May I Present Mr. & Mrs. Rollins.......

Our daughter Tory got married on December 15th. Tory and Danny have been planning the wedding for the last year. We flew home from the Dominican Republic so that we could give our daughter away and gain a new son.

The wedding was scheduled to take place on the cruise ship Carnival Triumph, sailing out of Galveston in the afternoon of the 15th. The plan was for the wedding to take place before the ship set sail so that guests that were not going on the cruise could still attend the nuptials.

Everyone that was planning on going on the cruise, and many that were in town for the wedding spent the night at the Hilton Hotel in Galveston. We had a wonderful rehearsal dinner the night before, hosted by the grooms parents Rick and Glenda Rollins. We woke up early to get ready for the big day. After everyone was showered, dressed and checked out of the hotel, we found out that the ship channel had been closed due to foggy conditions. The ship could not even make it into the dock. We were a little concerned since the hotel was on the sea wall and we couldn't even see the ocean across the street.

The bride and groom were impressively calm and composed, just communicating with the cruise line and waiting patiently. We waited most of the day and started getting concerned that we might have some timing issues with the wedding and reception happening on the ship. Plus, it was a little difficult to keep the bride and groom from seeing each other, since the only thing we could all do was wonder around the hotel lobby!

We were so impressed with the brides composure as she stared to contemplate alternate ideas for the wedding. After throwing some ideas around, it was finally decided that we would have the wedding at the Hotel. Everyone involved was just wonderful in helping make this happen. The Hilton let us use a room at no charge, the cruise wedding planners came to the hotel to conduct the ceremony and, thanks to Uncle Kenny, we even had a sound system delivered so we could play the wedding music through an iPod. The ceremony was beautiful and we soon learned that we would be able to board the ship that evening and have the reception there, as originally planned (just several hours later!).

The ceremony was beautiful and the reception that followed on the ship was a lot of fun.  The VIP boarding that the wedding party received was nice too.  We had a fantastic time on the cruise, it was wonderful to spend time with everyone!

I ask for your patience with the blog. I am learning to use the iPad to make posts to my google blog and I'm having trouble getting the pictures to post the way I like them. I'm sure there's an app for that, the search goes on. If any of my readers know something that I don't - please don't be shy. Help!!!!