bridal party intros: bryan

bryan is one of our awesome mary washington friends. although he was a year younger than us at mwc, he was an avid soccer fan and friend to stevie throughout their college years. steve was a groomsman in bryan’s beautiful va beach wedding to his bride, jenn (also a fellow eagle!). the two live down in va beach where jenn is a teacher and, when the boys aren’t fiercely competing in fantasy football or have their phones on speaker as they play each other in madden, bryan is a public accountant. we are so excited to have both bryan and jenn be a part of our big day! as a wedded vet, i’m counting on bryan to make sure steve gets to the altar and that all boys behave (somewhat) appropriately in my absence : )

bridal party intros: the brady girls

{nellie, lillian & claire may 2010}

i get a little misty writing this intro for three of the most important little ladies in my life! nellie, claire, and lillian brady (along with their parents) are the reason why i carry such fond memories of fredericksburg throughout my college years. essentially, bridesmaid lindsey’s mom worked with the girls’ aunt beth in williamsburg and made the connection between several broke child-loving college girls and the busy brady family in need of sitters. this was our freshman year at mary wash and lindsey started sitting for them on ocassion back when nellie was just a little under a year old. when lindsey and i became roomies sophomore year, the brady brood had grown to two with the addition of claire (baby churr as nellie used to call her) and they needed reinforcements! i started watching the girls in tandem with lindsey while claire was a newborn and then on my own once she got a little older. their parents, sarah and brent, opened their home and were very much my fredericksburg family for which i will be forever grateful.

{clockwise from top left: me with nellie 2003, claire & nellie (holding lillian) in nyc 2006, the brady family christmas card 2007, nellie and claire 2002}

after we graduated college, miss lillian came along as a welcome third (and final) baby girl. even after lindsey and i moved to northern virginia, we remained close with the brady’s often taking on long-term sitting jobs. it’s been ten years now that i’ve known the brady’s and they have known steve since day 1 (nellie blew our cover when he came over to visit once while i was babysitting!).

{steve with nellie, steve with claire 2002/2003}

these days, the girls are almost 9 (claire’s birthday is in august), 10 (nellie will be 11 before our wedding day!) and lillian turned 4 in march. we always stop at their house when we are driving through fredericksburg and kate even got to meet their clan in may and snapped a family photo! on 11/27, nellie and claire will be serving as junior bridesmaids, and lillian will be flanking shannon as a second flower girl. having all three girls be a part of our wedding and the entire family in tow on the big day is a total dream.

bridal party intros: kish

these smoldering blue eyes belong to one ryan kish. he is yet another mary washington soccer stud (yes, our bridal party is teeming with them – lucky, lucky me!) whose friendship with steve has weathered the test of time. the two were teammates for four years and roomies at the infamous prince edward street house for the last two years of college solidifying their bromace. these days, kish is living the dream in arlington so he and stevie still get to kick the ball around on multiple soccer teams. kish is a tall drink of water, bringing the groomsman height average up a notch. little does he know, we’re gonna make him walk with the flower girls : )

ps – you can also ask him about his recent run in with obama!

bridal party intros: kodack

steve and kodack (paul) were known as “the twins” at mary washington — see any resemblance in the pics up above? the two were pretty much inseparable through soccer and then as roommates sophomore, junior, and senior year. we all moved up to northern virginia after graduation so they are still best buds, causing late night trouble on occasion and playing men’s league together twice a week. sometimes i joke and call kodack “the other woman” because he and steve are thick as thieves, but truth be told he is a very loyal friend to steve and he means a lot to both of us. we’re very honored to have him stand up for us as a groomsman on 11/27 and know that the kodack-ramos friendship will stand the test of time.

a night to remember

steve and i celebrated our engagement with 40 of our closest friends last weekend in fredericksburg. the murrays were our gracious hosts for an amazing party and a fantastic time had by all! from the yummy food to the touching slide show, it was truly overwhelming to be in the presence of so many people who love and support us. we can’t thank everyone enough who made the trip to come and toast our upcoming wedding! we feel like we’ve officially kicked off the season leading up to 11/27 and are so excited for more get togethers along the way.

bridal party intros: alana

beautiful bridesmaid alana and i met freshman year at mary washington. she sadly transferred away to north carolina after sophomore year but, fear not! our lovefest continued. she has been such a faithful friend fielding my late night panicky planning phone calls and even weathering bean’s wild and wonderful 21st with me last march. she’s the only veteran among my anthropologie-decked ranks and i was honored to serve as a bridesmaid in her 7-7-07 wedding to hubby jon. the happy couple live in raleigh very close to steve’s aunt, uncle and cousins so we are lucky enough to get to see them quite a bit. they are currently trying their darndest to suck us down to their ‘hood permanently after the wedding but only time will tell if we go from being college friends to bridesmaids to neighbors!

bridal party intros: liam

let’s just put it out on the table: liam is the heartthrob of the groomsmen group.

(i know this because a) look at that killer smile and b) my bridesmaids are arguing over who gets to walk with him!)

he and steve have been buds since playing travel soccer in highschool when liam apparently (and i don’t believe this for a second but i will try to find photographic evidence) was rocking a grungy mullet. the two continued their love fest through four years of soccer at mary wash where liam was the team’s goalie and steve played attacking center mid. aside from being an athletic stud, liam launched a little group called the silent critics during our college years with our good friend, ryan. the two are still rocking and rolling, booking gigs across northern va and stealing hearts as they go. as co-frontmen, we’re hoping to convince them to sing our first dance so fingers crossed you will all get to experience liam’s vocal stylings in november!

bridal party intros: lindsey

{us in our collegiate heyday at mary wash}

it’s hard for me to find words to do bridesmaid and best friend of 10 years, lindsey, justice. she’s been in my life so long, i can’t remember the days before her! she’s been around longer than stevie & played a major role in our engagement which meant so much to me. she’s been there through good times and bad breakups, ridiculously drunken evenings and insanely worth it hangover mornings. we were roommates for four years and, in short, she’s my person.

these days she’s way too far away for my liking playing the role of full-time teacher and grad student in nashville, tn. we are so excited she’ll be traveling back to va this thanksgiving to celebrate and keep my sanity in check on the big day. i’m also secretly hoping, if we ask nicely (and serve her enough liquor), she *might* just indulge us with her killer karaoke rendition of “play that funky music (white boy).”

bridal party intros: lee

groomsman william lee murray met steve at their highschool state all-star soccer game (where steve was MVP, as he would like to remind lee). they would later be literally reconnected during freshman soccer initiation at mary washington college when they were tied together wearing women’s underwear and lee (apparently) drank all the beer for their team of two. flash forward nine years to last october when we were lucky enough to be a part of lee’s wedding celebration to his beautiful bride karli. we adore them both as people and as friends and feel quite blessed to have the unofficial mayor and first lady of fredericksburg, va participate in our wedding day.

a ring in the rain

six months ago today steve lured me down to fredericksburg, home of our alma mater mary washington, with the promise of dinner with friends. little did i know said friends were actually not in town and he had cooked up a surprise with bridesmaid/bestie/college roomie-who’s-been-there-since-night-one, lindsey! i was told we got down to f’burg too early for our (fake) dinner plans so steve suggested a walk on campus to kill some time. we were having a blast reminiscing about our days as undergrads and i was clueless as ever that anything out of the ordinary was about to happen. mid-stroll down campus walk in the pouring rain we ducked into the amphitheater you see up above where it was miraculously dry thanks to all of that tree cover.  wonderful things were said, steve got down on one knee, and the rest is history.

these first six months have absolutely flown and we are looking forward to taking our awesome photog, kate headley, back to mary wash and adorable downtown fredericksburg for engagement photos sometime in the next six months so stay tuned!

ps – kate is launching a beautiful new website which we can’t wait to see!