Joy

Congratulations Suzy and Michael!
All photos taken by my talented father, Richard Rodriguez.

I love weddings.  Everyone is happy and the point is for people full of love to come together and celebrate and bask in all that joy.

I'm 25, so I'm just hitting the age where my peers are starting to get married in droves.  In the last year I've been to three weddings of friends (okay, that's not droves, but it's coming!) and they've all been very different and really lovely.

A few weeks ago I had the privilege of heading back East to join my friends Suzy and Michael as they celebrated their partnership.

Suzy was one of my best friends in elementary school--she came over to my house every day after school in fourth and fifth grade.  I have wonderful memories of being together, watching old episodes of I Love Lucy on early-release Wednesdays, swimming, and playing duets on the piano (Suzy is a beautiful piano player...I would pick out a few notes just to join in).  One summer we held an art camp for kids in the neighborhood in my backyard.

Although Suzy and I both had closer friends once we got to middle and high school, we still got together to make Christmas cookies every year and carpooled to school once she had her drivers license.

One of Suzy's closer friends in high school was Michael.  Yes, they've been together for nine years.  There were plenty of jokes at the wedding about how nothing was really changing, or how it's about time, but honestly, now was obviously the right time because it was such a beautiful day.  I couldn't be happier for them.

I really was honored to be included and invited to her wedding.  In fact, she invited my whole family!

Some photos of the day by my talented father:

In front of my parent's house with my brother David and Linn--looking sharp!

The wedding was at the Wheaton Botanical Gardens in Wheaton, MD.  It was a lovely location and I'm a fan of any wedding with the ceremony and reception in the same place!

My beautiful mother and David, hamming it up.

Suzy is a great dancer, so there was lots of dancing!

And an excellent playlist, including high school favorites, like Outkast's Hey ya:

And my mother even joined in the fun!

 The cake was from a favorite bakery across the street from where Suzy and I grew up:

And then there was more dancing!

The night ended with a lot of friends at a local bar, where we all got to visit and catch up.  It was truly a wonderful night.  Congratulations Suzy and Michael!