Even if you don’t live on the East Coast, you still might have heard that we were completely buried in snow this weekend. The blizzard started Friday evening and steadily continued well into the night on Saturday. Normally I love a big snowstorm as long as I can stay inside, snuggled up with Chris to watch some good movies. But this storm went a little differently since we were actually scheduled to photograph a wedding on Saturday in a town about 1.5 hours away. Camera in hand as usual, I documented bits of our our snowy weekend adventure!
Friday, December 18, 2009:
- 10:00 am – Started to hear reports of significant snowfall predictions for our area (at the time they were saying 6-10 inches). Decided at the last minute that it might be a good idea to leave the night before Saturday’s wedding.* Searched for the closest hotel to the wedding day action.
- 11:21 am – Booked a suite at an adorable hotel just feet away from the reception venue.
- 4:00 pm – Packed the Jeep with our usual photo gear plus ample amounts of emergency supplies: blankets, snow shovel, hand warmers, extra gloves, UGGs, etc. Heard new reports of 10-20 inches of snowfall.
- 4:30 pm – Hit the road before the snow started falling.
- 6:15 pm – The snow started falling.
- 8:00 pm – Arrived in Culpeper and stopped at the Wal-mart to obtain additional emergency supplies: snacks, water, sodas, Us Weekly magazine. Tried to find a fan because I forgot mine and can’t sleep without one, only it’s impossible to find a fan in the off-season. Settled on a small heater with a fan after an employee helped me plug a few in to see what they sounded like. (You think I’m kidding? The employee in the hardware department found an outlet for me and tried three different heaters from the display so I could listen to them. He laughed, but was really nice about it.)
- 9:05 pm – Finally left Wal-mart where we (and everyone else in Culpeper) were in line for about 40 minutes.
- 10:35 pm – Arrived at the super fabulous Suites at 249. Fell completely in love with our beautifully appointed room.
- 10:45 pm – Turned the news on only to hear that the snow had no plans of stopping and that we’d probably get around two feet of snow total. Took a “before” view of the patio furniture. Stay tuned for the “after” shot.
- 12:05 am – Turned the lights out to get some sleep before the wedding day.
This is our view from the patio – that’s the reception venue across the street (the historic train depot)!
*Note: I’ve decided that this spontaneous trip counts towards fulfilling item #85 on my 101 in 1001 list: Take a spontaneous weekend trip with no plans. Chris and I literally had no idea how the weekend was going to go or what was going to happen with the wedding. We didn’t know if we’d just stay Friday or if we’d be snowed in the whole weekend or into the week (we ended up staying two nights). We basically just said let’s be prepared for anything, and pretty much everything that we had originally planned for the wedding was out the window. But I love the results we did get – more on that later! Well, okay…just a couple of sneak peek photos of Patty and Travis (more soon!):
How cute is Patty in her boots?!
Day 2 to follow! In the meantime, how did the storm affect you? Were you stuck somewhere? Did you miss out on last-minute holiday shopping? Leave a comment and let me know about your own snowy adventures!
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