Hicks Wedding

I came back to New Orleans this weekend for Chris Hicks' wedding. Chris and I were college roommates and lived together for most of our time at the Webb (3 and a half years, to be exact). I first met Chris's wife Jennifer at Joe & Hannah's wedding in Jamaica, and I really like her. She's from New Orleans and, just like that city, she is a lot of fun. She and Chris are just great together and it was awesome to be able to be there for their wedding. It was an action packed weekend. The rehearsal dinner was at the Sun Ray Grill down in the Warehouse District. John Sullivan who is Chris's best man, was there with his wife and it was the first time I had seen Sully since Webb. So that was a fun time catching up with him and meeting some new folks. The food was awesome and we had a round of toasts that was entertaining and endearing. You could really tell how many people really care about this couple. It was pretty special. After dinner we went out downtown and hit Lucy's retired surfer bar, followed by the Red Eye. I got to catch up with Chris's dad a good bit at the bar afterwards. He is such a character. I had forgotten how much fun he is to hang out with. Anyway, we told a lot of sea stories and generally had an awesome time. I had to bail out at 1:30 because, let's face it, I was intoxicated, and it was time to call it a night. But the dancing went on. I did manage to get some shots of the festivities, as follows:

Me, John, and Valerie Sullivan
Me, Hicks, and Hicks Senior
Hicks, senior, and one of Jennifer's friends (Angela)
Hicks, bustin a move on the dancefloor
Laissez le bon temps roulee!
No comment.
Hicks, sporting 'the look'. Nice.

Okay I didn't actually get that many (and by 'not that many, I mean almost no) pix of the wedding because there was a professional photographer there and I didn't want to be that guy constantly taking pix, but it was a really beautiful outdoor ceremony at Rosy's Jazz hall. There were a lot of gardenia bushes there and the smell was intoxicating. The food was incredible New Orleans style cuisine and the band was great. They actually brought the band down from Nashville which I thought was pretty darn cool. The preacher-man gave a wonderful homily at the ceremony and everybody was misty-eyed. It was great. If I get a link to the pro photos, I will post some of them, but for now, I got 2 more:

Me, Hicks, and Sully were the only 3 webbies in attendance to witness the 'Webb Institute' groom's cake. Shame on the rest of you for missing it.

Here's a video of the bride & groom doing 'Livin on a Prayer' karaoke at the reception. Awesome. Love it.

After the reception, I hooked up with Kevin and we went to get some grub at Jacques-Imo's where we got invited in for staff dinner. Long story, but it was awesome. Then we went to see Johnny Sketch and the Dirty Notes at the Maple Leaf bar. Overall, an epic weekend. Now I'm getting ready for a bike ride on the levee followed by dinner at the Gumbo Shop and then going for a fan boat tour of the delta. I'm on sensory overload right now...