Jack and Leigh's Wedding

On October 8th, the Louis gang met up in Birmingham, AL to celebrate the wedding of Jack and Leigh.

The rehearsal dinner was at a Mexican food restaurant and was the perfect evening.
This picture accurately depicts how Margaret and Henry were feeling.
Margaret- a little under the weather,a cold and teething, and Henry- crazy from having too much fun with his cousins.

Gabe told Henry to say cheese and this was the pose he struck. Odd.


Loving on cousin Addie.

Hugs for Evie, too.



Jackson and Margaret hit the hay.


I love that she'll fall asleep on me... Henry would have never done this- just whined.

A churro cheers... "To Jack and Leigh!"

PawPaw and the brothers always put on some kind of "act" at the rehearsal dinner.

This year, it was to Chicago's "Just You 'n Me"... a bit 80s...

... So they made sure they dressed the part.
Complete with mustaches.

Part of the choreography was for them to post like 80s mannequins... Every time I see this pic of Tom, it makes me laugh. He was so serious. :)

Ross, Tom, and Walter working their moves.

Tom played the "saxophone".

Grand Finale.

Then before the brothers took their turns dancing with Leigh, they made Jack one of them.

Henry was very confused about Tom's 'stache. Kept asking "what's that?"

Day of the wedding

A shuttle picked up the family from the hotel at 3 to take us to the country club for pictures.


Such a beautiful venue!

PawPaw wanted this documented.

So I had REALLY wanted to take advantage of our family being all cleaned up and get a good family picture.

Somehow we only took 4, and this one was the best of all of them.

Bad lighting.

Unhappy children.

Margaret's fashion faux pas white sandals showing.

Fail.

I tried to doctor these photos using Picasa.

Maybe I should have used Microsoft Paint to draw Mary Janes on Margaret's feet.

All the Louis grandkids.

Another fail.

The smudge on my lens didn't help.

(can you tell I was disappointed about the pictures I took... can't wait to see the professional pics)

Gabe and Henry.

Henry thanks God for Gabe (along with Isabelle, Arden, Aunt Jenny, and Uncle Ross. Amen.) every night. His own parents don't get a shout out.

Margaret Gray was a trooper. She enjoyed (can't you tell by the expression on her face? ha) stretching her legs- she had to be held for a good 2 1/2 hours.

Another cousin pic

Tom's Siblings

L-R

Tom, Walter, Ross, Jack, Alex, Kate, and Mary Pat


So I had been really anxious about keeping the kids quiet during the ceremony by myself.

After we were seated, a string quartet started playing Great is thy Faithfulness and Henry started singing aloud. I was thinking "what in the world is he singing and can he PLEASE be quiet?!?!" Then I heard him sing "Holy, Holy, Holy..." (The version of Holy, Holy, Holy that they sing in Bible study is played by strings.) I gave thanks to God for my sweet son, and hoped that this special moment would keep me from pinching him during the ceremony.

After 20 mins of being pseudo-quiet/ still, Henry decided he was done.

Luckily Tom's aunt (Thanks again, Laura!) was there to escort him out.

Margaret and I made our exit during the silent moment of prayer.

I kicked over her cup of Cheerios.

For what I did get to experience/ pay attention to, it was a beautiful ceremony.

How could it not be when Leigh was preceded down the aisle by a bag piper?!?!

Ah, finally able to relax at the reception.

Leigh's parents provided child care for all the grandkids.

We all REALLY appreciated this kind gesture and really enjoyed our child free evening!

Such a beautiful couple!

Ross and Jenny found the "photo booth" and took advantage of the props.

We somehow were able to round up all 16 Louis gang members and got a group pic- can't wait to see it!

Jenny and I enjoyed cutting a rug to the music of a great band.

They played Bon Jovi and Journey :)

Mary Pat and I lived it up without our 2 year olds.

Megan and I got some quality time together.

So, Jack and Leigh are off to Paris... no, not for their honeymoon. To live there.

Jack is a manager of a touring company there.

They have bicycle and segway tours.

So here they are leaving on their segways... complete with signs and cans rattling behind.

They provided buses back to the hotels.

Before picking up our kids, our family had a pull up contest... don't know how or why this got started, but we all found it quite funny.

It was a wonderful evening spent with our family!

Can't wait till we're all back together, again... could be years

:(

The next morning, we went to a brunch for Jack and Leigh.

It was at another beautiful country club. (Birmingham is gorgeous!)

PatPat with some Herndons and Babbs.

Margaret didn't really eat much the whole time we were there... but she did make sure to gobble down this delish brunch.

Henry took full advantage of a second breakfast.

Sweet hugs before we had to say goodbye.

I'll say it again, it was a wonderful weekend!

Stressful, hectic, tiring... yes.

But I am so blessed to have such amazing inlaws, and we are super excited to complete the family with Leigh!