Dave & Kristen got married!

We were so excited to finally begin celebrating the marriage of Grayson's best friend David to the love of his life, Kristen, in Fort Worth this past weekend. We had a wonderful time and enjoyed ourselves immensely and so I will do my best to walk you through all the fun that we had! Here are Dave and Kristen practicing for their big day. They got married at University Christian Church which is close to TCU's campus. Everything went smoothly during the rehearsal and then we were off to the rehearsal dinner.

Here we are at the rehearsal dinner @ Joe T Garcia's Mexican food restaurant which is near the stockyards. They have delicious enchiladas and fajitas and even better chips, salsa & margaritas! I was so proud of Grayson for giving such an outstanding speech at dinner. I think sometimes I take for granted that I majored in speech communication and so to watch him get up there and do such a wonderful job in honoring Dave & Kristen brought tears to my eyes.

Dave was such a good sport at the rehearsal dinner. Kristen was busy talking to everyone so Dave posed for this photo alone. Don't worry though, she found her way back around to him for the dinner and the speeeches.

We carpooled with Chuck & Kathy for the weekend. They really were great sports!

This was our table for the rehearsal dinner: Marianne (Kristen's sister), her boyfriend Norm, Julie & Jerry (Dave's sister and bro-in-law), Grayson & me, then Claire & Brett (Dave's brother) and then finally Dave & Kristen. Ms. Janie did a stellar job of decorating and keeping with the Mexican theme. It was a fun night telling great stories about Dave & Kristen.
Jenna & Diana kept me company while Grayson was busy taking wedding pictures. The reception was at the Fort Worth Club in downtown FW. It was decorated beautifully with orchids, candles and roses!
This is me and Kate. She was in ZTA with me & she grew up with Dave in Kansas. She now lives in New York City and it's been forever since we've seen each other. Well, we were so excited to see each other that upon hugging I realized that we were wearing the exact same dress! She made the studious comment that it was appropriately in KU colors and therefore okay & cool to be twins.
Christmas Card 2008? Maybe!
Sneak preview of the cake. Grayson was very impressed with how tall it was and so I stood next to it as a reference.

Dave & Kristen's first dance. She made for a stunning bride.
Dave & Ms. Janie before their dance together.
Best Men forever.
We've already decided that we will be vacation buddies. We're in the process of deciding where we want to take our first annual Buchanan/Allen vacation in the next year. Dave & Kristen are so wonderful and we are so excited to have such great friends that we know we will spend the rest of our lives making memories with.
I call this one "The Grayson's." Little G was so excited to be out on that dance floor.

The bride's cake.
The groom's cake. It was a replica of the national championship trophy that KU won last year. In case you didn't know, Dave is from Kansas and attended KU and is slightly obsessed with anything related to KU. They did a great job decorating it and making it look just like the real thing.
Cutting the cake.
A few KU fans were screaming "NO, don't cut it!" at this point.
Cute!

A few of us hanging out during the reception.
Dave & Kristen had a blast and their band was amazing. I believe that at one point the band said they were leaving and Kristen's mom just wasn't done celebrating and so she convinced them to play for a little while longer. We were all very thankful for a few extra minutes of dancing!
Aaron (Grayson's old roommate), Dan (a friend from FW), Dave and Grayson enjoying the evening.
Me and the rest of the guys.
Grayson and Kristen dancing together.

The last picture of them before they head off to Mexico.
Afterward, the wedding party extended the evening to 8.0's, a local hangout in downtown FW. After a full day, our feet were definitely hurting so we decided to walk without shoes. Maybe not the most "ladylike", but definitely the most comfortable.
One last story. This is a picture of Grayson, his friend "Ponch" (his real name is Erik Estrada) and Rob. Well, Ponch is from CO and his luggage didn't make it in with him. The airline company offered to pay for half of whatever clothing items he bought. In order to really stick it to the airline company, Ponch decided he would return the fancy shoes he bought and so in an attempt to keep from getting them too scuffed, Ponch put these "fancier" shoes on toward the end of the evening. Go figure that when we all arrived back at the hotel, the manager informed us that the luggage had arrived promptly @ 1:30am!!!
This is me and G at the end of an amazing evening, ready to head home to Louisiana! We had a wonderful time and can't wait to start spending time with Dave & Kristen as a married couple! We also enjoyed catching up with old friends and meeting new ones. We always love our visits to Fort Worth, especially for special events like this one.