Why Pirates?
If you looked through the thousands of wedding photos we posted, you may have noticed a recurring image: pirates.
What, you may well ask, is up with that?
It goes like this: Erica has a lot of friends. A lot of close, personal friends. But she didn't want to be one of those Southern Belle brides with eleven hot-pink-clad bridesmaids lined up behind her. So after agonizing over who to ask, she asked Rebecca, Rebecca, and her brother to be her bridal party. She also knew she'd be relying a lot on her friends Leslie and Mel. "They'll be around all the time," she said, "they'll be my... entourage." She also wanted to involve her old Jackson friends Erica and Sara. But they both live in New York now, so they wouldn't be able to be there for a lot of the pre-wedding stuff. "I'm sure they'd be happy to help in any way they can," I said, "They can be wedding pirates and pillage the reception."
Sara and Erica were happy to help out, and their role shifted to something much more like a traditional usher. But we remembered my off-the-cuff remark and when I was making a crayon order from Oriental Trading, I did a search for "pirate" out of curiosity. Holy cow. In a way, we're lucky I showed such remarkable restraint in only getting plastic swords and eye patches and temporary tattoos and gold coins and fake mustaches.
So, we didn't have a pirate-themed wedding, but we did have a pirate accent. And it makes all the sense in the world.