July 02, 2005

Kim Wilson Gets Married

I met Kim Wilson on my very first day of Middle School (7th Grade). She was the super-cute girl that sat in the desk in front of me in our first period math class. I had a big crush on her and I'd show my affection by making quiet, wet-sounding fart noises with my mouth directly behind her ear during class until she'd start laughing hysterically and get yelled at by our teacher. (The best part is, seventeen years later, that's still one of my "signature moves.")

Kim remained one of my best friends all the way through high school. We were dance partners in a singing "show choir" (in which I was required to wear a gold lam� tuxedo) and Kim was even my date for our Senior Prom!

Since graduating high school, we've only managed to see each other a handful of times, but as is always the case with good friends, that's never managed to dull my affection for her one bit! So when I got an invitation to attend Kim's wedding (she was finally going to marry Greg who she'd been dating for 12 years!), I went right online and bought a ticket to fly down to Charleston, SC!

Friday, July 1st

Here's me right after landing out in the rental car parking lot looking for my car (and realizing that I probably should've gotten my raggedy-ass hair cut before I'd hopped on a plane to attend my good friend's wedding).

I always make sure I take a picture of my rental car so that when I forget what it looks like, I can always fire up my camera and look instead of having to wander through a parking lot, repeatedly clicking the little remote and listening for the car to answer (which is like the grown ups version of that game Marco Polo that you used to play in the pool).

After arriving at the hotel and unpacking my stuff, I realized that I'd remembered to bring everything except a dress shirt. So I decided to walk around downtown Charleston and try to find a place to buy a new shirt.

"Hi Fashion of New York" had some interesting jams going on and for a while I debated about whether or not I should just purchase a whole new suit for Kim's wedding. I mean how dope would it have been if I was forever immortalized in her wedding photos dressed all dapper in something like...

...this! Hahaha. Hey, it's probably not much worse than that gold, sparkly tux that I used to wear back in my show choir days, right? But, ultimately, I decided to forego the purchase of this gem (that I dubbed "The Lime Scotsman") and walked around until I found a store that sold clothes that were less "Hi Fashion."

After getting my shirt situation all squared away, I went back to the hotel and headed to the ballroom to help Jessica Kain (who went to Roxbury High School with Kim and I and was ALSO in show choir with us) and a bunch of other wedding guests set up all the tables for the wedding tomorrow. Jess and her sister Jen were also my hotel roomies! Jess was responsible for arranging seashells around the candle centerpieces, while I helped place...

...tiny tropical flip-flops at each place setting.

Kim's sister Amy and Jess' sister Jen laughing about one of the giant shells that was leftover in the shell box.

Amy and Kim (the bride to be!) showing off some hot ring action.

After we'd finished helping set the room up, Jess and I broke loose and decided to check out Charleston's night life and instead somehow ended up in Coldstone Creamery!

Yeah, that's right. Please make a little boat out of my one pound serving of ice cream and then fill it with a squeeze bottle of hot fudge.

Saturday, July 2nd

By the time I woke up the next morning, Jess and Jen had already left and apparently, I'd slept so late that I missed the hotel's breakfast. But then look what I found on the counter in our room! "Brian, I stole you some breakfast. There's some stuff in the fridge too!" Awwww! Who's better than Jess, eh? After treating myself to a pastry, sliced fruit, bagel, apple, yogurt smorgasbord, I hopped into my trusty rental car...

...and headed over the bridge (over Charleston Harbor) to the beach on the Isle of Palms where the wedding was going to take place!

I parked the car, and then walked through the grasslands towards the beach.

It was so neat! They staked out an area of the beach and set up this gate under which the minister would officiate the ceremony.

Then it was time for the wedding procession to start! Here's Jess with her groomsman counterpart!

Angie Marco (who also went to good ol' Roxbury High School with us!) and her groomsman.

...Kim was walked down the ~~aisle~~ beach by her parents!

Ever since I've known Kim she's been obsessed with all things beach and/or ocean-related. Shells, sand, palm trees, dolphins, little islands in the water...you name it and I grew up watching Kim draw them on her binder. So it was awesome to see her get married on the beach.

And the best part? Greg's last name is Isla (which means "island" in Spanish)!

Kim Wilson is now Kim Wilson-Isla! Wooooo!

Everyone milling around after the ceremony.

While the wedding photographer gathered up the entire wedding party for some formal photos...

...me and this guy (I think he might be Amy's husband, but I've totally since forgotten! Sorry) hijacked some nearby beach goer's puppy! Hahah.

While driving back to the hotel from the beach, I was on some quiet little side street when suddenly this giant, three or four foot long black snake slithered out into the middle of the road. I was going slow enough that I managed to brake and not smoosh it. I hopped out of the car with my cam to try to get a better look. The snake saw me coming and started slithering to safety.

He made it to this door and then got all still like he was trying to blend in "Do-de-doo...nothing to see here! No snakes or anything, just us big black cracks in the concrete."

According my extensive internet research (read: all five minutes worth), I'm pretty sure it was a Northern Black Racer snake. (Sometimes it's hard to identify animals by pics online, but not only does this snake look almost identical to the one I found on the snake-identification page, he's even striking the EXACT same pose as the one in the bottom photo! Hahah).

Later that evening, a whole bunch of us met up in our hotel room and then...

...headed into the hotel ballroom for the wedding reception party! Here's Kim and Greg's first dance as hubby and wife!

Kim and Mr. Wilson! Father of the Bride Dance!

Then we at dinner. Here's the result of me sneaking up on Jessica and Angie and trying to catch them with mouthfuls of food. hahaha.

Then Mr. Wilson gave the Father of the Bride speech. Scott was the one to point out that Kim had grown up loving all beach-related things and that it was destiny that her new last name was Isla (which I totally stole and wrote about earlier in this entry!). It was a really sweet and touching speech!

Everybody repping with their homemade gang signs. (The prize goes to Jen for her "exploding bird" gang sign).

They behaved and everything. No cake smashing in each other's face or anything!

Everyone knows it because if Kim got any icing on her face she'd have to go run off and wash it. Because there is NO TOUCHING OF KIM'S FACE!

Amy is a diabetic and when she busted out her kit to test her blood sugar, I wanted to see if I could eat enough cake to noticeably spike my blood sugar. First, she pricked my finger...

...then she used her Vampiric PDA to suck up my blood and analyze it! The test only served to confirm what my jittery legs were already trying to tell me: a sugar-fueled dance floor riot was about to break out.

Hahahaha. Right as everyone was finishing up their desserts, the DJ started busting out all sorts of Jersey-awesome hair metal songs. (Despite the wedding being in held South Carolina, both Kim and Greg and like 80% of all the rest of the attendees had all grown up in the Jerz).

Hahaha. I totally caught Jessica making "metal devil horns" on the dance floor. You can take the girl outta Jersey...

Everywhere you looked, people were screaming the choruses of Bon Jovi anthems.

Meanwhile, Angie practiced her Shakespearean poses on the sidelines.

This little homeboy was busting all sorts of crazy mooooves on the dance floor.

The best song of the night was without a doubt Bon Jovi's seminal *Livin' on a Prayer*.

The place went absolutely bonkers and it turned into another huge sing along.

Watching Kim, Greg and Greg's mom all dance together while singing a Jovi tune was one of the most heartwarming things I've seen in a long time.

So cute! His mom knew the words and everything!

Kim doing the Wayne's World dance to Foxy Lady! Hahaha.

You know how some wedding parties sorta fade out towards the end? Well not this one! Pretty much every single person in attendance was out on the dance floor shaking their thing right up to the very end! It was soooo much fun!

jessica k — Jessica and Kim show off their Roxbury Revelation (that was the name of our high school's show choir group) jazz hands! ("C'mon now! Pop those hands and spread those fingers out hard! If it doesn't hurt, you're not doing it right!") Hahahaha.