last weekend i made the trek to south dakota for a highly anticipated event: mary’s wedding! i spent friday night with my friends, bridget and lindy, in sioux falls. the following afternoon, before the ceremony, they introduced me to the delicious middle eastern food at sanaa’s. we also found a telestory booth. have you heard of these? way cool idea.

and we meandered around the small farmers market that was set up there.

before meandering into a needlepoint store.

i should do more embroidery. again.

shortly after returning to bridget and lindy’s house for my things, i set out to find the church for the wedding ceremony. greek orthodox, man.

i really wish the correct part of this photo was in focus. both mary and the church were beautiful.

they wore a hat that bound them together. they also had their hands bound together. (i think.)

i’ll just tell you that i was glad to be sitting next to my friend, jane, her kids, and some of her friends and their kids. we may have whispered silly things to each other throughout the ceremony.

WOOHOO! married!

if only my camera would’ve cooperated with me.

mary once went as “julia stiles” for halloween. i can totally still see it in this photo. she’s lovely.

mary (and jonathan, i suppose) had all of these adorable diy touches throughout. i loved it all!

i helped make these mints.

i helped drink their wine.

jason was unfortunately sick throughout the weekend and i missed him terribly. taking his table number tag only helped comfort me a little bit. (or did it just make me miss him more? hmm…)

so lovely!

the farm wedding reception was absolutely wonderful! comfortable and inviting.

then i took this panoramic of the countryside of south dakota. flat, ‘eh?

jen was my alternate date to the reception. she’s a pretty good back up.

i want a fruit-bearing tree!

it was a hot day, though, and the cake started to melt. just a little bit.

the first dance. aw!

eric and johanna are getting married at the end of august. i am very much looking forward to their celebration, too!

jen’s hawaiian tan makes me look like i’ve never seen the sun.

perfect! what a wonderful celebration!

before heading home the next morning, i got to have brunch with kelsey and aurora. we took some photos to entertain ourselves as we paid.

that aurora is pretty stinkin’ cute. so glad i got to spend some time with these two!

i was barely an hour and a half into my road trip home when i decided i needed a pit stop at the south dakota/minnesota border. the panorama was a more impressive sight in person, but i do believe we are peeking at three states here. well, maybe iowa is not quite in this photo but it’s not very far off to the left there!

here’s me with minnesota and its wind.

then i was all, “enough goofing around. let’s go home!” so i did. with just one more stop at a dairy queen because i really needed that dilly bar.

congratulations, mary and jonathan!