brin and barton: fall wedding at an antebellum mansion

if you know me, you probably know brin too.  we travel like that.  and if you know my husband brandon (aka rbb), you probably know barton.  these two go way back with both of us...brin and i met in 2002 when we were both newly living in san diego, became fast friends and basically have talked on the phone or seen each other every day since then.  rbb and barton were fraternity brothers at georgia tech together, and have cavorted about in atlanta (for the most part excepting grad school years), since they graduated.  you're probably asking why the heck i'm telling you all of this random information...but i promise it will make sense.

cut to the year 2006.  i had lived in atlanta for two years and brin had lived in new york city for two years after we both moved away from san diego.  my friend dorothy set me up with this "cute, smart guy who went to georgia tech."  it was none other than barton...who just happened to bring along his also cute, smart friend who went to georgia tech with him that night at 5 paces inn.  (side note: it's not actually an inn, it's a bar.  the word "inn" makes it sound quaint and i can promise you that unless you think the stench of eight hundred cigarette butts and whiskey-stained furniture is charming, it's not.) 

so exactly what you think happened happened, "the friend" (rbb) and i hit it off and now the rest is history.  now what about barton and brin?  i am so glad you asked!!  in 2007, brin moved back to atlanta and i intentionally did NOT set her up with barton (i do love to play matchmaker).  i knew we would all be around each other frequently, and it's always awkward to see a burned love interest if it didn't work out, you know what i mean?  i simply told brin i thought she might like barton, and that they should meet...which i was positive they would in short order, as we saw the two of them all the time.  lo and behold, they hit it off, started dating and eventually got engaged!

let me just say:  when does that EVER happen?!  when do two of you and your husband's best friends end up together.  i mean, really.  sometimes i still can't believe it!  i love it.

i was so pumped that brin asked me to be her matron of honor.  actually, for a long time, she would call me her MAID of honor...denoting i was not married...which was sort of not good considering i had a large pregnant belly for most of her engagement.  but we got it all cleared up :)    anyhow, i had such a fun time being so intimately involved with her wedding - in fact, her wedding invitation was how i got started with the whole calliespondence thing.  she did not know what to do for the invitation, but knew she had to work within x budget and wanted it to be fabulous and of course high quality.  so i said hey - i'll just do the design work, we get it letterpress printed, and you get a nice looking invitation for not a lot of dough.  we ended up doing a two-color letterpress invitation, #10 envelope size (long and skinny) with a coordinating letterpressed reply card as well as a directions card.  the invitations went out and she actually got compliments on them.  i was floored.  i went on to do her program as well, as you will see below...both items featured a sketch brin had done of the house where they held the wedding. 

before we get into the wedding pictures, i need to tell you how barton proposed.  it was pretty awesome (go bman).  did i mention that brin went on a trip to rwanda in late 2007, visited the rebero orphan center, came back and started a non-profit called small voices foundation to raise money for them - and reached her goal of $30,000 fundraising in two years' time?  yeah.  a-mazing.

here is what barton presented to brin when he asked for her hand in marriage...i have no idea how he pulled it off, but how cool!!  (and yes, these are a few of the kids from the rebero orphan center in rwanda...)

aren't they adorable?  read more about these sweet kids here.

ok, let's discuss this AMAZING locale.  this house has been in brin's family forever, and it is the real deal antebellum mansion.  see for yourself!  (note: all below photographs are courtesy of michelle lapid photography)

yes, those are the bridesmaids...just hanging out in the boxwood garden that is original to the home.

isn't that cake stand the perfect touch for a georgia wedding?  we found it at a local antique market.

boiled peanut station...mmm.

in lieu of a guest book, guests wrote down their wishes for the couple.

umm...can you say gorgeous??

groomsmen wore vineyard vines ties.  adore.

the lovely and wonderful (and also quite hilarious) heidi metcalfe paired up with brin's older brother.

there's "the friend" himself.  isn't he cute?

mr. and mrs. black.  and btw, brin's maiden name is greene...for reals.

it was a fantastic party.

SAEs from tech have this thing, you see...they take a "boxer shot" at everyone's wedding.  yeeaah.

congrats guys!!  i love you both, but you know that.  here's to one year of fun down, eternity to go...xoxo