We're Married...and check out Jason Ko's face!!

Wow...What a weekend. Anna and I had an absolute blast and are in shock that the wedding has finally come and gone. My sister's boyfriend was nice enough to take pictures with my camera, and he came away with tons of great ones that I'll get up on snapfish soon enough. However, I wanted to get this one out on the World Wide Web as quickly as possible. Check out Jason Ko's face right between Anna and I...It's pure jubilation.

We are off on our honeymoon and will have plenty of stories to talk about from our great wedding weekend. Thank you all for being a part of it.

Oh and have no fear, I plan to continue the blog and maybe even get my WIFE to post a bit too...

Stay tuned!

I'm done with work...and so is Anna

Down to the wire and Anna and I are done with work and now we plan to enjoy the sun, our family and maybe some sleep...

Look forward to seeing everyone.

Engagement Announcement- I Guess it's Official

In today's News and Observer newspaper, there is a beautiful picture of Anna and I announcing our upcoming wedding. If you ask me, we're definitely the hottest couple being shown in this section.

Click here to see the announcement

Less than 3 weeks

Yikes!!

How do you balance work and getting married? I don't know how Anna's doing it...

We've been getting a few inquiries as to where we are registered. I know we're not "supposed" to announce this (see my post from a few months back) but that just seems crazy to me. How are people "supposed" to just know where we are registered. Let's make it easy for everyone.

We are registered at Macy's and Crate and Barrel. You can click on their links here to get to the site and then you just search by our name. You have to love technology.

We're looking forward to seeing everyone!

Engagement Pictures- We're Famous!

A few weeks ago Anna and I took the afternoon off to have our engagement photos taken. It was around 2 hours of smiling, kissing and wardrobe changes...our typical Friday afternoon. We went down to downtown Durham in our bullet proof car (only kidding) and met Rachel Garrison, who will also be doing our wedding photos. She was nice enough to include pictures of us on her blog. Click here to take a sneak peak at some of our professional pics!!

Now Anna and I know how it feels to be famous, it's hard work.

Wedding March Madness

It's here, my favorite time of year. When I take off Thursday and Friday to watch hours upon hours of commercials in between college basketball's greatest showcase: The NCAA Tournament.

You may be asking yourself: What the hell does this have to do with the wedding?

Many of you know that my only requirement for a wedding date was that it didn't fall within basketball season. It seemed like a smart idea at the time, but now I'm realizing that maybe it was plain stupid. Because now, wedding planning is during basketball season and that's going to really cramp my style.

For instance, tomorrow, we have wedding tasting from Noon until 2 corresponding exactly with the 2nd day of the 1st round of the NCAA tourney. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm psyched to be doing the tasting but what if Duke were playing at noon tomorrow? What would I have done then? Seriously, that would have been a big deal and I fear that Anna would not have been happy with my decision.

Luckily, we avoided that catastrophe, but I have to be realist: March Madness is full of surprises and somewhere down the line, my basketball life and wedding planning life will have a head on collision.

Until then...Go To Hell Carolina.

Final Cake Tasting

Let me tell you guys...I'm psyched about our wedding cake. We went to Edible Art on Saturday morning to finalize what kind of cake we wanted for the reception. There was something about the cake that I loved, but I couldn't figure it out. Turns out, all of their cakes are actually pound cake recipes, which make them dense and flavorful.

I'm not going to tell you the different flavors we picked, but I will tell you this: Cake for breakfast is a phenomenal idea and something I plan to do more often. Screw Coffee or Caffeine, a cake sugar high keeps you going until around 1 or 2 pm and then you sleep like a baby.

Groomsmen- Scott Quarles

Starting at "Best Brother" is Scott Quarles.

Some may remember him curly haired Darryl lookalike. Well, not much has changed except he's now a 6'2", 185 lb, 21 year old junior in college who has his own apartment in Birmingham, Alabama. I'm ecstatic to have him as part of our wedding party. Over the last few years we've gone to Paris and Amsterdam together, been to a Duke @ Alabama football game (pictured below), and been to NYC a few times for Duke basketball games. I can still beat him up, which is refreshing but he's certainly not as gullible as he used to be (ask him to tell you the story about how Leigh and I convinced him that we were all aliens and we had abducted him). Here are a few pictures from the past few years. Sorry I don't have any from when he was a kid but the digital camera age really didn't hit the Quarles household until 2004.

He cleans up nice doesn't he? This was taken in the Spring of 2004 at our Cousin Emily's Wedding.

Scott and I in Tuscaloosa, Alabama watching
Duke's football team fall apart in the 2nd
half of a surprisingly exciting football game in 2006.

Needless to say, we had good seats at the Duke-Gonzaga game in December of 2006.

Groomsmen- An Introduction

Over the next few weeks I am going to give a rundown of my groomsmen, how I know them and maybe a story or two about them. My goal: so that everyone who reads this blog knows my buddies as well as I do. Piece of cake.

In the meantime, you can check out our website for the rundown of groomsmen and bridesmaids.

Wedding Rings for guys

I'm freaked out that I'm going to lose my wedding ring. There I said it. Anna says that doesn't actually make her mad. What makes her MAD is that I lose things that are important to me ALL THE TIME (or drop them in the toilet by accident).

Ipod- dropped in toilet
Swiss army watch- left in a bag that we gave to goodwill (luckily Anna saw it before giving it away). I had misplaced it for 4 months.
New Ipod- lost for a week, found under the seat of my car.

Maybe we should be looking at the positives of the above...I, or someone else, has always found what I've lost.

So as we begin this search for the male ring, I've been instant that we don't buy an expensive one. I understand that the ring is a symbol of our love and our marriage and I shouldn't lose it. I do understand that. But let's be realistic here: I am 27 years old and have never been good at keeping up with things. I've never worn a ring for more then a week (when rings were cool for guys back in the late 90's...at least I thought they were cool).

So I don't want to buy a $500 ring. I want to by a $50 ring. This pisses my mom off. This pisses my sister off. My brother just laughs and shakes his head at me.

I'm not trying to offend them women out there, although I know I am good at that. I just want them to be realistic, and maybe that's too much to ask?

Wedding Rule #1

Neither Anna nor I are as active as we want to be, but both of us do play in separate soccer leagues during the fall and spring. For those of you who don't like, play or watch soccer, it's more of a "contact" sport then it gets credit for in mainstream American media...and because of this after a game, you can really come out bruised and broken.

(Those of you who have played soccer with Anna probably know where this is going).

Anna bruises like a freakin' peach and because of this we have implemented:

WEDDING RULE #1
Soccer will not be played for 1 month leading up to the wedding to avoid bruises on the arms legs and face.

The face part was added to the rule today because of a little elbow I took while playing on Thursday night. The bruise is really coming in nicely 36 hours after the incident. If it gets any worse, I'll definitely update the picture, but I wanted to capture proof of my semi black eye. Could you imagine if Anna or I had a freakin' black eye on our wedding day?!? Our mothers wouldn't be crying tears of joy, that's for sure.

I'm really hoping the black eye becomes more pronounced.

My Boy Graydon got Hitched!

For my loyal readers...I apologize for being away for so long. I've just recovered from a helluva wedding weekend in New York City for the "Impossible Body", Geoff Graydon who as I type this, is on a plane to Italy for two weeks with his Bride Suzy.

Anna and I were fortunate enough to spend a long weekend with some of my really good friends from college, eat some amazing food and see the Yankees beat the lowly Tampa Bay Devil Rays at the historic Yankees Stadium.

From Right to left: Sal, Jonathan, Joe, Geoff, me, Cooper, Dave, Chris

Since Anna and I haven't set the menu for either the Rehearsal Dinner or the Reception, we were very much obsessed with the food and the specialty drinks at the reception. First off, the amount of food served over the course of the day was enormous. They started with a raw bar, including oysters and shrimp in conjunction with a buffet style meal including lamb, pastrami, ravioli, fish, chicken, grits (yes GRITS in New York). That wasn't all...as we were eating this, there were servers coming around with all sorts of finger food, too many to even start to list here. Needless to say, it gave us tons of ideas for our own appetizers.

Now most would think, "that's it". However, very few of you know Geoff Graydon, let alone his love for food. The group of around 120 was then escorted upstairs to the actual reception, where we had an open bar and a 4 course sit down dinner.

I wasn't kidding when I said we had a lot of food.

Things I want but can't Register for...

There are two particular items, that much to my surprise, were not available on Macy's or Crate & Barrel's registry site: A Cornhole set and a portable Beirut table. These are both drinking games that I am very passionate about. The one catch for the Beirut table is that its foldable (not a word) and portable, so that it isn't sitting out in the dining room. This is and "Anna Rule" that I happen to agree with.

Below is SportsBizPro's official unofficial Registry list:

1. Cornhole Set with corn bags- The below picture is of Anna and I enjoying this great game:


2. Portable Beirut Table- Below is a picture of the glorious game being played in the basement of my Animal House-Like fraternity basement at our 5 year college reunion:

Update: Mike Rosen is in the process of building a portable beer pong table. Pictures will follow!
Update #2: The beer pong table is finished and we've played our first games on it. Mike and Pika beat Anna and I in a 3 game series...2-0. A rough start for the home side.

Disclaimer: I have the right to add to this list at any time.

Announcing We have not Registered

It's apparently "in bad taste" for the wedding couple to announce that they've registered for wedding gifts. Well, I think that's a bunch of crap, but to "play by the rules" (sort of), I won't announce that we've registered Macy's or Crate and Barrel.

Whoops.

What about me??

MOB( Jean Hall) and MOG (Anne Quarles) have been copying Anna and I on a flurry of emails over the last week that have been oh so complimentary of the bride to be. It's like they're having a contest on who can say the nicest thing about Anna, with each "one upping" the other. Enough Already!

Below are exerts of an ongoing email chain, which Anna and I are copied on:

MOG starts us off:
"I can't tell you how happy Darryl and I are. We adore Anna and she makes Jeb so happy."

Followed by a little zinger against yours truly:
"Jeb always asked if I left my intelligence at the hospital [where she works] and turned it off when I go to the driveway."

It's go time now and MOB throws in her 2 cents:
"Today we ordered The Dress!! I may :) be a bit biased, but Anna looks spectacular in it. It looks like the dress was made just for her."

MOG concurs, then remarks:
"Anna is so beautiful I can only imagine how she must look in that gorgeous dress."

That's all I've got so far. Note that I do not disagree with anything said above. It's just that the Groom would like a little love thrown his way as well. I mean look at this face...

The Wedding Dress!!

Rumor has it that Anna has purchased her wedding dress...Apparently the groom is not allowed to see said dress, so I can only imagine what it looks like. Or, I can sneak a peak on her camera and find a picture! It's her "dream" dress:


In all seriousness, I haven't seen the dress and don't plan to break into her gmail account to peak.

On a different topic, as the groom, I'm feeling a bit left out. I know this is the "bride's day" and all, but give a guy a break. Have no idea what I'm talking about? No worries, because I am currently compiling evidence (quotes) from recent emails written by both the MOB (Jean Hall) and MOG (Anne Quarles). This evidence will show the obvious "lovefest" for Anna, with very little mention of myself. Look forward to that sometime this week.

The Original Blog

Don't forget to check out my older posts at our Wedding website. The whole honeymoon location is still very much up in the air. We got the pricing on Belize and it's a bit over our budget (and by a bit I mean a lot). So we're going back to the drawing board and are accepting recommendations at this time. I've heard St. Johns, St. Lucia...anyone?