Sorry I’ve been MIA lately, but unless you were under a rock, you have probably heard that Hurricane Matthew hit the east coast this past week / weekend.  It also happened to be the weekend for our 3rd family wedding of the year in Raleigh, NC.  The storm made the week a bit chaotic down in Charleston, so after preparing our house for the storm Hunter and I packed up our cars (Cleo included), and headed to Raleigh early as our evacuation plan!

Cleo was not a fan of the drive at all, but quickly adapted to her home at the Residence Inn for the weekend, with her toys & teepee in tow.  We got in later on Thursday, and skipped the pizza night at Matt’s house, but enjoyed hanging with mom, Beth & Gordon afterwards.

Since we arrived in Raleigh earlier than originally planned, I was able to attend the brunch for Molly that mom was hosting on Friday morning.  We picked up some centerpieces at Fallon’s Flowers and headed to Tupelo Honey to setup before the bride and her bridesmaids / the mothers came.  The food and drinks were delicious and it was such a great way to start the day!  I think the Molly-mosa was the favorite drink and who knew a veggie bowl could be so tasty and filling?

After the brunch, mom and I went down the street to Cameron Village to wander around and shop.  They had a mixture of local shops and chains and we both found a few things.  I also fell in love with this plant wall I found there.

Friday night we headed over to Brier Creek Country Club for the rehearsal dinner.   I enjoyed speaking to some of my cousin’s friends and neighbors that I hadn’t seen in years at cocktail hour before the delicious BBQ dinner and speeches.  Mike stole the night with his speech, in the typical Pfeiffer poem style…

Saturday morning Hurricane Matthew was hitting Charleston, and the bands were also hitting North Carolina.  After watching too much footage about the damage in Charleston, our family headed to a nearby spot for breakfast: Rise Biscuits & Donuts.

Most of us got the bacon, egg and pimento cheese biscuits, but Katherine’s biscuit with a fried green tomato looked just as good.  As for donuts, try the maple bacon one.. Needless to say, we were full for a few hours.

At this point Matthew was hitting Raleigh pretty hard, so the original plan for the girls to hike & shop and the guys play golf was out.  We ended up at the Dave & Busters in Cary instead.  I hadn’t been to one in over 10 years and it was just as fun as I remember.  We got a beer tower, then started playing games.  The 4 person air hockey got pretty intense, and I also loved the Mario Kart and red cup challenge (aka beer pong) games.  It was the perfect rainy day activity!

This is where things got fun… As Hunter was driving us back to the hotel in my car the hurricane winds snapped my windshield wiper off while driving down the interstate.  Half was still there and scratching my windshield, so we pulled over and put a koozie on top of it to protect the glass.  While that helped, there wasn’t a wiper on the driver side so Hunter & Darren carefully drove the last 10 miles steering together. It was a tense few minutes, but we got back safely and my wipers were replaced on Monday 🙂

The wedding ceremony & reception were at the Angus Barn Pavilion.  Thanks to the rain we had to stay inside the whole time, but the space was more than big enough to accommodate everyone and all the windows still made it feel open to the outdoors.  Molly even added a hurricane as a specialty cocktail – so fitting.

Our family table became that table when we were streaming the end of the Tennessee game and other gathered to watch.  The food was wonderful, and there was a LOT of dancing to the 10 piece band.  And how stunning is this photo of the wedding party in the rain?

We all said our goodbyes Saturday night since people were leaving at different times on Sunday.  We packed up our things, and Cleo’s things, then started the long trek home.  Unfortunately several roads were closed due to flooding so we had to go a different way home through Charlotte then Columbia (aka not convenient and longer).

After 7.5 hours we finally made it home.  Cleo was a champ in the car, although I’m sure she will kill me if I try to get her in the car anytime soon. And don’t worry, this picture was taken when we weren’t moving in traffic 😉

We were lucky to come home to a house with power and minimal damage from the storm.  Thanks to everyone that reached out to us the last few days, offered us a place to stay, or gave Cleo some love in Raleigh.

We were so happy the storm didn’t ruin the wedding weekend and shout out to my cousin Molly for having the best attitude about it!  Last family wedding of the year in only 5.5 weeks – who’s ready to do it again?  Congratulations Molly & Matt!