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 lamé 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.
Hahaha.
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!
Hahahaha. Treat time!
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.
The scene upon arrival.
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.
The view from the water.
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's sister Amy! And then finally...
...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's parents dropping her off at Greg.
The ceremony was great!
Kim Wilson is now Kim Wilson-Isla! Wooooo!
More pics of the newlyweds!
Yay!
Congrats Kim & Greg!
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.
The Wilson Sisters cutting rug!
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!
The Kain Sisters shaking boo-tay.
Greg and I.
Angie and Russ (Kim's little brother).
Everybody repping with their homemade gang signs. (The prize
goes to Jen for her "exploding bird" gang sign).
Oh, word?
Greg and Angie.
Time for cake cutting!
Hahah.
Smile for the cameras...
...now feed each other cake!
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.
It was epic.
Meanwhile, Angie practiced her Shakespearean poses on the sidelines.
I think this was "Brick House."
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.
Hahahah. Best wedding photo ever.
So cute! His mom knew the words and everything!
Me and Jess!
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 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.
Me and Mrs. Isla! (The best part is right after this photo was taken
I probably made a wet-fart noise and Kim probably laughed. I guess
some things will never change!)
After we got kicked out of the hotel ballroom, a whole bunch of headed
to the bar in the hotel lobby to continue the festivities.
By the way, did I forget to mention that the entire lobby was decorated
with paintings of monkeys dressed up in little renaissance outfits
and posing with things like old school guitars...
...and pet birds? Hahaha. (WTF?)
Late night, Jess and I walked a few blocks from the hotel towards the
main downtown section of Charleston to find ourselves some late night
grub.
Hahah.
Mmmmmm!
 Then back at
the hotel we said goodbye to Kim! Congrats Kim and Greg! Thanks so
much for inviting me, I had an amazing time! (Sorry it took me almost
two years to get these photos up online! If you like any of them, email
me and let me know and I'll send you the hi-rez versions!)
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