Weekend in Review – 409 GTG!

This weekend was a busy one!  What was originally supposed to be a full-on get together (GTG) with the 409 girls turned into Ali coming to visit Atlanta.  The 409’ers are a special group of women that I met on The Knot while planning my wedding.  We were all planning weddings for April 2009 and had all made our way onto the message board specific to our wedding month/year.

When I joined, several of the women had been planning their weddings for awhile, and had already formed pretty close bonds.  Seeing that Josh proposed 7 months before we got married, I was a relative newbie. Luckily, they didn’t scare me off in the beginning (I received warnings from other women on The Knot about the group – ha!).

Since our wedding month, we’ve all grown even closer, and moved off The Knot onto our own password protected message board.  We’ve shared personal details from our lives, provided encouragement, empathized and sympathized in times of sadness.  I consider these women great friends, even if I have only met a small portion of them in person!

Last year, the first 409 GTG was held in D.C.  Josh and I weren’t able to go because we were saving all of our vacation days (and money) for our Australia trip.  This year, the plan was for everyone to come to Atlanta.  Life had other plans though!  Babies were born, homes were sold and purchased, insect outbreaks, and other personal situations arose and unfortunately the attendee number slimmed.

Ali booked her airfare and hotel pretty early on, and rather than paying change fees and making other plans, she flew down to Atlanta to hang out with Jen and myself!  I was really excited to meet her for the first time.  For those of you who ever came across Three Sheets to the Wind, Ali was the mastermind behind that blog. It’s been awhile since she’s posted, perhaps she’ll start back sometime soon (:)).

On Friday night, Jen, Jen’s husband, Ali, Josh and I met for dinner at Taco Mac.  Ali is a beer connoisseur, so it was only fitting we took her to a location with a large list of beers to choose from [next time, I vote we visit Brick Store Pub in Decatur].  We spent time talking, catching up, and just hanging out.  Meeting Ali was just like seeing someone I hadn’t seen in awhile, no awkwardness – just a continuation of previous communication.  She’s awesome!

On Saturday, Jen and Ali ran in a 5K near Jen’s house and then we met up for lunch at Mary Mac’s Tea Room.  If you either a) live in Atlanta and have never been, or b) have never been to Atlanta – you should put this on your list of places to eat!  It is one of my favorites in town!

After lunch, we made our way over to the Georgia Aquarium to explore the world’s largest aquarium.  While it was a little busy, we had a great time!

We were hoping to see the Dolphin Tales show, but we had tickets to the Braves games vs. the Pirates, so we needed leave and meet Josh at the stadium.

We had seats in section 334, which was nice and shady!  Unfortunately the Braves didn’t take home the win, but we still had fun!

Sunday morning, Jen and I met to go pick Ali up from her hotel and take her to breakfast.  We decided on The Flying Biscuit, and I’m so glad we did.  Neither Jen nor I had been before, so we were relying on all the wonderful things we’d heard about the place to be true – and they were!

We ordered breakfast, chatted about the weekend and life in general.

After we finished, we dropped Ali off at the airport with the plan to talk again soon on the board.

All in all, we had a fabulous weekend though we missed everyone that wasn’t able to attend.  After “hanging out” with these ladies online for so long, the thought of hanging out in person is a no brainer!  I do hope that there is another GTG in the future and that more ladies (and husbands*) to attend!

 

* Special thanks to Josh and Jason for hanging out with us this weekend! 🙂

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