Groomsmen- Bennett Lipscomb

Starting at "Best Man" is none other then Bennett Hughes Lipscomb.

Bennett went to Durham Academy and was a classmate of Anna and mine. If I remember correctly we began our friendship during our Senior Challenge in the mountains of North Carolina, where the guys had to take turns carrying the girls over-packed bags, which were probably full of make up and high heels. I'm not sure if Bennett has even seen this picture before, but I'm pretty sure it's the first picture we took together. Is that weird? Some may ask, "Do I even have the first picture Anna and I took together"? The answer to that question is, "I think so". Anyway, I digress...we have to do some "before and after" pictures of Bennett because I swear the kid looked like he was 12 senior year in high school (1998).

Bennett currently lives in Washington, DC but because of his obsession with Duke athletics (much like my obsession with Duke athletics but with a tad bit more crazy involved), he spends around 10 weekends a year down in Durham drinking his way through Duke football games and being kind enough to take the extra basketball tickets which my parents are so kind of give.

Due to his girlfriend's obsession with food, he's also a regular contributor on the food blog Endless Simmer, where he posts "artsy pictures" of food and booze.

I hope that everyone is supportive of Bennett during the wedding because this is his first time being a best man and he's really nervous about giving a toast. Please make sure to heckle and taunt him during the rehearsal dinner.

I will leave you with some Bennett pictures from the past 10 years (please contact for additional pictures that may or may not embarrass Bennett):

Bennett and I on Senior Challenge in 1997. I haven't grown much since then, but I'm pretty sure Bennett was around 5'8" at that point in his life. He now stands 6 feet or so.

Bennett and our high school buddy Jason Ko the summer after we graduated, 2002. Note the transformation from 5 years prior, but he still looks like he's in HS. Also, note the sheer quantity of empty beer bottles on the table.

And to cap it all off, this is Bennett at a Duke-Florida State football game in the fall of 2005. As you can see, the tough streets of Washington DC have put a few years on Mr. Lipscomb's 25 year old face.

Cravin' Melon Reunion Concert!

For those of you who may not know me all that well, my favorite band in the world is Cravin' Melon. Unfortunately, back in 2001, they decided to call it quits. I think a little piece of me died when they decided to break up. Anyway, I'm continued to check up on their website called the Melon Patch, and much to my surprise I saw a post about them having a concert at Lincoln Theater in Raleigh! As I told Anna, this is the most exciting day of my life (until I get married of course)...For those of you in the area (and anyone who wants to make the trip to see me sing at the top of my lungs for 3 hours) mark March 29th on your calendar and get ready for the best concert of your life!

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?

Off to the Big Apple

Anna and I will be meeting my parents and my brother in New York City tonight for an early Quarles Christmas. We'll be at Madison Square Garden watching the Duke Blue Devils take on the Pittsburgh Panthers Thursday night. We're also heading to The Comedy Cellar late Thursday night to see Dave Attell (hopefully) and others. This will be Anna's first NYC comedy club experience, we'll try to get pictures.

Engagement Party

Over Thanksgiving weekend, a group of my parent's friends threw us a Pig Pickin' in Durham and it was more then we could have asked for. We had a great mix of people and had tons of fun eating a pig and drinking some good local beer called Red Oak.

Anna and I also received tons of unexpected gifts, which is never a bad thing. Just look at the surprise on Anna's face!!!

Check your Mail!!!

Save the dates have been mailed out, so start checking your mail daily to see if you made the cut.

Seriously, though, if you don't get them in a few days, definitely let us know.

November Wedding Happenings

Holy Crap, I haven't posted on this thing in forever. Since my last post, here's what's been going on (get ready, a lot has gone on).

1. Anna has a new job working in Butner, NC in the adolescent unit of John Umstead Hospital. She started today.

2. I started a new job, still at Eurosport, but now as a Regional Manager. I now manage people, not soccer club business. Totally different.

3. We received our "Save the Dates" and now need to mail them out.

4. We visited my parents out in Kansas City and drove my brothers car 17 hours back to Durham, because...

5. Anna's car was in the shop for 3 weeks due to an "Oil sludge" issue. I wouldn't recommend bringing up this incident with Anna unless you really want to get on her bad side.

6. Anna had her first ever alcoholic drink on an airplane!

7. Duke football is now 1-8 and I'm offically asking for Ted Roof to be fired. So much so that I'm thinking of buying www.firetedroof.com. It's only $50.00 and I think it's worth it.

8. We had our 2nd cake tasting, this time at Edible Art in Raleigh. The cake was amazing and we're definitely going with them.

9. I ate Fois Gras for the 1st time (and liked it).

10. I ate Scallops for the 2nd time (and liked it).

11. I ate Elk for the first time (and liked it a lot).

12. We drove back from Kansas City with 48 beers and 6 bottles of wine. My cousin Sara called us modern day bootleggers.

This Just In...Bridesmaids have been announced

Anna has notified and posted beautiful pictures of all her bridesmaids on our Official Wedding Website.

For those of you anxiously awaiting the groomsmen, that list should be up shortly.

I was thinking about announcing like they announce the NCAA tourney...Not actually telling the guys first and having them check back day after day seeing if some embarrassing picture had been posted on the blog or the site, but Anna said that would be pretty inappropriate. So I'll tell them first and then post it. Not exactly as much fun, but what can you do?

Ming Blue (Johnson Hyundai Commercial)

They've released another batch of Badger car commercials and although I don't think they are as funny as the Wiggle Room one, they are still really creative. Check out Grady's ears (yes the badger has a name) when he is trying to say the word "ming". Hilarious.

On a side note, one of my loyal readers brought to my attention that when you google "badger wiggle room", my blog comes up #1 ahead of youtube! My blog is going world-wide.

If you haven't seen these commercials yet, I implore you to click on this link and enjoy...

Then come back and tell us what Badger commercial is your favorite.

Oh, and I'm going to be a badger for Halloween so don't think of stealing my idea.

$234.85...

Several weekends ago I cam home from a weekend up in Washington DC to find the below receipt on my bedside table (You can click on the picture to make it larger).
For those of you two lazy to click on the picture, I can summarize what items are on this receipt in one hyphenated word: MAKE-UP!!!! That's it! two-hundred and thirty-five dollars and eighty-five cents of MAKE-UP!!!

I'm not angry. Really I'm not, but I was trying to think back on something I spent $234.85 on...My "man purchase" of a flat-screen television definitely cost more then that, but that was more a purchase for everyone. I even bought a suit recently, but that didn't even cost $234.85 (It was a $600 suit that I got for under $200 thank you very much).

Am I overreacting here? Do women really spend $200-plus dollars on make up?

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.

I Think I just had an idea...

Yup, I did.

So I went up to our beautiful capital this weekend and got to meet up with one of my fraternity brothers who is also engaged and planning to wed in May. After a few beers at the baseball game, I mentioned to him that it might be cool to have someone else post their thoughts on the blog.

Without hesitation, he accepted and I now have my 1st guest blogger.

Now I ask my loyal readers to be accepting of my 5'5" Jewish fraternity brother.

I'm off to our Capital

Loyal Readers:

I will be out of town until Sunday, visiting my second favorite city in the US, Washington DC.


I'm in desperate need of a little vacation from work so I'm getting out of here around noon today, heading to the Phillys-Nats baseball game tonight and plan to watch football and futbol (which means soccer to all you southerners) all weekend with my buddy Bennett (Check out his food blog that he does with his GF and others).

Maybe Anna will grace this blog with her presence in my absence and share some thoughts on being a bride...

The Streak is Over- Duke Football

Those of you who have suffered through the long, hot fall days watching Duke football lose 22 straight games...I share this moment of glory with you. To all of those who have tailgated with me, sat on the back of by Jeep, drank beer, played Cornhole, drank more beer (or Whiskey), this post is dedicated to you.

If you haven't heard yet, Duke beat Northwestern 20-14 on Saturday night despite not scoring in the 2nd half and almost getting jobbed by the referees.

Duke's head coach, Ted Roof, has just begun teaching the stiff arm
in his fourth year of coaching. In previous games, Duke players,
when touched would just go down, kind of like flag football.
However, when on defense, other teams wouldn't play
by the same rules.

The game was on the Big 10 network, which is luckily available on DirecTV. So I was able to head over to a buddy's house from work and catch the entire thing. Apparently there are a few pictures of me right before Duke won the game, which show me in different states of shock/hysteria/glee and prayer. If I get my hands on those, I'll post them here.

This was such a big deal that it actually made ESPN, check the last series of the game here.

Honeymoon Destination...Done and Done

Anna and I finalized our honeymoon this week and we're ridiculously excited about the 11 days we're going to spend in St. Lucia. We're flying out the Monday (May 5th) after our wedding
and returning on Friday, May 16th. We thought about extended it a few days longer but decided having a weekend at home to unwind before going back to the real world would be a good idea.

Anna and I are both pretty well traveled (thanks to all the great places our parents have taken us) as well as the program called "study abroad" (although not much studying actually takes place). Because of this, we both wanted to experience something a bit different then the cookie cutter honeymoon, not that there's anything wrong with a resort with a swim up bar (Not to rub it in, but the picture linked to the swim up bar is the hotel my parents and I are staying at in Maui this November...I know, I'm rubbing it in.

If you're saying to yourself, "Where are they staying again?", then click here to read my first post on our prospective honeymoon destination and then we'll all be on the same page.

We are going to stay at the Emerald Villa for a total of 8 nights sandwiched around 3 nights on our own private sailboat with our very own captain, where we will be sailing to Martinique, which is around 6 hours northeast of St. Lucia.

It's a done deal and anyone who's looking for a vacation spot, I'd definitely check out all the options on St Lucia.

Badger Wiggle Room (Johnson Automotive Commercial)

I watch a lot of TV, and for the most part, I don't watch commercials. However, there is a local commercial for Johnson Automotive Group that features a badger as a salesmen. I swear, everytime it comes on, I crack up. Anna insisted that I post a few of the videos on the blog so you guys could check them out. I think there are a total of 5 of them, but this one is my favorite. Just go to www.youtube.com and enter "Badger Commercial".

A "Man" Purchase...

After over a year of talking about it (which is my way of rationalizing a $1300 purchase), I took the plunge and bought a 40 inch television just in time for football season!


With all this wedding talk I felt like I really needed to go out and "do something for myself" and I'm pretty damn happy with my purchase. From Saturday afternoon until Monday night, I watched 5 1/2 football games ( I couldn't make it through the entire 2nd half of the Arizona/San Fran football game that started at 10:30 pm).

Anna, however, has not enjoyed watching football as much as Joe and I have. Be that this is our first fall in the same town since 3 years ago (since Anna was in Pittsburgh), it's taking a little getting used to on her part (and I guess I should probably compromise and instead of watching 5 games, maybe just 2 or 3).

Anyway, The TV is amazing, best purchase of the year.

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.