Lil' Bit Henson: best friends forever

One of my longest, bestest friends got married last weekend on a lake island next to an old-south style mansion. Allison had described the location to us and I never doubted it was pretty but the rehearsal dinner, ceremony and reception were so beautiful that it completely exceeded my imagination. Allison's father died suddenly a few months ago. He was one of those uniquely perfect dads, the kind that God gives daughters to take care of and protect. He was definitely present as tropical storm Karen was stalled just long enough to give her a cool, dry and sunny wedding day. We all thought of him when she danced with her mom and at the end as her mom thanked everyone for coming, I thought of how he was supposed to be standing beside his wife, both so proud of their beautiful daughter.
Her day was full of emotions, both happy and sad and it was one of my favorite weddings of all time.

Even Emmy had fun, running all over the grassy lawn, dancing with boys, rolling through the house and collecting... um... rocks. Lots of rocks. We danced all night and cheered to the happy couple.

Although Allison isn't the last of our group to get married, her wedding is the most recent since mine, 2 1/2 years ago and 3 years after the last one we had as bridesmaids. We were all a little rusty on the bridesmaid duties but once the wedding festivities got rolling, our affection for Allison made it easy to know what to do.

The location for the wedding was about 45 minutes away from Birmingham and the drive was a little long, but I was happy to spend that time chatting with my friends in the car. I've had these friends since I was in high school. I have known them all for almost 15 years, half of my life! When we spend time together like this, free of husbands and kids, I feel young again. Happy and silly and laughing about things only we understand or even think is funny. We have been through so much together, so many happy and sad times. We have been there for each other through heartache, joy, failure and achievement. Together, we have cried, laughed, and even laughed so hard we peed our pants.

There is not a moment when I am with them that I feel self-conscious. I never worry that what I say will be misunderstood or misrepresented and turned into gossip. There is something so unique about high school friends. In high school, you spend so much time together. You live close to each other, you take classes together, you stay up as late as possible for sleepovers and you dream about your future together. Then, the future happens. You go to different schools, you move back but not so close to each other. You get married, have kids, work, make new friends and want to go to bed as early as possible. It gets hard to find time for each other. And very rarely do you get to spend time all together at once.