A Photographic Philly Wedding

It’s Sunday night…where did this weekend go??  I know exactly where…Philly!  The Rocket Scientist’s sister got married this weekend in downtown Philly, and it was quite the site to be seen!  Lucky for you, I took lots of pictures.  :)  This was our second wedding in three weeks (first can be viewed here!), so it was interesting to see the differences between the two.  Here we are, a photographic journey into my weekend!

Friday Night – Rehearsal

I was actually supposed to work on Friday night, therefore missing the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner…I was just going to head down on Saturday for the actual ceremony and ensuing festivities.  When I showed up at work on Friday, I jokingly said that I would go home if they didn’t need me, but they hadn’t heard about staffing yet.  We got the word on how many nurses we needed…and then another nurse showed up!  She had been called off but didn’t have her cell phone with her, so she headed to work anyway.  Since we had an extra nurse, they said we could battle it out about who would stay and who would go.  The other nurse remembered that I had something else to do tonight, so she said she would stay.  Yay!  Night off.  :)  I raced back home to shower and pack and head down to Philly.  I ended up missing the actual rehearsal,  but I made it in plenty of time for the rehearsal dinner!

The rehearsal dinner was hosted at the Vesper Boat Club, which is on Boathouse Row in Philly.  The area is very pretty at night, with all the boat houses lit up…definitely gives a good view from the highway, but it was fun to be on the other side!  When we first showed up, some of the crew teams were still out on the water.  The view of the city was quite nice:

It’s no Chicago, but I guess it works.

Lights of Vesper from the deck.

University of Pennsylvania’s boat house.

Hanging out in the window.

  Rocket Scientist sporting his mom’s lovely leopard print jacket.

Saturday – Play Time

The Rocket Scientist’s family are not city people in the least.  Soooo when Saturday rolled around, there was no actual plan of action.  (And I quote:  “What is there to do around here?”  Ummm…anything your little heart desires!  Anyway.)  No one had to be anywhere until 3pm, so we had plenty of time to play.  After sitting around in the hotel for awhile, we finally headed out into the city.  The wedding was to be at the Franklin Institute, so we headed over there to check out the exhibits and such beforehand.  It brought back memories because we visited there many times when I lived outside Philadelphia as a wee little one.  (Ages 1-6!)

 

The Pendulum that demonstrated that the Earth rotates…every 25 minutes it knocks off a different peg.

Touring the giant walk-through heart!

Learning about arteries and blood flow…keep your heart healthy!

The Rocket Scientist learning about lift!  Not that he didn’t know about it already…

We’re flying!

After we left the Franklin Institute so the boys could get changed for the wedding, the RS and I went on a hunt for a card…because he was clearly planning ahead.  After walking a few blocks, some friendly pedestrians pointed us in the direction of a CVS.  As we strolled power walked along, we passed this beauty:

BAKERY!!

When my dad lived in Philly back in the day (like…wayyyyy back in the day), he used to live a few blocks from the Swiss Haus Bakery and loved one of the cakes that they had.  When my parents came to visit in August, we walked outside his old apartment and found this bakery.  While he said the cake was different than he remembered, the goods were still fabulous.  Since I can’t pass up the chance to stop at a bakery, I went in while the RS powered on to CVS.  Please note that the guy working in the bakery laughed at my photography as I stood outside.  Maybe I should try to get a job there…then I could eat/bake this deliciousness on a daily basis:

Rocky Road Brownie!!!  Normally I hate nuts in my brownies, but this was tasty.

Saturday – The Big Event

Saturday night was the big night!  Since it was at a museum, it was a rather late event.  The actual ceremony was in the Planetarium, so of course the crowds had to clear out before we could head in!  Pictures were first taken outside…luckily the sun came out in the afternoon for some pretty pictures.

Rocket Scientist’s family with the bride and groom.  Three other wedding parties were also taking pictures.

Woo!  Thanks to my friend for actually picking a bridesmaid dress I could wear again!

View of City Hall (and Ben!) from Logan Square.

Married!

The reception was in the main hall…no joke, we ate at the feet of Ben Franklin.
 Menu!

The salad was AMAZING.  I had Sea Bass for dinner…tasty tasty!  Definitely some of the best wedding food I’ve ever had…I usually feel like it leaves something to be desired, but this was awesome.

Not going to lie…I wasn’t too impressed with the cake.

Okay…LET THE AWESOME PICTURES BEGIN.

  I told you he’s nerdy…the socks/glasses were for the wedding pictures…each groomsman had a different color!

The Rocket Scientist found another scientist!

The heart is an awesome muscle…so I flexed mine!

Flashing our gang signs…that’s “EAST COAST” for the Rocket Scientist and “MIDWEST” for me.  :)

Okay…that’s actually kind of cute. 

It was a really fun weekend, filled with lots of good food!  Dancing was a little limited at the reception…everything was kind of broken up so it didn’t really get started.  Annnnd we got pulled away for lots and lots of pictures.  But that’s okay, fun was had by all.  It was one of the fancier weddings that I’ve been to, and I can’t say I’ll ever see anyone get married in the Franklin Institute again!  I hope everyone else has glorious weekends as well.