Love & Friendship

This past Sunday one of my friends got married in a beautiful, rustic wedding in Massachusetts. The weather was perfect, the food was delicious, and the bride? Well, she was as gorgeous as ever. I couldn't have imagined a more perfect day for her and her new husband. And I feel so blessed to have been able to be there to celebrate with her on her special day. 

And, the icing on the cake for this weekend? 

Also invited to the wedding was a handful of old friends who I haven't seen in years. Some of them it has probably been about 6 years since the last time our paths crossed - and that is insane to me. I cannot process how that much time passed so quickly and how much our lives have drifted apart. 

It was wonderful to reconnect and catch up with these guys. We used to spend every weekend fencing in local tournaments, traveling to national ones, and endless hours in the gym training and laughing and being your average middle-school/high-school obnoxious kids. 

Some things haven't changed, for the record. Put us all at a table together and turn up the music? It was like no time had passed at all. 

It just reminded me of just how important it is to keep the people who matter to you close. I strongly hope that it's not another six years, or another important event, that finds our lives once again brought together. Growing up, once people spread out in the world, you really do have to make the effort to reach out to the people who mattered to you when you were younger. To keep your ties to who you were as well as focusing on who you're intending to become. 

It really was a lovely wedding. I couldn't be happier for my friend as she and her husband move forward in their life together. They are wonderful, caring, and brilliant people who are completely in love and supportive of each other. 

And? They know how to throw one heck of a New England style party, as evidenced by this little guy:

Life has been relatively mundane lately. Summer is perfectly lazy and delectable and I couldn't ask for more. Especially when you throw in wonderful weekends like these, who could hope for anything better? Weekends surrounded by friends and love? I'll take the mundane of your average August day for weekends like these. 

So, here's to life, love, and friendship. May they grow within and between us every day. 

A Tennessee Wedding

On Friday I packed up my bags and flew from Portland, ME to Nashville, TN for the wedding of one of my best and oldest friends, Kendra. It had been a while since I've seen her (or her sister, Kristen, or her brother, Jordan. And yes, they're triplets!), so this was a lovely way to catch up with her and her family. It's always a tough thing to do to go to a wedding where you know you'll know next to no one. But, really? I wouldn't have missed this wedding for the world.

Being given away

Kristen being an AWESOME MoH

At the Altar

Repeating their vows

THE KISS

Mr. & Mrs.

Wedding Pie Cutting

Besties since 2nd grade!

Me and the girls

Photo Booth Fun

We've been friends since we were in 2nd grade when their family moved into my town in New Hampshire. Ironically, another set of triplets moved out the same summer they moved in! Crazy, right? So, after a little thinking last night, I've realized that Kendra and Kristen are my oldest friends in the world. And two of my best friends in the world as well. Though a lot of distance separates us and sometimes we're not the best champions of correspondence, they're still two people whom I have known and loved like family for as long as I can remember. Heck, their parents had a huge hand in raising me - just as I'm sure my parents had a huge hand in raising them - with how much time we spent at each other's houses!

Congratulations Kendra! Love you like the sister I never had! :)

I Believe In A Thing Called Love [Heart of Darkness]

I made it back to Budapest; safe, sound, and jet-lagged for the first time of any of my trips here. I blame it on the fact that I actually slept the whole flight from Boston to Zurich (thanks, probably, to Tylenol's 'Simply Sleep' - that stuff is magic). Oh, and then when I finally got to my dorm around 4pm (10am East Coast time) I proceeded to take a 2 hour nap. You can't really blame me though, a 12 hour travel time period (from stepping foot on board to stepping into dorm room, it's more like 17 hours if you count from the moment we left our house!) really takes a lot out of you. And then I went to bed around midnight and got up around noon today. And I'm STILL tired.

What gives? This has never happened to me before!

Maybe it's just that I finally have some down time for myself and my body is taking full advantage of it (or is about to get sick, but cross your fingers that doesn't happen!)

And since I promised you a recap of the weddings I attended this summer, here it is. What is truly amazing about this summer of weddings is that I have known every single one of the brides and grooms. Usually people are friends with one of the people originally (and then, depending on how close you are to them, you get to know and be friends with the other). So it was a pretty special summer, no? Anyway, in true Courtney style, here's a photo re-cap:

Wedding #1 - Ivona & Joe

- I've known Ivona and Joe since my freshman year of college on our fencing team.

Wedding #2 - Hannah & Ben

- I was a bridesmaid :)

- I've known Hannah since 7th grade and Ben since kindergarten (!).

Wedding #3 - Kira & Erik

- I was a bridesmaid :)

- I've known Kira since I started fencing when I was 11 and met Erik at some national tournament when I was 14.

(look who got the most height! ha! I'm 4th from the left!)