dinner. Across the street was Savvi Tux shop and thankfully they had a lot of tuxes on site. Andrea worked with Connor and the lady working there to get everything picked out, tried on, and ready to go. She got to the pizza place just as they brought out the food.

The waiter snapped a nice pic of everyone at the table.

We didn't stay too late since both kids were tired.

In the morning, we ate breakfast at Rooster's with Alex, Chris, Grandpa Rick and some of the other guys.

Afterwards, the boys left to get dressed and the girls went to get their hair and makeup done.

Connor liked having the opportunity to place some "Plants vs Zombies" with Uncle Chris.

Connor's new tux looked snazzy on him!

All the boys snapped some pics together.

Just as we were leaving the hotel to go to the Botanical gardens I dropped a backpack that had Connor's iPad and my camera in it. The mount on the camera was sheared off completely and the screws holding it in were stripped out. I haven't gotten an estimate on repairs yet, but pretty sure the camera is toast. I am pretty upset about it, but more upset that we didn't have the camera available for any more pics the rest of the weekend.

At the hair place, Paige got her hair put together with some flowers. She played on her iPad while she waited.

She liked getting all prettied up and did a good job taking care of herself the entire day so her outfit and flowers would look nice.

We snapped a bunch of pictures before the ceremony, but pretty much all with the professional photographers, so right now have nothing to post.

The ceremony was very private and small. We walked in, took our places, and the kids were very cute walking down the aisle together. Laura's father walked her in and Alex and Laura were both excited and emotional. The ceremony went well and thankfully it didn't pour down rain for the time we were there. It sprinkled and got cold, but we made it through. Alex and Laura wrote their own vows, which were very sweet and well done. Andrea did get a short video of everyone walking out after the ceremony.

After the wedding was done, we drove over to the Thaxton for the reception. There were a few hours between the ceremony and the reception, so we got there early and the kids played while we took some pictures with the wedding photographers and a few with Andrea's phone.

Soon, the guests arrived and the wedding party hid upstairs. After most everyone had arrived, we took a freight elevator to a back door, then walked around to the front of the Thaxton and they announced the wedding party and we all made our grand entrance. We partied up for a bit and ate some of the hors d'oeuvres and then it was time for the toast and cake.

The videographers put together a short cut of some of the footage from the day, and it was actually amazingly well done. They captured a lot of the preparation for the wedding, showed some nice shots of the ceremony, and the vows spoken by Alex and Laura. It was very moving and then it was toast time. Laura's sister Elizabeth went first, then I went, and then Chris. I think the toasts went well, and I had been pretty anxious about it, so was happy to be done. Alex and Laura cut the cake and then everyone went back to partying.

Paige was a doll the entire day. She lasted until pretty late, but eventually she wanted me to hold her and tell her a story. Before I'd gotten very far along she was asleep. She had enjoyed dancing for a while and loved the entire wedding process.

Connor had fun too, but has recently gotten a little too shy to dance. He visited with everyone and enjoyed staying up late.

Before we knew it, the night was over! We lit some sparklers, saw Alex and Laura off, and then we all left and went back to our hotels.

In the morning we went over to Chris's house for a get together with some of the Vernon family. It was nice to get to see everyone for a bit longer. Most everyone played board games, and Alex and Laura stopped by later in the day and said hi and opened some gifts.

On Sunday, we got up early and flew home. Thankfully we got up early because the TSA only had one X-Ray machine working and  it took almost 2 hours to get through the security line. A lot of people missed their flights and by the time we got through our plane was boarding. 

Alex and Laura also got up early and flew to Hawaii to start their 2 week long Honeymoon! Hope they're having fun!