Oops.

I can't believe I forgot to include this photo from Kevin & Kristin's wedding...it's one of my favorites. This is from the end of the father/daughter dance. I took this shot and tried not to blub like a little girl.

Éire go brách!

So off I went to NOLA for Wolfgang's brother Kevin's wedding. I'd not met Kristin before, but I had been told she is a 6'2" beauty and a perfect match for Kevin in all capacities. The clans of Curry and O'Sullivan were to be united in wedlock...on St. Patrick's day, of course!

The whole day was perfect. The weather could not have been more gorgeous: 72F, breezy, bright, and no humidity. The wedding took place across Lake Ponchartrain and I'd never been across the bridge before....there's something really bizarre about being on a 40ft wide piece of concrete surrounded by water with no shore in sight. I've never been fond of bridges, so this was like the ultimate in horror movies for me...but of course, I love horror movies...so I rather enjoyed the ride, totally wide-eyed and unsettled. But I digress. Benedict's Plantation is a hidden gem right across the bridge in Mandeville. I love formal southern gardens and the landscaping did not disappoint. Here are some shots from the day:


The adorable flowergirl, Gabby.


Kristin is as beautiful and statuesque as I'd been told.



I love how the sun lit up Kristin's veil from behind...it just adds to her radiance.




This could very well be one of my favorite wedding images. This was immediately after they'd walked back down the aisle and disappeared out of the garden. I love the look of pure simple joy on Kristin's face and the tightness of Kevin's embrace in the first few private moments of actually being married before everyone followed to congratulate them.


Kevin and his mom.



I'm almost done editing, so check back for the slideshow!

"At first sight, violently."

Do I really need to quote Louis Armstrong? That's way too overplayed...regardless of how often I find myself whistling that tune. So let me quote a lesser known lover of the Crescent City, Andrei Codrescu, writing about New Orleans:

"How did we fall in love? At first sight, violently."

I nearly wept when I read that first statement in Codrescu's book; it could not sum up my feelings more clearly or simply. I remember the first time I went to New Orleans. A duo-birthday trip for Sarah and me. It was a place I'd vaguely wanted to visit, it sounded fun, and I watched Angel Heart over and over more to look at the dingy rain-soaked architecture than to be creeped out by Mickey Rourke. We left the airport by cab and I felt much like a cocker spaniel with its head hanging out the window going "oooh!...a palm tree!....ooh!...a Best Buy...with a palm tree!" Then we exited 10 and turned onto Rampart....and I'd left the country for the next 5 days. I wanted to move immediately. An impulse that was quickly squelched by the fear that such beauty and atmosphere might, possibly, could maybe become commonplace to me...that and the fact that the humidity was doing bloody murder to my hair. This would simply have to be my home away from home, somewhere I could dream about between visits and look forward to returning to again and again. And so it went. What excuses could I find? Did I run out of that perfume they custom make on Royal? A wedding? Did I forget my toothbrush the last time?

And then Katrina reared her ugly head. Wolfgang's brother, Kevin, had transplanted himself down there a few years before hand and W was on the phone with him as the winds were tearing the roof from his apartment building. He survived and returned to the place where many will always love to call home, (...has a phrase ever been so literal?) come Hell or high water. I craved return visits with the same intensity (and frequency) as I crave really salty crispy french fries and when I was about to literally lose my mind near the end of 2007, there was only one place I could think of to run away to. And I did for 4 days of blessed solitude, just walking and walking as much as my recuperating back would allow. I thought that would give me my fix for a while...alas, in the grey wetness of our Ohio winter months, I was daydreaming of moss draped trees, boutiques, cast iron, and non-previously frozen seafood.

And then the phone call: Kevin was getting married.