What a fan(ne)tastic weekend!

After we got back from our run and breakfast, Meghann and I were on a mission to get wraps to wear over our dresses, as we both forgot them. Awesome. We went to Target, and I got a great black wrap and finally found a good denim shirt. I’ve been searching high and low, and everything I found was either the wrong color, a really crappy material or gapped in the chest. And was way cheaper than the ones I looked at in J. Crew. SO MUCH WIN.

Afterwards, we went to nearby Winchester, Va. to find somewhere to eat and stumbled upon its really cute downtown. It reminded me a lot of Old Town Alexandria. It had a really historic feel, and according to Wikipedia, it was the fourth city in Virginia to be granted a city charter.

Oops, I got stuck in an alley.

Meghann distracted me with a photo opp of this apple, because behind the apple was a Lilly Pulitzer store. I’m on to your ways, though, Meghann, and still snuck in.

There was a really cute downtown walking mall, which reminded me of Boulder or Cape May.

And this Murphy Beverage Co. sign, which reminded me of Tina and Murphy.

We stopped at the Village Market and Bistro for lunch and were greeted by a massive wall of beer.

I mean, when in Rome?

I had the German pizza, which was thin crust and fairly light. And totally healthy because of the greens on top.

After lunch, we hightailed it back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding. I think we cleaned up pretty well. We ran into Heather as soon as we got to the wedding, and the three of us and Heather’s boyfriend were pretty inseparable the rest of the day.

  

So…I couldn’t resist getting a new dress for the wedding. I love dresses and getting dressed up, if you hadn’t already noticed.

The wedding was held at a stately manor in the Virginia countryside, and took place in several locations on the grounds: the ceremony on the lawn, the cocktail reception in the manor house, the dancing in the carriage house and dinner in a tent. It was sort of chilly yesterday afternoon, so we waited in the carriage house before the ceremony.

Hi date.

Oh, hello.

I know Anne’s spent a lot of time planning this wedding, and you could absolutely tell from the level of detail. Everything was gorgeous and well-executed, without being over the top.

The bridal party processed from inside the manor and down the steps to the little tent they got married under. I’m pretty sure I started crying the second the first bridesmaid started walking down the aisle. I’m the hugest wedding sap in the world.

Gretchen’s brother, the photog!

Gorgeous.

[photo via Meghann, who had a better seat than I did because she was Skyping in Anne’s brother, who couldn’t make it because he is serving overseas.]

Is Anne not an incredibly gorgeous bride?? Matt’s pretty damn cute, too. I hadn’t met him until the night before, but it’s so obvious how in love they are.

The minister gave a beautiful speech about making sure the little things in your life don’t crowd out what’s really important.

  

Look at the back of that dress! Gorgeous.

The beautiful view…from cocktail hour.

After cocktail hour, we filed into the massive tent for dinner.

Beautiful cake.

  

Obviously with a food blogger, the food was pretty amazing. We started with a salad with goat cheese and candied pecans.

I have never seen so many vegetables at a wedding. That is not a bad thing. Other food they had included a quinoa salad (the caterer totally must have gotten the recipe from Anne’s blog), asparagus, tofu and very tender beef and moist chicken.

THAT DRESS!!!!

We moved back into the carriage house for dinner and dancing. Just when I thought I was done crying, they did their first dance as husband and wife, father-daughter dance and mother-son dance. Good thing I had my eye makeup in my bag for touch-ups. This is not a new thing.

So much photobooth fun.

And dancing fun.

These shoes are hot, but apparently uncomfortable. (This burrito is delicious, but it is FILLING.)

I tried really hard to take a relatively serious picture as part of my wedding gift to her.

I started reading Anne’s blog a few years ago after my friend Tamsin told me I might enjoy it as we’d both just run the Army Ten-Miler (and will both run it again next weekend!), and she was taking pre-reqs for her RD degree and I was contemplating doing the same at the time. We finally met two years ago and quickly became good friends. I was honored to be a part of her big day.

CONGRATULATIONS ANNE AND MATT–on both a gorgeous wedding day and beginning this beautiful next chapter of your life.*

*Non-sappy posts to resume tomorrow.

Weddings: tell me about your favorite part of yours or about your dream wedding one day if you are single like me. Also, is there anyone else that tears up immediately at weddings??