Wedding Day!!!

Another early morning for Mr. Jackson :( At least he slept soundly until he came to bed with us at 1am... I had heard about a farmer's market near our hotel so I got Jackson ready and off we went! Unfortunately, we were early and the market wasn't open yet. So, we scoped it out a bit and walked back to the hotel to check on Josh. He got up and walked back with us for our second try. It was a really cute little market! We bought some strawberries and some muffins for the next morning's breakfast. Yummy! We had a while to kill since my mom wouldn't get to the hotel until 11:30ish and we had gotten such an early start! LOL We took off walking again and went back by Jackson Square and saw the French Market. Unfortunately, we couldn't do much shopping since I had given pretty much all of the cash we had to the cab driver upon arrival in NOLA :( *Sigh* We had tried to get cash by using our debit card at both CVS and Walgreen's Friday morning, but both stores were OUT OF CASH! Crazy! This morning, however, we came upon another Walgreen's and were able to get some cash! WOO HOO!!!

We started walking back to the hotel and didn't have to wait too much longer to see my mom! Her room was not ready yet, so she parked her stuff in our room, and we went off in search of lunch! We took her back to where we had been in the morning and we ate at Johnny's Po-boys. It was a tiny hole-in-the-wall place, but it was yummy! Of course, Jackson fell asleep as we were walking there! He continued to sleep through the craziness of the restaurant. We had parked the stroller near the ice machine and the guys kept coming back to refill the buckets and he slept through it all!

Jackson woke up shortly after lunch and we stopped at a bench along the river to give him lunch. From there we headed over to visit the bride-to-be so my mom could say hi since she wouldn't be at the wedding. We ran into Em's mom and sister who my mom hadn't seen in forever! It was a nice reunion moment :) The bridal suite was amazing and it was nice to visit for a few minutes. We went back to the hotel and Mom got settled in her room. She and I took Jackson across the street to the Riverwalk so Mom could walk around and so we could get a snack :)

As we were getting ready, Jackson had a HUGE meltdown and I tried to put him to bed before we left. He was not a happy camper, to say the least. Mimi took over and rubbed his back to sleep. Phew! Josh and I left for the JW Marriott for the wedding, leaving Mimi in charge!

The wedding was absolutely perfect! A good friend got certified online so he could perform the ceremony. He did a wonderful job--it was a very personal ceremony, but not cheesy at all! He dealt really well with the distractions of some very cute nieces ;) Emily looked beautiful, Josh looked handsome, and all that good stuff :)

After the ceremony, the whole group participated in a Second Line. It was totally not up my alley, but fun to do with Em and Josh! They led the way with festive umbrellas. They were accompanied by a marching band and the rest of the guests followed. We were led across Canal St., down a few different streets in the French Quarter, and back up Canal St. to the hotel. They had SUCH a good time with this part!

The reception was definitely a good time! The band was awesome, the food was yummy, and it was so nice to celebrate the big day with the newly minted Floods :)