Chrissy & Mike's Wedding Weekend

Chrissy and Mike got married two weeks ago, and I think I'm just now catching up and recovering from the fun-filled weekend.

The weekend started with Chrissy's bridesmaids luncheon on Friday at 411 West Italian restaurant on Franklin Street. Everything was lovely and the food was delish. As our bridesmaids gift, Chrissy gave us all personalized "from the library of" stamps and a classic book to go along with it. Here's a pic of all the girls with our gifts:

And one of just the bride and I:

After the luncheon I checked into our room at the Franklin Hotel, where Lee and I were staying for Friday night. The hotel was super nice, new and modern, and I was seriously design-inspired. But more on that in another post. 

After a quick rest and change, it was time for the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal dinner was at the Carolina Brewery. The food was yum-o and mad props to Sara for putting together a great photo slideshow for Chrissy and Mike. One of the best parts of the dinner was the groom's cake. It was a replica of Mike's prized Land Rover, and looked like something straight out of Ace of Cakes. One interesting tidbit: the wheels were made out of Krispy Kreme mini-kruellers covered in black fondant - very inventive!

After a few drinks at the bar at the Franklin, we turned in to get some rest for the big day. 

The wedding was at noon on Saturday, so we got an early start at Caju salon in Chapel Hill. Our transportation for the day was a Carolina Livery bus -- SUCH a great idea for getting everyone (bridal party and out-of-town family) where they needed to be. 

The ceremony was at Mt. Carmel Baptist Church, followed by a reception at the Carolina Inn in the Old Well ball room. The weather couldn't have been better...a perfect Carolina May day. I didn't get many pictures of the cocktail hour, etc as I was busy performing bridesmaids duties, but I tried to make up for it once the reception started. Here's Chrissy and Mike's first dance:

You know I'm a sucker for the details, so here's a good detail shot:

Chrissy and Mike are big wine enthusiasts, so they went for a wine theme, from the wine-colored bridesmaids dresses and color scheme to the escort and place cards. The escort cards doubled as favors and were split bottles of wine from one of their favorite vineyards. The place card holders were wine corks. I love love LOVE the way they all turned out.

The flowers were beautiful as well - roses, hydrangea, peonies, and hypericum berries in white, pinks and burgundy. There's nothing like big, beautiful peonies to make a bouquet or centerpiece. Here's a shot of my bouquet:

The reception was wonderful -- the food was great, the bar was great :-), and I think everyone had a great time. Here's one last shot of the bride and I:

Congrats Chrissy and Mike! Thanks for letting me be a part of your big day.

Universe, I Need Your Help

I want to go on a trip. I mean I REALLY REALLY want to go on a trip. And I don't mean a trip to New York or California or even the Caribbean or Mexico (although all of those would be nice). I mean I want to go on a FABULOUS trip. Like the kind where you tell people where you're going and they go "Ohhhhhhh" and are silently thinking, "Man, she is so worldly and cultured and lucky. I sure am jealous."

The only time I have ever been out of the country is on our honeymoon to Mexico. This, my friends, I feel is the single greatest failure of my life thus far. Not the trip to Mexico, it was amazing. It was heaven on earth. I would do it again in a heartbeat. Lee and I get a little giddy when we use the travel shampoo we have leftover from Excellence resort. We take a big whiff and long to be back on the beach with Miguel saying "Would you like another margarita, senor?" Ahhhhh...

But back to my point. My lack of international travel is somewhat depressing to me. I've ALWAYS wanted to go to Europe and came this close in high school. And then 9/11 happened and our country declared war and our school system wasn't about to let a group of 17 & 18 year olds fly half way around the world in the midst of all that chaos. So no Europe for me yet.

I still want to do a London/Paris trip one day and do all of the classic touristy things, but for now I'm thinking Greece...or Italy...or New Zealand...or Australia. Lee loves to travel as much as I do, and Australia is his top pick, but as the practical half of our duo, he's a very tough sell. What I'm trying to convince him is that yes, there are other things we could (and probably should) spend money on. Like paying down debt. Or finishing furnishing our home. Or saving for (gasp!) a baby. But there will ALWAYS be other things we could spend our money on. And those things will be waiting for us when we get back home. If we don't do this now, WE WILL NEVER DO IT.

Oprah told me that if you want something you have to visualize it and say it out loud and believe that it will happen. And you know what Oprah says is true. So, universe, I just thought that I'd put this wish out there and let you do your thing. I'll even pretend to believe in The Secret if it will help get me on a plane faster. I'm married to the most practical person on earth, so I need your help BIG TIME. Please and thank you.

Memorial Day Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend down in Beaufort. On Saturday we went to our normal hangout -- Shell Island. It's close to the house and we normally have the island pretty much to ourselves. 

On Sunday we decided to go to Shackelford Island and grill hotdogs. The ride getting there is a little rough and there's usually a lot more people. Memorial Day Sunday was no exception -- it was PACKED. We found a "parking spot" and anchored just fine, but other boats kept trying to squeeze in near us and there were several almost-collisions. We had to keep Sugar on the leash the whole time, which she did NOT appreciate. We had a good time on Shack, but we all agreed that we'd stick to Shell Island next time.

I took a million pictures, mostly of Sugar, Brett or Sugar and Brett together. I guess they're just the most photogenic, or at least the most active. Here goes:

We saw lots of the Shackelford Banks ponies. Brett and Leah were able to get pretty close for a pic:

This is probably one of my all time favorite pictures:

Back at the house, Lee was sitting down to rest. Brett promptly went and got his bucket, so he could have a stool to recline like Lee. So cute.

Lee and Sugar headed out on the boat. 

And cruisin' back in:

Party Like It's 1999

Two weekends ago, we headed home to K-town to attend Lee's 10 year class reunion. Yes, he's getting old.

Lee had a good graduating class, with lots of people that he's still friends with. We talked about how we're glad that we both grew up in the same area and went to the same high school. Although we weren't in school at the same time (when Lee was a senior in high school I was in 8th grade - yeah, I know, gross), I know a lot of the folks he graduated with and he knows a lot of people I graduated with. If we had grown up in different places I don't know if we would even go to our class reunions, because it would probably be pretty boring for the other person.

Anyway, I realized a neat little tidbit about us at the reunion -- Lee was vice president of his senior class and I was president of my senior class. We're such the power couple, right? Ha, if only that had transferred over to the real world ;-) As VP, the planners of the reunion asked Lee to say a few words. They gave him about 3 minutes notice. He did pretty good under the pressure though.

One of the cool touches to the reunion was the nametags. They were made out of the senior pictures of everyone in the Class of '99. Of course, there have been some changes in 10 years, but everyone was still recognizable. I think it will be really interesting at a 20 or 25 year reunion to see the changes since senior year.

Here's a pic of Britt and Heith and their senior portrait nametags:

Here's a shot of all of the members of Class of '99 who came to the reunion:

And here's one of just the guys, looking pimp of course:

The night wouldn't have been complete though without a little dancing action...:

And a little karoke:

I've Been Slack

I'm sure that my recent rate of one blog post per week has been terribly disappointing to my five loyal readers. To you, I apologize. I will try to do better this week, as I have lots of things to share since I've been so slack lately. 

I am too exhausted tonight after a long weekend of fun and sun down in Beaufort for a coherent blog post, but I leave you with this quick video from our trip to Shackleford Island:

I hope you were paying close attention, because this action-packed 37 second clip contained  the following:

• Wild horses of Shackleford galloping down the beach
• My darling puppy acting like a maniac, quickly followed by the reason she was acting that way...
• The fantastic stylings of our nephew Brett
• My husband, victim of aerosol sunscreen gone bad (notice the stripes on his belly, which I will admit were totally my fault as I was his sunscreen applier the day before)
• Him calling me Isaac and yelling at me to put the camera down

More to come. I know you're excited.

Bachelorette Bar Golf

I had a big weekend last weekend, with Chrissy's bachelorette party on Friday night and Lee's 10 year class reunion on Saturday night. That's why I'm just getting around to posting. On Tuesday. Because I've been catching up on some much-needed sleep. I'll admit it. I ain't what I used to be.

First things first, Chrissy's bachelorette bar golf night in Chapel Hill. As MOH (maid of honor, for those of you not in the wedding-lingo know), Sara put together the outing and it was definitely a hit. Bar golf is a GREAT idea for a bachelorette party, because everything is organized, everyone knows exactly where you're going and when, what drinks to order, and who is buying the bride's drink. And the best part is that you get to dress up and look goofy (therefore calling attention to the group as a bachelorette party) without having to wear penis regalia and feather boas. Here's a shot of the bride and bridesmaids before making our way to Franklin Street:

Of course, we did outfit Chrissy with a golf visor with veil attached and a set of Little Tikes golf clubs.

Sara, Emily and I had gotten together earlier in the week to prepare the scorecards. Each was complete with matching ribbon and mini-Sharpie marker. We planned 9 "holes" of golf and on the scorecard spelled out each hole/bar, the lead golfer (responsible for buying Chrissy's drink or finding someone to buy it for her AND giving her a dare), and the Eagle, Birdie, Par, and Bogey drinks. The Eagle drink was a signature drink from that bar or a classic drink/shot. At each hole, birdie was a well drink, par was a beer, and bogey was water or no drink. Here's a shot of the whole gang at our first hole:

We had an awesome time bouncing from bar to bar and causing a scene everywhere we went. Chrissy was such a trooper, taking the eagle drink or shot at each of the 9 holes and completing all of her hilarious and somewhat embarrassing dares.

We also added in food holes, because no trip to Franklin Street is complete without a trip to Cosmic Cantina or Time Out. We managed to hit up both. Here's us being silly in Time Out:

And finally, Chrissy and I slowly making our way back to the car after a great night. (Don't worry, we definitely had a sober driver!)

This Post is Random

1. I was so fortunate to attend the pharmacy school graduation of two of my dearest friends on Saturday. The ceremony was great, and the party afterwards was even better. I had a blast goofing off with my "other Dawson family" that I don't get to see nearly enough. Congrats Sara and Chrissy, I'm so proud of you guys! Here's a pic of me and Sara in her funny hat:

2. YAYYYY for Kris Allen making it to the finals on AI. Ever since Anoop left, Kris has been my fav. (Props to Erin for backing Kris all along). Even though Adam is sure to win, at least Kris is still in the mix. However, we all know that American Idol is just a holdover until the best show on television begins - SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE. Can't wait!

3. Here's a quick video of Sugar's new trick.

I told you this post was random. Maybe I'll be feeling more cohesive tomorrow.