Groomsmen- Dave Stone

Not including my brother, I've known Dave the longest of any of my groomsmen. We became friends in 9th grade as innocent freshman at Durham Academy. When I think of Dave, the first image that comes into my head is his Funkin Gonuts shirt and Timb's (is that how the kids spell it?) he wore to school everyday.

Dave moved away from Durham when we were juniors but we managed to stay friends throughout, which is pretty rare I'd say. He always is good for some humor, mostly inadvertent humor, but humor nonetheless.

Dave has a new nickname that we're really trying to get to stick. It comes from our trip to get fitted for tux a few weeks back. Pikason, Bennett, Dave and I all went over to the mall. Dave likes to eat (he's not a big dude, just has a faster metabolism then most) and we were joking around with him about it (as usual). As Dave was getting sized, we joked that his neck was going to be 18 inches (which is huge)...We started taunting him which chants of "Diez y Ocho" Clap Clap...and so on. Sure enough, his neck was 18 inches and we erupted in laughter, even the tuxedo people were getting a laugh out of it.

So that's his nickname and I ask you to please call him Diez y Ocho when you see him.

(So turns out Dave does not have an 18 inch neck but the lady found it so funny she just told us he had an 18 inch neck. Dave went back and got re-sized and hi neck is only 17 inches). Nick name still works though.

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.

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.