Lauren & Matt Tie the Knot!

Oh happy day! This post may be later than many of my wedding posts, but dear friends Lauren Kinzer & Matt Bigger tied the knot on September 3! Y'all, they've been married for 9 days. That blows my mind!

Let me tell you a little about this couple. Lauren was another one of my suitemates from senior year of college - aptly named "The Kissing Booth," in case you forgot. She is sweet, secretly messy, musically talented, and an aspiring morning person. My favorite Lauren Moment from our year of cohabitation took place during Waffle Wednesday with the boys next door. These were low-key weekly events that consisted of a bunch of bleary-eyed twentysomethings making and eating waffles at 8am while gulping down coffee. For the non-morning people, this was a struggle. But one morning, Lauren waltzed in bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and announced (with her arms in the air), "I am a morning person!" We were overjoyed, but certainly not surprised when two hours later, she came back to the suite, collapsed on the couch, and groaned, "I am not a morning person." Readers: this girl is lovable.

Matt Bigger spent a great amount of time in the Kissing Booth as well, as I'm sure you could guess. He, too, is musically talented, loves the Lord, is really tall, and always laughs at my abundant enthusiasm. I've known him since our very first education classes together freshman year. As I told Lauren shortly before the wedding, my first impression of Matt was him being from Atlanta and wearing a cowboy hat in his Facebook profile picture, thus causing me - a gal from Chicago who had never been to the South - to assume he was the most southern man ever. Pretty sure I've never told Matt that tidbit, but there you go, blogging world. Now, Matt is beginning his tenure with Memphis Teacher Residency and is changing the world, one kid at a time.

These two were knit together by God are so in love. I was over the moon with joy when I received an email in Namibia with all the details of their engagement. So blessed to be in their lives.

Their wedding was so Nashville. From the wedding invitations to the venues. It was perfect. They were wed at the cute white church on 12 South and celebrated at the Factory in Franklin. Told you so - so Nashville.

The bride-to-be at her bachelorette party. See? Still Nashville-themed: mason jars.

The Ceremony

Some of the ladies of the Kissing Booth. Lots of laughter with these gals.

5/6 of the Kissing Booth. 2/6 of us are married now. Missing #6 who's living in Melbourne, Australia!

Matt & Lauren Bigger's first dance

Gabe Dixon played "My Favorite" as their first dance. So Nashville.

And for a friend update:

Mallory & Tyler are still happily married and attending weddings 2 months later

And we convinced sweet new friend Lia and her Vandy alum husband Sean to move to Nashville and let me dogsit their future (but currently non-existant) goldendoodle. You should read their fun blog, too.

Three cheers for marriage, friends, and a great last wedding of the 2011 season. Hip hip hooray!