March 11, 2006

Tara and Greg's Wedding in Houston

Tara is one of my bestest friends whom I met randomly one awesome night back when she lived in New York. She left NYC and moved back to Texas in September of 2003 and just a few nights after being back home she told me that she'd met a boy named Greg that she really liked a lot! Fast forward three years and Meredith and I got an invitation in the mail to fly out to Texas and attend Greg & Tara's wedding! So we hopped a plane and headed to Texas!

Thursday, March 9th

meredith — 7:46am = Cranky Meredith not wanting to get out of bed and head to the airport.

All packed up and ready to go! (Except for our huge wedding present which totally didn't fit into our suitcase).

In addition to the big gift, Meredith also burned Tara a CD that had Photoshop on it (to help Tara design graphics for her new business's website!) and a bunch of love songs. Awwww!

me, meredith — Three hours later and we're in the air and headed to Texas!

Two more hours later and I'm conked the fuck out. Meredith managed to slyly sneak my camera out of my pocket to capture me in all my gape-mouthed glory.

meredith — When we landed in Houston we were STARVING so we decided to grab a quick airport slice before getting our rental car and driving into town. The pizza we got was the greasiest, heaviest pizza I've ever eaten. Check out Meredith holding her stomach. If you put your ear near your monitor, you can actually hear her softly groaning.

The entire time we were eating it, we were wondering why it tasted so bacony. The mystery was solved when I lifted up my cheese and found....a piece of bacon! Gross! (I think they also must've used bacon fat or something in the dough). Fucking, Texas.

Here's our weird-ass rental car/truck type thingy. Way to go, Chevy! Any photo of a car is instantly better if you throw in...

meredith — ...a girl showing off her keyster standing in front of it! (Hmmmm, maybe Chevy's not so bad after all!)

me, meredith — And we're off! If I remember correctly, it was like a ninety-minute drive from the airport to the hotel where Tara and Greg's wedding was taking place.

meredith — Luckily, I had an expert navigator manning the map!

meredith — When we finally arrived at the hotel, it looked like a scene rap music video. Every where you looked there were huge SUVs tinted out, slammed and riding on 24s. And there were all sorts of thugged out dudes walking around with tons of jewelry and gold fronts. Turns out the hotel was hosting two events that weekend: Tara's Wedding and some HUGE dirty-South hip-hop DJ convention! Hahaha. I can't believe I didn't take more photos. Here's Meredith showing off one of the 6 or 7 CDs she was handed in the 20 yard walk from the car to the hotel. We checked into our room, dropped off our bags...

meredith — ...jumped for joy in the hallway.

meredith — Twice.

lucy, tara — Then headed back downstairs to meet up with Tara and baby Lucy! This was the first time we'd gotten a chance to meet her! (The last time I saw Tara was exactly one year ago, back when Lucy was still being baked in the baby oven!)

lucy, tara — We all went to grab a quick bite at the hotel's restaurant (where we sat at a booth ACROSS FROM MC HAMMER and his "entourage" - I guess they were in town for the hip hop convention thingy) and Lucy and I got to know each other.

lucy, tara — And then we watch Lucy play with her favorite toy: Tara's giant lips. Hahahah.

meredith — Afterwards, Tara had to go take care of pre-wedding stuff and so Mer and I headed back up to our hotel room to chillax for a bit.

meredith — Anytime Meredith "chillaxes" near a bed, chillaxing turns into sleeping after about, oh, 3 minutes.

A little after midnight later that night, we headed out into the town to check out Houston night life. We ended up at a cool, divey bar that Tara had told us about, that had karaoke - but the wait to sing was really long...

meredith — ...and we were really tired. So after a few drinks, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel.

Saturday, March 11th

meredith — We slept in the next day, relaxed in our hotel room, and then set out to find a place to grab lunch around 2pm! We ended up at a Thai restaurant where, like always, we ended up ordering WAY too much food.

Then afterwards, we ended up driving past some really nice, sprawling park that was sort of close to our hotel. So we parked the car and hung out on the grass...

...and read our books for a while. Michael Connelly thriller for me (airport book!)

Ray Bradbury short stories for Mer.

me, meredith — Meredith manning the IKAD-cam!

This one's for all you foot fetish enthusiasts out there!

Meredith took a walk around and snapped a bunch of pics. Like these crazy-ass flood-water markings painted on one of the overpasses.

I can't believe they painted all the way up to 35' of flood-water!

And yet another pic from Mer to all you foot-lovas.

george bush — While Mer was off exploring she came across this statue of GW, Sr.

meredith — Hahaha. (I had no idea he's so tall!)

When Mer was finished with her tour of the park, she handed the cam back to me and settled in to read her book, whereas, I promptly used my recently returned cam to snap this pic of Mer's badonkadonk. Right when I was about to take another one...

...she totally busted me. Hahaha.

A little after 5:30pm, we hopped back into our rental car and headed out to find a store that sold a card for our gift.

meredith — Oh, and to pick up a GIANT Mr. Goodbar.

Then we headed back to the hotel...

meredith — ...and got all dressed up for Tara's wedding! Awwww, how pretty is my girl? By the way, I'd like to point out that Meredith is wearing a dress that she got for a middle school dance when she was in 8th grade...

...and I was wearing the suit my dad bought for me at Clothing Town to have made when I was Sophomore in high school (1991!) and got invited to go to a school dance with a girl who went to private school. Can you believe that shit still fits??

meredith — Let's hear it for old clothes that still look good! Hahah.

emily — Then, we took our seats and it was time for the wedding to start! Here's Emily, Tara's Maid of Honor, kicking off the BRIDAL PROCESSION, y'all!

Emily was followed by a bunch of teeny tiny flower girls!

Look at how cute this little niblet is!

michael leviton, tara — Then it was time for the Father of the Bride to walk Tara down the aisle!

michael leviton, tara — Awwwwww! I didn't take any other pics of the actual ceremony because the room was really big and we were all the way in the back! (But don't worry, I more than made up for it during the reception).

meredith — After the ceremony, we had about an hour and change to kill before the reception started, so we went back up to our room, relaxed, had ourselves a few drinky drinks and then headed back downstairs to the reception hall...

greg, tara — ...where we spend the remaining time before they opened the doors checking out Tara & Greg's spread of "cutesy couple" photos!

greg, tara — Awwwwww!

greg, tara — Hahahaha. I'm going to punch you right in your bangs.

greg, tara — Then, I'M GOING TO SMASH BOTH OF YOUR HEADS!

me, tara — Then the reception hall opened and I got to take my first official picture with the brand new Mrs. Feeney!

donna, tara — And then I snapped this awesome photo of Tara's mom (who still totally reads this site...Hi, Donna!) fixing Tara's dress.

greg, tara — After the dress was fixed, the crowd was introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Greg Feeney!

greg, tara — Tara and Greg's first dance.

greg, tara — Congrats, Tara & Greg!

michael leviton, tara — Then Tara had a dance with the dads. First up, her dad Mike!

daren, tara — Then she danced with her step-dad Daren (who is totally the real life version of Jason Lee's "Earl" character from the show My Name is Earl! Not personality-wise, just moustache-wise).

meredith, tara — Meredith gives Tara the traditional congratulatory smooch.

Then it was time for cake! Greg is a big football fan, so in addition to a regular wedding cake, they also had a Pittsburgh Steelers cake! Hahah.

greg, tara — Sometimes when you go to a wedding, you're not sure if the bride and groom are going to feed each other the cake nicely, or whether they're going to smash it into each other's faces. In Tara and Greg's case, I had no doubt in my mind that there was going to be...

greg, tara — ...some cake smashed into some faces. Greg didn't smash the cake so much as he lovingly smooshed it.

greg, tara — Tara ended up with just a tiny bit of frosting on her nose and lips. However, when it was Tara's turn to feed Greg his cake...

greg, tara — ...she went in with a VENGEANCE! Hahahaha. This photo makes me LOL every time I look at it.

greg, tara — This was, by far and away, the best cake-smashing I'd ever seen at a wedding! Bravo, you two!

emily — Emily gave it a thumbs up too.

greg, michael leviton, tara — After the cake-smashing was over, Tara's dad Mike gave a speech. Beyond all the usual wonderful, heartwarming things that a father would normally say on his daughter's wedding day, Mike also managed to include a story about how back when he and Donna were first married, they had a cat that Mike named Poontang. Donna didn't learn that the cat was named after a slang word for vagina until one day when it got loose and she ran all over the neighborhood calling out "Pooon-tang! Pooooon-tang!" and some of the neighbor's kindly filled her in. Whooopsie! It was a really funny story made even funnier by the fact that he was telling it AT A WEDDING! Hahahaha.

greg, tara — Then Greg took off Tara's garter...

greg, tara — ...and threw it to the fellas!

tara — Then Tara took her bridal bouquet...

...and threw it to the ladies!

tara — And one of the girls that wasn't a bridesmaid caught it! Scandalous!

donna, tara — Then it was time for lots and lots of dancing! Here's babygirl on the dance floor shaking her thang. How about a close up of of Tara's "dancin' face?"

tara — Awwwww, Yeah. Back it up, girl!

donna, tara — Tara cuttin' rug with her mama!

emily, meredith — Meredith, Tara and Emily (who look like they could be sisters!).

donna, me — Me and Tara's mom, Donna!

jamie, meredith — Meredith and Jamie

me, tara — When I was dancing with Tara, Meredith snagged my camera off the table and managed to get one nice photo of the two of us before we noticed her and...

me, tara — ...promptly made more appropriate faces. Hahahaha.

greg, meredith — Meredith and Greg on the dance floor.

greg, meredith — Couple-swap!

emily, jamie — Jamie and Emily.

emily, jamie — Hahaha.

meredith — A little bit before midnight, the DJ pumped up the jams and managed to get pretty much everyone out onto the dance floor.

greg — Including the tiniest flower girl (Greg's neice) who wanted to dance with only him!

greg — Hahahaha.

greg — Awwwww.

michael leviton, tara — Tara and her dad!

emily, greg, meredith, tara — Couples Only! Tara and Greg danced while...

emily, meredith — ...Emily took Meredith on a tour of a little town called "Romanceville."

emily, meredith — Oooh-la-la!

greg, tara — "I did NOT smash the cake into your face! I gently smooshed it! Yes, there is a difference!"

tara — Hahaha.

greg — Greg and his groomsmen.

emily, meredith, tara — Tara, Meredith and Emily.

emily, meredith — After Emily was through taking Meredith on a tour of Romanceville, Meredith returned the favor by taking Emily on a tour of CRAZYTOWN!

greg, tara — I love this photo of Tara and Greg laughing about...

...one of the groomsmen who busted out THE WORM! That's my kind of dude.

daren, donna, tara — Donna and Daren (Earl!) on the dancefloor.

tara — More action photos of the bride and groom dancing!

greg, tara — Awwwww! I love this pic!

me, meredith — Me and Meredith.

emily — Emily was never quite the same once she came back from Crazytown.

emily, tara — And here's yet another example where Tara will give you the "nice version" for posterity's sake...

emily, tara — ...but then will quickly change gears to show her true colors. Hahah. How funny would it be to have wedding photos where all the guests where ONLY making faces like these?

meredith, tara — They hotel closed down the reception room at 1am and I'm happy to announce that Meredith and I were among the very last guests. Here's Meredith and Tara jumping for joy on the dance floor at the end of the night. Take one!

meredith, tara — And take two! Hahahah. I love how in this 2nd photo it almost looks like they're both just kneeling on the floor.

greg, tara — Congrats, Greg and Tara! Thanks for inviting us to the wedding! Here's wishing you wonderful and happy life together! (Now come visit us in New York!).

Sunday, March 12th

meredith — The next morning, Meredith and I went and had lunch at a really neat old school diner that we found around the corner from our hotel...

meredith — ...and then Meredith was nice enough to be my model as I took pictures for Tara's jewelry store Leviticus Jewelry. Here she being a good sport as I got ready to shoot her in an impromptu parking garage location I scouted on the fly!

meredith — And here's one of the final photos from shoot! Who's prettier than my girlfriend, huh? (Necklace by Tara!)

meredith — Afterwards, we walked around a bunch before we found this neato grass-and-concrete checkerboard park to shoot it. There was even a cooperative pigeon there who kept hanging around in all the right places in the background. Here's one of my final pics from shooting in that location! (Necklace by Tara!)

lucy, tara — Then later that afternoon, we went back to the hotel to hang out with Greg and Tara one last time before we had to head home. Here's Tara with baby Lucy!

lucy, tara — And here's Tara giving Lucy an injection of pureed green beans!

lucy, tara — Lucy LOVES the camera. As soon as I started snapping pictures, Lucy was trying to get loose so that she could crawl over and mug for me.

lucy — Give me coy! Yes, that's it!

lucy — Now, dazzle me with a smile!

lucy — Now give me drunk! Perfect!

lucy, meredith — Lucy was so cute and charming that she even won over Meredith (who doesen't really like babies all that much....Shhhhh!) and Meredith pulled her in close to give her...

lucy, meredith — ...a good hair-sniffing (which made Lucy crack up). Mmmmmmm! Smells like baby!

lucy, meredith — Awwww, who's the cutest baby in the world?

greg, lucy, tara — Around 5pm, we said farewell to the brand new Mr. & Mrs. Feeney (and spawn!) and then packed up our stuff and headed to the airport to catch our flight back to NYC! Congrats again, you three! Thanks for having us!

me, meredith — At the airport, our flight was delayed so Meredith and I headed to the bar and had a few...

...Bloody Marys! (Which are responsible for this being the last photo of our trip! I had two of these bad boys and then fell asleep pretty much as soon as I got on the plane!) The End!