Graduation Weekend!

Warning: It's a l.o.n.g. one! I wanted to remember every detail!

On Saturday May, 8th I graduated from the College of Charleston!

My family came to Charleston for the weekend and we had an awesome time.

On friday, Charlie and I met up with his parents at Jim n Nicks and had some awesome cheese biscuits and fried chicken with macaroni and cheese and cinnamon apples!

It was ahhh-mazing!

My parents arrived that afternoon and we of course spent the rest of the day SHOPPING!

which is always oh so much fun!

We then met up with Charlie's parents at Hank's Seafood!

Yummy!

Then we took a stroll down the market and tried on some awesome glasses!

Kanye style!

And then we ended the night at Kaminsky's of course!

(oh and charlie and I so didn't go there the night before too..no way..we are NOT pigs like that..)

I got the best cake in the entire universe!

mmmmmmm!!!!

I spent the rest of the night packing up my clothes and straightening my hair.

I only really straighten my hair for special occasions because it takes like 2 hours and i end up dying of a heat stroke every ten minutes....but the end result always looks nice!

I finally crawled into bed at FOUR in the A.M. ...

My alarm clock went off like crazy at 7:30 and I began my graduation day!

The gates to the cistern opened at 8:30 which is when we had to be there also.

Our parents got in line at 7:30 and were already about 75 people back.

They ended up getting great seats though!

Oh and did I mention that our OUTDOOR graduation ceremony just had to fall on a record high day in Charleston?? i didn't? well it did...it was H.O.T.

After Charlie and I finished getting ready we met up with the parents for a quick photo op!

I felt soo bad for charlie having to be in all of those heavy clothes!

I was dying of heat and I didn't have on barely anything compared to him!

We then went to cougar mall to rangle (is that a word..? i dont think so, but lets just go with it..) our way thru a sea of white dresses and white jackets!

We picked up our flowers and hugged our friends!

Then we separated into classrooms depending on our major.

Since I switched my major pretty late in the game I don't really know that many people that graduated but i hung close to the one..well maybe two..that I did know!

Here are the Historic Preservation and Community Planning Senior girls!

And the HPCP guys! give or take a few!

and a group shot!!!

After our photo-shoot we lined up alphabetically and headed out the doors to prepare to walk through Randolph Hall.

We waited for about 10 minutes before it was time for the line to start moving.

Finally we went inside the building and went into the main room which is the Alumni room (or something like that!)

When we got in there i saw Charlie!

He ended up being in literally the same spot as me just in the other line!

We got to walk out of the doors together and then separated down opposite stairs.

This was the view of our side right when we walked out of Randolph Hall and before we walked down the stairs.

I ended up in the third row and called Jenn to see where they were.

I was standing up on stage on the phone with sis when they took this pic!

Being on the stage was a lot more laid back than I thought it would be.

We all talked to each other and got to whoop and yell when our friends walked across the stage!

Our commencement speaker was Marco (polo) from boeing of charleston.

He did good..but i felt like it was just a huge commercial for boeing!

Then the senior class president and another student spoke.

They did awesome!!!

It then came time to make our way across the stage!

I was in the third row from the front so i was lucky enough to be one of the firsts to walk and get it over with!

When we circled out of our seats to line up to walk, i got to walk past some of my really good friends that aren't graduating yet!

They were marshals for the graduation!

Here are the sweet ladies!  

Stephanie, Melanie, and Jan (one of my bridesmaids!)

I felt soo sorry for them, they had to stand the whole time and then come back in the afternoon and do it all again!

But they rocked it out and if they were not there no one would know what was going on!

anyway

When we lined up they had a photographer there to take two pictures of us and then another one took a picture as we walked across the stage!

The awesome lady with the awesome voice announced my name and i heard "get it girl!" from my lovely man!

And other yelling from my awesome family and friends!

I couldn't stop smiling!

The provost said that I had a huge smile and I must me very happy!

and I was!!

Caroline got an awesome pic of me shaking the President of CofC's hand!

It was awesome!

Then it was back to my seat to wait for Charlie to be called!

His name was finally called I stood up and screamed for him!

He saw me and just shook his head and smiled!

He was very good friends with the Vice President of Student Affairs and we got to shake his hand as we walked also!

But charlie, of course, went in for the hug!!!

The ceremony ended "Charleston Style" with some good old fashion shag music!

and we threw our fake diplomas in the air since we don't have hats!

We exited down off the stage and back out the doors of Porter's Lodge!

We ended up walking out together too!

Charlie and i walked down the street and waited for our friends and family so we could take pictures!

We finally started the long hike to lunch!

We walked to East Bay Street to eat at Southend Brewery!

On the way there the Carriage would see us and explain to the riders about CofC's graduatio and everyone would say congratulations!

It was kind of like being a "P" list celebrity! 

bad bad bad joke...

We finally made it through the sweat and hottness to the restaurant!

I ordered the best Pizza everr and everyone had a wonderful time relaxing and cooling off!

After lunch we went back to mine and sis' apartment.

On the way there these two sweet boys told us congratulations!

They were too cute!

We finally got back, changed and ate some yummy cake!

We ate and relaxed and mom, dad, and sis left for the lake!

After they left I laid down on the couch and took an amazing two hour nap.

It was perfect!

We had an awesome night, which I will recap when my friends post the pics!

I cannot believe I graduated from college.

I feel kind of lost and weird, like i dont know what to do!

But im sure things will get back to normal soon!

.....

I take that back..We are getting married in ONE MONTH!!

after that things should settle down a bit!

Charlie and I kept saying what a perfect day it was.

I had the most amazing day and weekend with the fam!

I posted on facebook that morning a line from "I'm not gonna cry" a graduation song by Corey Smith!

"Sure we made a little trouble, but i learned from every mistake, so there's no regret, we've done the best we could..these are the best years of my life, so I'm not gonna cry...now its time to celebrate, its our GRADUATION DAY."-Corey Smith