Wedding Weekend

John and I both took off last Friday and headed to Illinois for our friend Jeff's wedding!  We had never been to Carbondale (and all the little towns around it) and I wasn't sure what to think.  Well it is beautiful!!! 

Friday night we went to the rehersal dinner which was at a local winery.  Turns out they have like 12 or so wineries there. I had never been to one.  Our view was sooo pretty!

This is an awful picture...I was slouching because my heels made me quite a bit taller than John. 

Here is Ben and Melissa (our cabin mates)

All the boys:

(John, Ben, Brian, Jeff "The Groom", Will)

All of the guys pretty much were roomates throughout college.

All of us minus Brian's girlfriend Clair who couldn't make it. 

Ok, well I didn't get the picture I wanted (should've just brought the good camera out) but there were bats flying around EVERYWHERE!!!  I think they like the grapes??  I don't know, but I had never seen any before!  (you can't see any in this picture either)

Saturday morning, the guys (9 of them) played golf on the course that our cabins were on which was pretty neat.  Us girls went to eat breakfast at the lodge in the state park and then decided to lay out at the pool there where I got fried!!!!  The cabins were pretty cool where we stayed so I took some pictures...

There was a tower by the lodge that we ate at and we decided to walk to the top of it.

***I thought this picture of the tower was pretty cool***

Here was the view...

So I guess this is a long post because we are only at the actual wedding now!!  Here is John and I at the reception.

Brian and Will

Ben and Melissa and us

The female singer in the band singing to Brian.  haha

So the guys were all in the same fraternity at Ole Miss.  Each year when they had a new pledge class after rush, they had to all take a picture on a firetruck.  (i think it was a symbol of Pike or something?)  Well, there was a firetruck in front of the reception place and Will got all sentimental on us and made them all take a picture.  =)

It was dark and the pictures did not turn out well.

This is the only picture of the bride and groom I got!!!  I know...terrible. 

John, Brian, Will, Catey

All in all, we had a GREAT time celebrating two wonderful people and hanging out with great friends!  It was so good to see everyone!  Jeff is one of the nicest guys I know and he and Jenna are perfect for each other.  We are so happy for them.  Its about time she became a Dusch!!!  (yes, you pronounce the name just as it looks!)  They own the name though...just before group pictures were taken Jenna said, "On the count of three, everyone say Dusch's!!!!!"  It was hilarious!

But I also wanted to say, if anyone ever needed a place to go with someone special where you just wanted a close, relaxing trip...this would be the place!  They have small lakes with beaches, cute cabins and lodges everywhere, and these wine trails I was talking about earlier.  You can take a tour of several wineries!  It really would've been really fun to do!  And it is only three to three and a half hours away!

 I will post a couple of pictures of the Little Dude in a minute on a seperate post!