Waking at 3am to make sure there’s ample time for primping, packing and to do an idiot check before high-tailing it to the airport can make for a long day.

Once there, I was greeted by a gargantuan Terminal 1 security line which almost stretched down to Terminal 2…but it moved swiftly.

TSA officers were chipper and happy – and none of my liquids were scrutinized or discarded…something I’ve never seen before.

And the mega-line at Starbucks also was daunting at first, but I ended up flying through it.

On the plane, I struggled with whether to get a regular coffee, decaf coffee, or a cocktail. Regular would give me coffee breath and keep me awake, and I wanted to sleep. Decaf would give me coffee breath, but would let me sleep. A cocktail would probably give me funky breath, too, but hopefully even the slightest buzz would make me disregard any breath funk. I went with the cocktail, and it was a wise choice. The large dude in the middle seat next to me passed out and his head was tilted toward yours truly. He was a mouth-breather, and whatever concerns I had for my own breath were forgotten when I smelled his. Yikes. Cocktail buzz to the rescue, because my screwdriver promptly made me nod off and snooze for the better part of my 3.5 hour flight.

Score.

I got to St. Louis, and was whisked away by the rental car shuttle after waiting mere minutes. Awesome.

Once at the rental car location, my preferred status did, in fact, show up on the digital display board, so I was in my car in no time.

And when I got to the hotel, even though I was technically 45 minutes before the allowed check-in time, they let me check in anyway.

Add in a fun rehearsal at the church, good times at the groom’s parents’ house this evening and a girls’ night at the hotel before her big wedding tomorrow, and the day was pretty flawless.

Tonight I am thankful for a lovely day of uneventful travel, for best friends and their love and for celebrations to come.

Cheers to the soon-to-be Mr. and Mrs.