my cousin is married!

We traveled to New York last weekend to witness my cousin Jen getting married, and the 23 hours we spent in Rochester were pretty fabulous.

Jen and I aren’t actually first cousins. Our grandfathers were brothers, but that still makes us related and for that, I’m so very grateful. We actually “met” several years ago when her parents were in town and they were at my grandparents house for dinner. My grandma kept telling me that my cousin worked for the local tv station, but I didn’t put two and two together until I walked into the living room and saw her. At the time, we both covered some of the same things – mainly high school sports events – and just didn’t realize that we were related in any way. Always a fun story. 🙂

Jen came to our wedding in 2007 and I was SO EXCITED when we found out she was engaged last year. And there was never any question as to whether we’d be there or not. (And thankfully I wasn’t even further along in the pregnancy so we could make it up there.)

The hotel we stayed at was a block away from the museum where Jen and Jeremy wed. We were at a street corner, when I asked another couple if we were going to the same place. Turns out it was one of my mom’s cousins that we were talking to! When we made our way over to the ceremony site, we were connected with several relatives from my mom’s side of the family. Group photo!

And now a few obligatory wedding shots. (Excuse the iPhone shots.) Wasn’t she beautiful??

From the reception (they had a photo wall of wedding photos of family members. We made the cut!)

Another group shot!

My husband (of course) danced to ‘Thriller’ with Jen at the reception. I don’t know if video was shot, but the photographer was still there to capture the moment(s). Jen later told me that someone asked Jeremy (her husband) if he was now related to “that guy” on the dance floor. His response was, “I think so.” I hope he wasn’t offended by Kenny’s dance moves. 😉

And because of our delays in Atlanta, we almost got to see the happy couple before they jetted off on their honeymoon. We missed each other by 15 minutes.

I’m so happy for Jen and Jeremy and can’t wait to spend time with both of them in the future!