I promised Grant a blog post about his wedding, and HERE IT IS.
Those of you who follow me on social media, talk to me regularly or have stood within a two mile radius of me anytime in the past two months are probably aware I was a groomswoman in my friend Grant’s wedding. I’ll give a quick rundown of the history here before telling the (mildly censored) story of the wedding.
We met in a middle school, community theatre production of Pirates of Penzance in 2009. Back then, I was mean and bossy and had an unbelievably huge ego (so nothing has changed), and my earliest memory of Grant is the time I locked him in a room with my dog because he was scared of her. Obviously that was the foundation of an amazing friendship.
He and Kylee met on the first day of college because of COURSE THEY DID, and the first thing he told me about her was, “she’s so [expletive] smart!” He proposed over Thanksgiving their junior year, while I was studying abroad, and this proposal is the only secret I’ve ever kept. And by “kept,” I mean I told Annaliese and also my roommates in Florence and a girl who was on a weekend trip with me at the time, but nobody else. Does that count? No? Oh.
I practically begged to be a groomswoman because that’s the type of person I am. But my hard work payed off, and while he, Annaliese, Amy, Sophie and I were at the lake one weekend last summer, he gave us bath bombs and pictures of Hillary Clinton that said “I #StoodWithHer, will you stand with me?” Iconic, truly.
So anyway, about a month and a half ago, wedding weekend was finally upon us. Sophie, Amy and I literally cried during the rehearsal, so you know we were off to a good start. After that, we (Sophie) cried during our rehearsal dinner speeches, and then we all had a sleepover at Annaliese’s house. Yet another reminder that none of us have closed our Lincoln Southwest High School yearbooks.
We ate bagels in the morning before going our separate ways to get hair and makeup done, then spent a few hours at one of the bridesmaid’s houses taking pictures. We weren’t allowed to be outside during the first look, but obviously the entire wedding party was up against the windows trying to watch. Possibly crying (I know, we cried a lot).
Kylee looked SO BEAUTIFUL, as the groomswomen reminded Grant at least 17 times during the night. And again when we saw all of the photos a few weeks ago (Haley Chicoine is incredible, by the way, an absolute goddess). But that was obvious.
After hours of practicing our runway walk, Annaliese and I strutted down the aisle together, just moments before I started sobbing as Kylee walked in. Thankfully, my dress had pockets, so I was able to bring tissues and pass them down to Amy and Sophie, who cried harder than I did. Annaliese kept herself together because she is more mature than the rest of us.
We went to the hotel to drink some champagne before the reception, which was possibly the most fun event I have ever attended. It helps that most of my high school best friends and our high school choir teachers were in attendance, and that there was an open bar. Dancing to Single Ladies with Denise Cotton may have been the highlight of my entire life.
A few of us went out to Duffy’s after the reception, and I eventually made my way back to the hotel room, where I reportedly spent ten minutes talking to myself in a British accent on my bed. I wish I had more context. I also wish Meredith hadn’t been pretending to sleep so she didn’t have to talk to my drunk, British alter ego.
Aaaaaand then I woke up the next morning and drove myself to the airport so I could make it to the Tonys on time. Best. Weekend. Of. My. Life.
I guess there wasn’t much of a story to tell here, but the point is: as much as I complain about the amount of people getting engaged right now, I’m so happy for Kylee and Grant and I love them and being a groomswoman is the most fun thing I’ve ever done, even if that autocorrected to “groomsman” every single time I typed it.