June is Wedding Season! Round Two: Shannon & Kevin

Back-to-back photo posts... could it be?! Yep. Blame Invitrogen for taking too long to ship my primers, but I've got some time on my hands today! This past weekend, we enjoyed a FANTASTIC rehearsal dinner at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse in Bethesda for Kevin & Shannon's College Park wedding. I forgot my camera though :'( We had never been to a Ruth's Chris before, but had high expectations, and it did NOT disappoint! Ben got a filet (about two inches thick... it was unreal) and I got crab cakes so we could share a little surf and turf. It was outrageously good. And the "chocolate sin cake" for dessert... it was basically a slab of fudge, I'm not kidding. There was nothing "cake-like" about it, except maybe the wedge shape. Yummmm. And I love Bethesda. It's such an upscale town with a city feel, minus the grungy parts, and with all the eclectic restaurants and shopping you'd expect to find in a big city. I worked down there for two summers and then a full year (at NIH) and didn't realize how much I miss it! When I make the big bucks, we might need to live there. (HA.)

Anyway, the wedding day came and we spent a lazy morning sipping coffee (well, I sipped coffee... hubby slurped cereal). I had to run out for some last-minute supplies for the satin ribbon sash I wanted to make for my wedding outfit, and then went through several iterations of the assembly til it looked right. You'll see in the photos... I wanted to match hubby's tux somewhat (since he was in the wedding and I wasn't), so I made a lil something to add to my basic black tube dress. I also made a failed attempt at wearing spanx underneath said tube dress (I'm really not in tube dress shape... I believe they call that the newlywed 15)... it just didn't look any better with the spanx than without, and who's suffering through THAT all evening for nothing?!

We left with plenty of time (after quelling hubby's near freak-out while trying to get into his monkey suit) to head down to College Park for photos before the wedding. On the way down 95, we came upon a sign informing us of an accident ahead that had ALL LANES blocked. Oh dear. Luckily, in my year of commuting to Bethesda, I found a variety of ways to avoid Baltimore-DC metro area traffic so I was able to snake around various back roads each time we hit a back-up. We made it JUST in time for photos, but as it turned out we were one of the first to arrive - everyone else was sitting on 95. Needless to say, the wedding day got off to a rather chaotic start. But they managed to get everyone there and dressed with photos taken in time to start the wedding on-schedule.

All of my ceremony photos are horrendous (dark, blurry, etc... essentially useless), but it was a beautiful, traditional ceremony in the chapel where both of their parents were wed. For those of you just now tuning in, Kevin is one of hubby's childhood friends, and Kevin's sister Sam is a dear friend of mine - they were the matchmakers for our own love story, and we have all been attendants in eachothers' weddings. Without further adue...

The beautiful Memorial Chapel at the University of Maryland, College Park

Inside the chapel

Shannon's gorgeous bouquet - there were gerbera daisies everywhere!

Magazine cover model? You be the judge.

Matchy-matchy! Hubs and I at the cocktail hour outside the Alumni Center where the reception was held

Awesome stained glass window inside the ballroom... SO COOL!

Aaaaand let the party commence! This is the typical scene at every wedding that Ben and his brother-in-law Josh attend together.

Ben & Sam gettin' crazy on the floor! I did in fact dance with my own husband, but I was the photographer so of course I have no documentation of this.

Carsen was the life of the party, as you can see ;] She snuggled in her Moby wrap all night long and was a perfect angel for her mommy!

Glowing bride Shannon and her goofy new hubby, Kevin, after cutting their cake. Typical Knapstein pose.

Ben stealing a slow dance with the mother-of-the-groom (who also happens to be our adopted mom!), Cookie Knapstein

The groom workin' the floor, as usual

Awwww :] Josh taking a breather from the dance revolution for a family moment.

My lovely mother-in-law Darlene and her hubby, Rich enjoying a slow dance

So, in typical Bonner-Beck-Knapstein fashion, we enjoyed an AMAZING party with great music, much wacky dancing, a few refreshments and tons of belly-ache-inducing laughter. When you get this group of people together, such results are guaranteed.