tara and greg's wedding in houston

march 11, 2006

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 7:46am = Cranky Meredith not wanting to get out of bed and head to the airport.    tags: meredith bed cranky sleepy All packed up and ready to go! (Except for our huge wedding present which totally didn't fit into our suitcase).    tags: gift 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!    tags: cd Three hours later and we're in the air and headed to Texas!    tags: me meredith airplane 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.    tags: me airplane asleep 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.    tags: meredith pizza 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.    tags: gross pizza 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...    tags: rental car ...a girl showing off her keyster standing in front of it! (Hmmmm, maybe Chevy's not so bad after all!)    tags: meredith booty rental car 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.    tags: me meredith rental car sunglasses Luckily, I had an expert navigator manning the map!    tags: meredith map rental car 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...    tags: meredith cd sunglasses ...jumped for joy in the hallway.    tags: meredith jump Twice.    tags: meredith jump 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!)    tags: lucy tara baby 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.    tags: lucy tara baby And then we watch Lucy play with her favorite toy: Tara's giant lips. Hahahah.    tags: lucy tara baby lips 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.    tags: meredith bed smile Anytime Meredith "chillaxes" near a bed, chillaxing turns into sleeping after about, oh, 3 minutes.    tags: meredith asleep bed 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...    tags: me smoke ...and we were really tired. So after a few drinks, we called it a night and headed back to the hotel.    tags: meredith sleepy Saturday, March 11th 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.    tags: meredith food noodles 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...    tags: buildings grass shoes ...and read our books for a while. Michael Connelly thriller for me (airport book!)    tags: book Ray Bradbury short stories for Mer.    tags: book Meredith manning the IKAD-cam!    tags: me meredith sunglasses This one's for all you foot fetish enthusiasts out there!    tags: feet grass Meredith took a walk around and snapped a bunch of pics. Like these crazy-ass flood-water markings painted on one of the overpasses.    tags: flag ivy I can't believe they painted all the way up to 35' of flood-water!    tags: ivy And yet another pic from Mer to all you foot-lovas.    tags: feet sand While Mer was off exploring she came across this statue of GW, Sr.    tags: george bush statue Hahaha. (I had no idea he's so tall!)    tags: meredith statue 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...    tags: booty butt ...she totally busted me. Hahaha.    tags: booty butt 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.    tags: me rental car sunglasses Oh, and to pick up a GIANT Mr. Goodbar.    tags: meredith mr goodbar Then we headed back to the hotel... ...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...    tags: meredith dressed up pretty ...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??    tags: me dressed up Let's hear it for old clothes that still look good! Hahah.    tags: meredith dressed up 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!    tags: emily bridesmaids wedding Emily was followed by a bunch of teeny tiny flower girls!    tags: flower girl wedding Look at how cute this little niblet is!    tags: flower girl wedding Then it was time for the Father of the Bride to walk Tara down the aisle!    tags: michael leviton tara wedding 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).    tags: michael leviton tara wedding 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...    tags: meredith drink ...where we spend the remaining time before they opened the doors checking out Tara & Greg's spread of "cutesy couple" photos!    tags: greg tara photo Awwwwww!    tags: greg tara photo Hahahaha. I'm going to punch you right in your bangs.    tags: greg tara photo Then, I'M GOING TO SMASH BOTH OF YOUR HEADS!    tags: greg tara photo Then the reception hall opened and I got to take my first official picture with the brand new Mrs. Feeney!    tags: me tara dressed up wedding And then I snapped this awesome photo of Tara's mom (who still totally reads this site...Hi, Donna!) fixing Tara's dress.    tags: donna tara wedding After the dress was fixed, the crowd was introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Greg Feeney!    tags: greg tara wedding Tara and Greg's first dance.    tags: greg tara dance wedding Congrats, Tara & Greg!    tags: greg tara wedding Then Tara had a dance with the dads. First up, her dad Mike!    tags: michael leviton tara dance 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).    tags: daren tara dance Meredith gives Tara the traditional congratulatory smooch.    tags: meredith tara kiss 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.    tags: cake wedding 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...    tags: greg tara cake wedding ...some cake smashed into some faces. Greg didn't smash the cake so much as he lovingly smooshed it.    tags: greg tara cake smoosh wedding 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...    tags: greg tara cake wedding ...she went in with a VENGEANCE! Hahahaha. This photo makes me LOL every time I look at it.    tags: greg tara best smoosh wedding This was, by far and away, the best cake-smashing I'd ever seen at a wedding! Bravo, you two!    tags: greg tara cake wedding Emily gave it a thumbs up too.    tags: emily 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.    tags: greg michael leviton tara speech wedding Then Greg took off Tara's garter...    tags: greg tara garter wedding ...and threw it to the fellas!    tags: greg tara garter wedding Then Tara took her bridal bouquet...    tags: tara bouquet wedding ...and threw it to the ladies!    tags: bouquet crowd wedding And one of the girls that wasn't a bridesmaid caught it! Scandalous!    tags: tara bouquet bridesmaids crowd wedding 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?"    tags: donna tara dance Awwwww, Yeah. Back it up, girl!    tags: tara best dance Tara cuttin' rug with her mama!    tags: donna tara dance Meredith, Tara and Emily (who look like they could be sisters!).    tags: emily meredith Me and Tara's mom, Donna!    tags: donna me dressed up Meredith and Jamie    tags: jamie meredith dance 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...    tags: me tara dance wedding ...promptly made more appropriate faces. Hahahaha.    tags: me tara best dance ugly face Meredith and Greg on the dance floor.    tags: greg meredith dance Couple-swap!    tags: greg meredith dance Jamie and Emily.    tags: emily jamie Hahaha.    tags: emily jamie tongue A little bit before midnight, the DJ pumped up the jams and managed to get pretty much everyone out onto the dance floor.    tags: meredith bridesmaids Including the tiniest flower girl (Greg's neice) who wanted to dance with only him!    tags: greg dance flower girl groomsmen wedding Hahahaha.    tags: greg dance flower girl groomsmen wedding Awwwww.    tags: greg dance flower girl wedding Tara and her dad!    tags: michael leviton tara best wedding Couples Only! Tara and Greg danced while...    tags: emily greg meredith tara dance wedding ...Emily took Meredith on a tour of a little town called "Romanceville."    tags: emily meredith dance Oooh-la-la!    tags: emily meredith dance "I did NOT smash the cake into your face! I gently smooshed it! Yes, there is a difference!"    tags: greg tara dance wedding Hahaha.    tags: tara Greg and his groomsmen.    tags: greg groomsmen wedding Tara, Meredith and Emily.    tags: emily meredith tara After Emily was through taking Meredith on a tour of Romanceville, Meredith returned the favor by taking Emily on a tour of CRAZYTOWN!    tags: emily meredith gun show I love this photo of Tara and Greg laughing about...    tags: greg tara dance laugh wedding ...one of the groomsmen who busted out THE WORM! That's my kind of dude.    tags: dance the worm wedding Donna and Daren (Earl!) on the dancefloor.    tags: daren donna tara dance More action photos of the bride and groom dancing!    tags: tara dance twirl wedding Awwwww! I love this pic!    tags: greg tara best twirl