A Charleston Wedding

Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. Tyler Gregg!

May 11, 2013

My Best Friend's Wedding, Part II

(BOLO -"Be on the Lookout"- for the bloopers post to come)

When me and my 4Runner pulled into Columbia, South Carolina, in August of 2004, the only person I knew in the entire state was my dad. He was with me. He left and I voluntarily threw myself into a gym of 700 other freshman girls so that we could voluntarily weave in and out of hundreds of other girls who were clapping and handing out coffee filters (to wipe off the August heat).

On the last day of the madness that is "rush," 50 of us lined up outside the Chi Omega house in alphabetical order. Wouldn't you know it: "Alliman" was a few girls in front of me. From that day forward we were wing-ladies. We lived in the super cool small and quiet out-of-staters dorms which led to copious amounts of socializing. Sometimes I credit our friendship to the fact that I would often say, "Peace be with you," to friends instead of, "Goodbye," and Laura was the only one who would respond, "And with you." We get each other like that.

During our pledge retreat in the fall of 2004.

While this was happening...

...this was happening.

Fast forward about 5 years...

Preface: The following Goggle chat takes place between Rhett and I on May 16, 2009, 

while Laura and I were traveling around Costa Rica.

 8:59 PM me: on another note, what do you think about laura and tyler having a summer fling?

 rhettcraig: who knows

 me: i mean they know it cant be anything serious because they both have law school to go back to in the fall

 rhettcraig: once again, who knowstyler's in town now by the wayme: ooooh yea. lucky yourhettcraig: yeahhe thinks that laura is a hottie

If you haven't already asked me this, you're probably thinking, "What took so long for these two to get together?!" At any given point during college, one or the other was involved with someone else...until that fateful summer of 2009. Fast forward about 3 years... they married! And here is that story:

Kickoff Thursday happy hour with my mom at Rooftop Bar at Vendue Inn

and getting lobster-faced with a steamed/tempura/ravioli trio at Peninsula Grill.

Friday morning mani/pedis at Aqua.

Champagne served with or without bagged hands.

Friday rehearsal at St. Luke's Chapel

and rehearsal party at the Harbour Club.

There are a hundred photos of them like this.

I could cry. #bromance

Perfect, 75 degree wedding gift from the man upstairs.

Putting on our faces and teasing the wedding mullet Saturday morningwith the mother of the groom's first look.
Taping up the feet for the marathon that is: wedding day.
Upstairs at the reception site, the Governor Thomas Bennett House.
Mother of the bride dressing her other daughter in a wedding gown for the second time inside one year.
She finally took a moment to look in a mirror :)
Surprise! We fixed the mullets.
Sneaking in a birds-eye first look shot.
The Greggs.
The ladies.
The Craigs.
Dipping into the banana pudding on the grounds of the Thomas Bennett House.
Kentwool strikes again!

Mrs. Gregg.

They had to leave. They had to catch a flight to Greece.

(honeymoon photos are up on Facebook)

Sunday King Street bliss.

Mother's Day brunch, bellinis, and bloodys at 82 Queen.

Sunday Funday with friends at Red's Ice House.

A boatload of thank yous to the Lee/Alliman/Gregg families for the entire weekend. It was perfect. We laughed, we cried, we plucked dusty millers, and the bride was breathtaking. We are lucky BFFs. 

My Best Friend's Wedding, Part I: A Seattle Wedding

[photo source: Mrs. WRCIV]

A Savannah Bachelorette Party

The bride's favorite holiday is St. Patrick's Day. 

The groom proposed the day before St. Pat's in 5 Points. 

We had no choice: Savannah for a St. Pat's Bachelorette!

The day after their engagement during St. Pat's in 5 Points 2012.

Along the Georgia/South Carolina coast lies a little leprechaun haven known as Savannah. Millions of visitors come each year for its architecture and history. It is the birthplace of Juliette Gordon Low, founder of the Girl Scouts of America, home of Paula Deen, and downtown is one of the largest National Historic Landmark Districts in the US.

Savannah also boasts 364 days a year of planning to celebrate the patron saint of Ireland. For the 189th time, Savannah held their annual parade and festival and we headed south to see if the rumors were true. In four words: yup, and then some...

Straight from the car to a pre-shower spin around downtown.
The streets were overflowing with green plastic.
I gladly spent $3 on the above item.

The Friday night left-work-early crew at Garibaldi's.


A pre-piano bar cocktail to stimulate the senses.

Singing a little number into a femur bone at Savannah Smiles Dueling Pianos.


Safety first.
Shout out to the fantastic Savannah law enforcement team.

Sarah's pantie game: Everyone bring the bride a pair and she guesses who bought which.

My mini bottle exchange game*: Everyone chooses a number out of a cup.

Number one picks a mini bottle first, then number two can steal number one's or pick from the pile.

So on and so forth until everyone has one.

Wait until everyone has theirs, then choose blindly out of a cup either:
"Chilled", "with a chaser", or "straight up".

*For optimal enjoyment, please play responsibly and in the afternoon/evening.

Not over the moon about "gin" + "straight up."

Showtime.

For breakfast, it was hot dogs.

Fully benefiting from Savannah's no open container laws.

Laura's Bachelorette Party! (minus Sam)

For lunch, it was a walk-up window McDonald's.

Different strokes for different folks.
I give the people-watching an A+ for originality and creativity.

Afternoon delight at B&D Burgers with our new best friend, Torri.

Saw a ton of people, but no burgers.

For dinner, it was Vinnie Van Go Go's.

The hardest working guys in town: valet.

Bonus points for finding Tyler's keys in less than 15 minutes.

To polish off our weekend of under-indulging. 

Stay far, far away from the Hardeeville/Jasper Highway Burger King.

Among the many things they did not have during our 30 minute wait,

ketchup packets were one of them.
Ketchup packets.

We did it. We planned, we executed, and we're back in the office with the only evidence being no voice and chipped hot pink nail polish. It was a McAmazing O'Fantastic time and more pics will come soon on Facebook. In closing, the main takeaways from the weekend would have to be:

1. The buddy system is 100% successful when used properly.

2. Don't assume you'll see more than 4 blocks of Savannah-  or the river - just because you're in Savannah.

3. Remember the power of the "Bachelorette" sash. 

Once our sunburns have healed and our energy levels have stabilized, Savannah St. Pat's: The Reunion planning can commence! (Please message for details; serious inquiries only).

Love you, Laura and Tyler,

and thank you to all of the ladies for your enthusiastic participation!

A Charleston Wedding

...coming in May!

[photo sources: Holy City Catering, Saint Patricks, Mrs. Chermely, Mrs. WRCIV]

A good year

We like to keep our holidays cards short and sweet, but there was so much more to our year than 12 photos and a few words. I suppose that's one of the beauties of a blog? I'll go with that. Here is a look back on the priceless memories of 2012 with a special thanks to everyone we love for sharing them with us:

We took our first photo of 2012

and our best friends got engaged...to each other :)

Spent sunny afternoons at Falls Park after wedding planning

and Easter Sunday with the loves of my life.

Engagement parties and wedding showers

led to wedding weekend

and May 19th.

So we honeymooned in the Virgin Islands

then spent lazy summer days on the river with friends.


Our babies are getting a little older and a littler wiser...our silver foxes...

watched Gamecock baseball make it to the CWS Championship Game...

for the third year in a row (#gococks)

and made a trip to Kansas for my uncle's big birthday surprise.

I became Auntie Em to Aedyn

and we played around at the beach.

Rhett did his first triathlon

then finally scratched Chicago off of his bucket list.

Watched Gamecock football have the best season in school history (11 wins)

Rhett kept runnin'... and I kept watchin'

Friends upon friends upon friends got married

I'm blogging

and we voted.

Spent Thanksgiving with the Craigs in Aiken

then to Seattle for my best friend's wedding, Part I.

Back to Kansas for Christmas and to put science 

projects together with my favorite little ones

and washed the whole year down with champagne in Columbia.

My dad once said to me that the older you get, the more responsibilities you have, but the more fun life becomes. He's been right so far. Happy 2013 everyone! Make lots of memories and take lots of pictures. It's always interesting to me when people say, "this year just flew by!" I hear people say that every year. Enjoy the moments because this year is sure to "fly by," too! :)

[photo source: Mrs. WRCIV]