At the Carnival

The happy bride and groom – Kelly & Brian

This weekend we attended the wedding of one of my cousin’s daughters, and it was quite the festive affair.  They went with a carnival theme – red, turquoise and yellow – and non-traditional in many ways.

the parents of the bride – my cousin, Steve, and his wife, Barb

In addition to the “candy bar” (which seems to be a staple of weddings these days) sporting red, yellow and turquoise candies, there was a cotton candy stand, a popcorn stand, a snowcone stand, and carnival appetizers including soft pretzels, mozzarella sticks and nachos.

grandma of the bride, with her two youngest grand-daughters

Dinner was also carnival-themed, with pulled pork sandwiches, italian sausage, gyros, deep fried green beans and mac & cheese, and funnel cakes.  Definitely not your standard wedding fare!

more crazy cousins – Dave, Jane and their oldest grand-daughter

I wish I had a picture of the cake to show you – it was the coolest wedding cake I’ve ever seen!  Three lopsided layers frosted in red, yellow and turquoise rolled fondant, with a ring of gumballs at the bottom of each layer.  It tasted pretty good, too!

another set of cousins – Mark & Sandy

Not to be undone by the food, the bar was a hoppin’ place, too.  You could get alcohol for your snowcone, or try a cotton candy martini – OK, can’t recommend those . . . Tom tried one, but they tasted like cough syrup!

one last set of cousins – Sue & Jeff

How are we related to all these crazy people?  Well, our moms are twin sisters!

Marilyn (my mom), their brother, Jimmy, and my aunt Margie

So, I’ll admit it . . . my cousins aren’t the only crazy ones . . . my sisters and I had a good time in the photo booth, too.

Tom and Marci

Tina and Larry

Deby and Charlie

Diane and Danny

Five gorgeous sisters!

OK, so by now you’ve figured out that they had an old-time photo booth set up.  It was a lot of fun, and each group would get a series of three photos taken (in a vertical strip, like the old photo booth), and 2 copies of the strip would get printed out – one to take home, and one to put into a scrapbook for the bride and groom with a personal message.  Definitely more interesting than just having the disposable cameras on the tables – thanks to innovations in digital photography!

In addition to the photo booth, there was a caricature artist.  He had a LONG line all night long, but we managed to get Mom, Margie and Jimmy in front of him at the end of the night.

Nick and Bryce didn’t want to go with us to the wedding, so they stayed home . . . but once their aunt Diane started texting pictures of the cotton candy and candy bar to them, they were thinking that they made a bad decision!  We brought them each a goodie bag, but no cotton candy – too messy!