Charlottesville Wedding

On June 6th, Cara and I traveled to Charlottesville, VA for our friends' (Lane and Sarah) wedding. Neither of us had been to Charlottesville before, so we were both excited to see a new area of the country and since Lane and Sarah are incredible fun, we knew the wedding would be a blast!! Cara and I left early on Saturday morning to make the six-hour drive in time to make the 2pm wedding on time. I made a couple of fun cds for the drive and we rocked while we rolled up the highway to VA. We arrived in Charlottesville with some time to spare and so we were able to head downtown to find Cara a summer hat for the reception. The wedding was lots of fun - but the reception really stole the show. It was held at Ashlawn-Highland, which was home to our fifth president, James Monroe. The property was absolutely beautiful as we dined, drank and square danced on the back lawn. Lane and Sarah did a fanstastic job injecting some of their personality into the event, too. Lane had put together a whiskey bar and had cigars for the occasion. In addition, the two had various lawn sports (croquet, Cornhole, and Bocce ball), house tours, and of course the aforementioned square dancing. For dinner, we had some tasty barbeque and there were plenty of unique local and Brooklyn-based (the two lived in Brooklyn when they met) microbrews to wash down the fiery bbq. It was an incredible party.

The next morning, Cara and I had a delicious breakfast at the Cav diner. We then hit the campus of UVA to walk around and take in the stunning architecture and grounds. We toured The Rotunda, which Thomas Jefferson modeled after The Pantheon in Rome. Finally, we decided it was probably time to hit the road for the long drive back to Knoxville. Overall, the trip was incredible and Cara and I both hope its not our last opportunity to visit Charlottesville. Here are some pictures from our trip:

Jessica, Colin and Joe outside the Ashlawn-Highland main residence.

Cara, modeling her new hat.

Me, modeling my new beer.

Me, Joe and Colin smoking cigars and having some sort of a deep convesation.

Square dancing. I'm really getting into it.

While we were square dancing, Cara was taking awesome photos like this.

The peacock graced the reception with his presence as well.

I had such a great time, I had to "JUMP".

The whiskey/cigar menu and a neat whiskey served in a plastic cup.

Less than 100 days until our wedding. YES!!

We enjoyed a delicious breakfast at The Cav Diner.

Cara is all tuckered out. And with good reason...it was an awesome party!

Finally, The Rotunda on the campus of the University of Virginia is a nice way to close out our trip in photos. Hope you enjoyed!