For those of you heading up from - or through - Birmingham, there is an alternate route to the farm and the hotel, should you be staying there.
Take I-59 North to exit 181, which should be named Rainbow City/Highway 77.
The distance is around 50 miles from the I-20/I-59 split.
To get to the hotel, take a left at the exit onto 77N and it should be just on the other side of the bridge, on the right, across the street from Walmart.
To go directly to the farm, take a right at the top of the ramp onto Highway 77 and proceed to Hwy 411 - just shy of 4 miles. There will be an Exxon on the right; a Huddle House on the left.
Take a right on US 411 (Rainbow Drive) and go 5.6 miles to Riddles Bend Road.
There will be a bridge going across a fairly wide creek and the road you want is to the left just before the bridge.
If you cross the bridge and see the St. Clair County sign; you've gone too far.
Riddles Bend Road will skirt the creek (Canoe Creek) for a while; it will be on your right.
At the first fork (there will be a fire station in the fork) bear right.
At the second fork (there will be a big beige house in the center of the fork), bear right onto Babe Jackson Drive.
Take the first left onto Guy Hood Road.
Parking will be on the left, in the field next to the white house - the only house on the left side of the road.
The ceremony is at this house; the reception will be in the barn across the road.
Monday, September 22, 2008
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Calling All (Former) Bridesmaids
You know what we need on this blog? More interaction and comments! So I'll start by throwing out a question to the female readership, though guys are welcome to contribute stories as well.
How many weddings have you been in? What was the craziest thing you had to wear? Are the couples you 'maided for still married?
I'll start - I suppose I need to restrict myself to talking about the weddings of people who will not be attending mine, don't I? So Lisa and Missy, you're off the hook.
But that's all right because with out a doubt all time "favorite" (and I use that word loosely) bridesmaid ensemble had to be the one I wore for Vicki and Robert's wedding. Vicki was a sorority sister - a lovely girl. Robert was the drummer for Telluride, THE party band of the late 80s in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. The wedding was in August 1989 in Birmingham.
Vicki wanted us to wear black, which we all would have loved, but her mother put her foot down. So what did we end up in? Long red skirts, red heels and white long sleeved lace tops with peplums. PEPLUMS, people! The horror! The sheer Roll-Tideitude of it all was amazing. After the reception at The Club (is that place still around) we went (where else) To Louie Louie's in Five Points, Sharon and I still sporting our 'maid ensemble and hooker heels. What a night.
My favorite 'maid story, though, revolves around Dawn and Todd's wedding. Dawn was a sorority sister but we also went to high school together and had been friends there. Todd went to college with us, too, and was also from Gadsden. In fact, they live there now after several years in Birmingham. If I knew where, I'd invite them. So if you know them, tell them to give me a shout or drop me a line.
Anyway, the event took place in Gadsden in July 1989, a few weeks before Vicki's. We wore dark green dresses made with giant, poufy sleeves (think Princess Diana poufy). The seamstress employed copious amounts of netting in the shoulder seams to make sure the sleeves stood up. No one thought a thing about it during the fittings, when we only wore the dresses a few minutes at a time.
Flash forward to day o' the wedding and all us 'maids - all sorority sisters of Dawn's except for one friend and her little sister who was 15 - are in a Sunday School room at Bellevue Baptist Church getting ready. As anyone who's been in a wedding knows, you have to show up about two hours early on game day for photos. Sometime during the primping and preening, someone asked if anyone else's shoulders hurt. We all realized our shoulders did, indeed, hurt. We pulled the dresses off our shoulders and discovered that the netting had rubbed them raw and they were oozing blood. What to do - no one had Band-Aids and it was getting close to kickoff time!
My sorority sister Roma, God love her, came to the rescue. She got that look in her eye (the one that usually makes you think something like, "Oh, no, what's she up to now?") and dashed out to her car.
And returned with a box of (sorry, boys) panty liners. Which we all proceeded to adhere to our shoulders, and which we wore for the remainder of the day. (Yes, we wore them during the ceremony).
Somewhere I have a regulation, wedding photographer made photo with Dawn's friend and all her smiling sorority sisters showing off our sexy, be-padded shoulders, accompanied by one 15-year-old who looks like she's about to die of sheer mortification.
Ah, good times.
Almost as much fun as the wedding in which, instead of flowers, I had to hold a LIT candle. That was Charlotte's wedding (another sorority sister) which I was in along with a former beau. We set the happy couple up. Come to think of it, if anyone knows where to find her or Vicki, or any of the old Alpha Xi Delta crowd (aside from the lovely Maureen who I know is attending, all the way from NYC - yay!!!) let me know.
Back to the story: My beau was still in Tuscaloosa getting his master's, and I was already here in Atlanta. I was spending the weekend at his place, and had put my shoes on a high shelf in the closet to prevent them from being eaten by Kayliegh, our golden retriever, who was a puppy at the time.
We left for the wedding in plenty of time, and got pretty much to one or two exits before the Birmingham bypass (the wedding was in McCalla) before I remembered I had forgotten the shoes. This was 1991 or '92, I guess - before cell phones - so we just turned around and drove 120 mph back to T-town to get them. And missed most of the picture taking and caused much consternation. But it all worked out. And for once, I was thisclose to a lit candle and managed NOT to set my hair on fire.
I need to see if I can scan pictures from these events and post them, too. As for you, dear readers, you know you have good stories. Post 'em in the comments!
How many weddings have you been in? What was the craziest thing you had to wear? Are the couples you 'maided for still married?
I'll start - I suppose I need to restrict myself to talking about the weddings of people who will not be attending mine, don't I? So Lisa and Missy, you're off the hook.
But that's all right because with out a doubt all time "favorite" (and I use that word loosely) bridesmaid ensemble had to be the one I wore for Vicki and Robert's wedding. Vicki was a sorority sister - a lovely girl. Robert was the drummer for Telluride, THE party band of the late 80s in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham. The wedding was in August 1989 in Birmingham.
Vicki wanted us to wear black, which we all would have loved, but her mother put her foot down. So what did we end up in? Long red skirts, red heels and white long sleeved lace tops with peplums. PEPLUMS, people! The horror! The sheer Roll-Tideitude of it all was amazing. After the reception at The Club (is that place still around) we went (where else) To Louie Louie's in Five Points, Sharon and I still sporting our 'maid ensemble and hooker heels. What a night.
My favorite 'maid story, though, revolves around Dawn and Todd's wedding. Dawn was a sorority sister but we also went to high school together and had been friends there. Todd went to college with us, too, and was also from Gadsden. In fact, they live there now after several years in Birmingham. If I knew where, I'd invite them. So if you know them, tell them to give me a shout or drop me a line.
Anyway, the event took place in Gadsden in July 1989, a few weeks before Vicki's. We wore dark green dresses made with giant, poufy sleeves (think Princess Diana poufy). The seamstress employed copious amounts of netting in the shoulder seams to make sure the sleeves stood up. No one thought a thing about it during the fittings, when we only wore the dresses a few minutes at a time.
Flash forward to day o' the wedding and all us 'maids - all sorority sisters of Dawn's except for one friend and her little sister who was 15 - are in a Sunday School room at Bellevue Baptist Church getting ready. As anyone who's been in a wedding knows, you have to show up about two hours early on game day for photos. Sometime during the primping and preening, someone asked if anyone else's shoulders hurt. We all realized our shoulders did, indeed, hurt. We pulled the dresses off our shoulders and discovered that the netting had rubbed them raw and they were oozing blood. What to do - no one had Band-Aids and it was getting close to kickoff time!
My sorority sister Roma, God love her, came to the rescue. She got that look in her eye (the one that usually makes you think something like, "Oh, no, what's she up to now?") and dashed out to her car.
And returned with a box of (sorry, boys) panty liners. Which we all proceeded to adhere to our shoulders, and which we wore for the remainder of the day. (Yes, we wore them during the ceremony).
Somewhere I have a regulation, wedding photographer made photo with Dawn's friend and all her smiling sorority sisters showing off our sexy, be-padded shoulders, accompanied by one 15-year-old who looks like she's about to die of sheer mortification.
Ah, good times.
Almost as much fun as the wedding in which, instead of flowers, I had to hold a LIT candle. That was Charlotte's wedding (another sorority sister) which I was in along with a former beau. We set the happy couple up. Come to think of it, if anyone knows where to find her or Vicki, or any of the old Alpha Xi Delta crowd (aside from the lovely Maureen who I know is attending, all the way from NYC - yay!!!) let me know.
Back to the story: My beau was still in Tuscaloosa getting his master's, and I was already here in Atlanta. I was spending the weekend at his place, and had put my shoes on a high shelf in the closet to prevent them from being eaten by Kayliegh, our golden retriever, who was a puppy at the time.
We left for the wedding in plenty of time, and got pretty much to one or two exits before the Birmingham bypass (the wedding was in McCalla) before I remembered I had forgotten the shoes. This was 1991 or '92, I guess - before cell phones - so we just turned around and drove 120 mph back to T-town to get them. And missed most of the picture taking and caused much consternation. But it all worked out. And for once, I was thisclose to a lit candle and managed NOT to set my hair on fire.
I need to see if I can scan pictures from these events and post them, too. As for you, dear readers, you know you have good stories. Post 'em in the comments!
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
The Wedding Singer
You wedding guests are lucky indeed. Entertainment for the evening will be provided by our lovely and talented friend, Julie Gribble, accompanied by the also lovely and talented and Sean Bennett.
To learn more about Julie's music, visit her online at http://www.juliegribble.net/. She's also on Myspace: www.myspace.com/juliegribble.
To learn more about Julie's music, visit her online at http://www.juliegribble.net/. She's also on Myspace: www.myspace.com/juliegribble.
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