Tippins' Wedding Part 1: Thursday

I'm probably going to overload blogger with the number of pictures from the wedding so I figured it'd be better to break the weekend into separate posts.

I flew from Charleston Thursday morning and met two of my friends and fellow bridesmaids Blanche and Lauren in Charlotte.  On our flight to New Orleans, we were giddy!  We could not stop talking about how excited we were for the weekend to finally be here, and played Skipbo (hehe, we're gamers) to pass the time on the flight.

Everything was great until the flight attendants brought the complimentary beverage service around and Ms. Clumsy Flight Attendant splattered hot coffee ALL over my arms, shirt, and pants.  Hot coffee.  Luckily, I was not burned, but my (new, never worn) pants were wet and, not to mention, stained brown.  Ms. Clumsy was super apologetic; I was hoping to get a free flight out of the deal, but she gave Lauren, Blanche and I complimentary Bud Lights instead.  I can't complain too much because thankfully, the sister of the groom who has two young sons had baby wipes on board and apparently baby wipes work wonders on coffee! Who knew!

Anyways, after that brief hiccup, we landed in the Big Easy and headed to our hotel to meet our friend Concetta who had flown in from Raleigh that morning.  Man, it felt good to be reunited!!

We had a few hours to kill before our bridesmaid obligations began, so what did we do?  You better believe we hit up the town.  Here we are at Pat O'Brien's. . . looking a little greasy after traveling and in the hot Louisanna heat, but nevertheless, happy to be together.

Left to Right: Lauren, Me, Concetta, Blanche

We all sampled their different signature drinks and passed them around.  The pink lemonade one that Blanche got was my favorite!

After parusing the French Quarter for a while, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for the evening.  With one shower and three girls, we had to map out at least an hour and a half for all of us to get ready!

That night, two families hosted a cocktail and dinner party in Uptown (I think that's what the section of town was called).  It was such a lovely party!  I loved seeing the rest of the wedding party and meeting Tippins' best family friends.  The New Orleans crowd really welcomed us with such open arms.  The hosts served crawfish etouffe over grits with a salad for supper.  It was delicious!

Wofford BMs with the Bride

All the BMs.  
Top: Elizabeth (groom's sister), Blanche, Camille (friend from home), Concetta, Lauren

Bottom: Me, Tippins, Anne (MOH, friend from home)

After the party, the wedding party was ready to see what New Orleans had to offer for the night!!  Several of our Wofford friends had arrived by then (including Lash!), and we headed back to Pat O'Briens to listen to the dueling pianos.  That was my first dueling piano bar experience and it was a lot of fun!  Of course, we stayed up too late, but it was such a blast.

Clearly by this point, the humidity was getting to my hair!!

Fortunately, we all survived the evening. . . but not without some great stories.  Lauren made it back around 2 am, and ordered a cheeseburger, shirley temple AND a pizza on our room service tab.  I was already asleep by the time it was delivered but it was hysterical waking up to packets and packets of ketchup thrown all around the room.

Coming up next. . Friday morning's BM luncheon and the rehearsal dinner.  Blogger is overwhelming me at the moment so stayed tuned for post number 2!