Wedding Update coming...

Welp, I am now very happily married and very unhappily back from the honeymoon. I am currently in the process of organizing and working on an image gallery of the honeymoon pics. I only have 2,536 images to go through. After, I will be putting together very detailed postings describing all the wedding and honeymoon events day by day. The goal is to be able to read them 10-30 years from now and remember it like it was yesterday.

In the meantime here is a pic of Gordon's Resturant on the pier, which we ate at twice during our stay.

Stay tuned!

Mr. & Mrs. Gray!!

After our beautiful wedding and a relaxing night at the Hilton.

Relaxing day off

I woke up sorta early and went for a run. Things were still quiet when I returned and I decided to wash my car since it was so nice out. After the car was nice a shiny I came back in and Cam was on the couch watching some TV. Mary had gone to the dentist so we headed out to find some food. We went to Chick Fil A cause Cam wanted one of their chicken biscuits. Apparently they aren't in NYC, which is strange. Well we got there at 11am and they stop serving breakfast at 10:30. Ohwell, that's all he wanted so we left. I had to get some dog and cat food and we were meeting Mary, Nette and Justin at TOT at 12. So he decided he could hold out til lunch. After the pet store we ran into Wal-mart for an ammo check. By that time we were ready to roll out west.

Lunch was great and Cam really liked it (I knew he would). Dick's! Ammo check! they had .223!

Once back at home we popped in the new Fast and Furious and waited for Michael to call. We were meeting up at Byrd's to shot at some point. He called and we headed that way. Cam didn't have much shooting experince and wanted some. We shot for a little while then it was time to the parents house to visit with the English folks. After that we head home for the evening festivites, James (cousin) tagged along.

I don't remember a whole lot for this night but I'll try.
We meet up at the Hill and our first shot was a wacko jacko in honor to the late great Michael Jackson. He had just passed away. We did another. I had a beer and thus the haze begins. We headed to market square to meet up with Mary's family and some friends to enjoy some live music. We wanted to show Cam Knoxville could be a happen place! It was the last Sundown of the year so it worked out nicely. We ended up at Shonos and our buddy was working and kept handing Mary shots of sake. Of course I got a few (love that stuff!) By this time is was get dark and the we decided to head back to The Hill. Cam and I rode with Alicia and Jackie and there was a fifh person but I'm drawing a blank. James (soon to be bro-in-law) drove Mary and some others.

This is were the events just run together, and it ended up better a semi bad night.
I remember playing beer pong and Mary's cousin Nicole kept pestering James (cousin). It got to me and Mary both. Mary told her dad to tell her to knock it off but she didn't. Well somehow (mixed with alcohol of course) Mary and I got into it. We somehow got to the point of calling of the wedding, the whole nine. It was ridiculous! Mary and I soon realized we weren't even mad at each other we were both mad at the situation and smoothed all that over. I wish we would of smoothed it over a little quicker, several people that night saw me in a state I never wish to be public again...and I'll just leave it at that. I was just pissed at the whole situation and I walked down to the KMA (Mary knew I was headed that way). James (cousin) caught up with me there and we had a nice heart to heart. While talking Mary showed up with a hilariously drunk Cameron. We jumped in the car and headed home. We all discussed the crazy craziness of the night while laughing at Cam's inability to hold his head up in the front seat. Also for those keeping track Mary had stopped drinking to sober up to drive, she is such a good girl like that.

The next morning...

First day off before wedding, Cam's arrival

Today was our first day off on our long stint of days off. Mary has 2.5 weeks off ahead of her and I have 9 days. We slept in and woke up hungry! We headed to one of our favs, Wasabi! After a nice lunch we did a little shopping at the mall. I picked up some new swimming suits and flip-flops for the honeymoon.

We originally thought, like up until yesterday, that Cam was coming in at 11:30am. Somehow we miss communicated and it was pm instead, suck! Well I had already planned out our night which included drinks, meeting all my friends at once and then catching Transformers 2. I even bought his ticket already. Well everything went down as planned, minus Cam and James bought my extra ticket. We had: Michael, James, Joey, Sean, Sean's girl, Byrd, Kristen, Travis, Jason, Clif, Molly, Keith, Mary and I. A few of us met at the bar for a few drinks before. Some of my friends seemed intimidated by the antics that take place in bars and went and got in line at the theater. Ohwell it was a ton of fun. The movie on the other hand....not so much. Not as good as the first one story wise but loved all the robot fighting scenes, I mean how could you not??

After the movie a few of us (the ones that didn't have to work the next day) headed back to Downtown grill. They were only serveing their late night menu, which isn't much so we decided to leave. We went to the Applebees out west. Byrd gave me all the groosemen gifts he engraved for me and man they looked sharp.

Mary ate and I had a beer and it was time to pick up Cam!! He walked out of the doors just as we pulled up, perfect timing. We headed to the house and we spent a few hours catching up. We decided tomorrow was going to be crazy and decided to hit the hay.

Wedding Programs done!

After printing and assembling a little over 40 of these Mary noticed a small typo. So I have to started over. Luckily had just enough paper and ink. Unluckily our computer chair lasts about a hour before it turns into a torture devise.

I didn't trust anyone else to make these so I did it all myself. So my weekend = wedding programs :)

Designed, printed and hand assembled 217 wedding programs.
Each have 2 1/8 eyelets acting as a spine and a guide hole was punched for each. It was quite a bit of work but I think it was very well worth it!

Da weekend.

SATURDAY
Got some work do on the tattoo. This was my 3rd visit. We got the cardinal finished up and added some orchids (the flower that will be in the wedding). That pic down there only reflects about an hour and a half of the 3 and a hour I was there. He did a great job and I can't wait to go back! But it will be a while before I do. Probably not until fall (I missed lake time yesterday cause of it and it killed me! :) ). But now the piece is really coming together.
That night was Mary's bachelorette party. I got home from the tat visit and Mary and Kristin were about to leave and man they were all decked out and lookin' good! I ended up driving them to Nette's house, I was also going to pick them up downtown whenever they were ready. They started off at Palachos in downtown west then headed downtown. Mary was surpirsed at the amount of poeple that showed up for dinner. Several went home as they headed to the old city. Her boss was with them but only made it to the parking lot downtown before she decided to call her husband to come get her. Mary was rockin all kinds of bachelorette gear so she drank for free all night. She said even random people would buy her drinks, haha.

Well I got the call around 3am to head down to get her. I was just getting her as Kristin came home earlier. I jumped in the S and drove down and met her Mariell and Cora at Da Vinics. They had some pie and we decided it would be easier to take Cora home since she is on the way. ONly thing was I brought the S....well they thought it'd be ok for them to double up in the passager seat. Sooo...they did haha. I drove carefully and we got her home safe and sound. We got home and I made Mary some grill cheese and she passed out. I got to bed about 5am.

SUNDAY
Suprisingly Mary was up around 11 with no problems. We hit up Wasabi for lunch, which was amazing as always and my last time before the wedding. :( After we stopped by the wedding photographers house to pick up the engagement pics, which I'll give you a small taste of:
Once we got home we through on out bathing suits and headed to the lake to meet Jim and the boys. Since I had the new tat I couldn't get in the water, meaning I couldn't wake board either...bummer. The water was a tad cold still but man it was nice to be on the lake. All 3 boys wakeboarded and made me want to that much more. Clif brought his boat out and we met up and they went off to get some boarding in. Soon after we passed them a few times as they were just floating around. We decided Michael was going to go for one more run and we'd head in. I called Clif to let him know and he didn't anwser. He called back, and I could instantly tell something was wrong. The last time he pulled up out of water he pulled something in his back, and pulled it bad. He told me he hadn't move since he got back on the boat and that he couldn't. He was in so much pain that we they decided to get moving they couldn't drive fast cause the bumps were hurting him. They caught up to us and we decided to hangout for a few. Clif was laying in the back and didn't move. The worst of all this is that it was Clif's birthday! We chilled for a while and then headed in.

Back on land Clif was out of the boat and could barely walk to the car. He had already deicded to go to the ER and get it checked out. I have never seen him in that much pain and I really hope it's not something serious. I called Molly later that night to see what was up and he was back with the docter at the time. She sent me a text later and said they said it was a muscle spasim, which didn't sound right to me but I'm no docter. I hope to find out more today and I really hope to hear he is feeling much better!

Bachelor Party at VIR

Click that image to see all the pictures and videos.

My dad, being my best man, planned my bachelor party, which was to ride the karts are the VIR track in Danville, VA. Well it was the best bachelor party any man could ask for! All my friends, most of the guys in my family and soon to be family were there! 14 of us!

The karts and track were just awesome. The track had tons of elevation and turns. The day started out with us getting partners, we would share a car. We were in groups of 7 because they could only run 12 cars at a time and 2 on the track is boring. Clif and I got partnered and we pick the 88 car. Clif had the first run with Paul, Jim, Joey, Jason, Dave and Keith. Clif turned fastest lap and beat Paul in second by almost a second. My group geared up and head out. Dad, James C and H, Paul B, George, Michael and I were off. I managed to pass everyone at least once and some twice. :) Arriving back in the "pit" Clif high fived me and told me I best him by half a second!

Now it was qualifying time. Clif beat my time on his second lap and dropped that time down a tad by the end. We had realized that our car was just faster than the other cars, unfortunately. On my qualifying run I got within .07 of Clif but couldn't get any closer. Within 100ths of a second is pretty much the same time. :)

From there we went to the racing. We split into the 7 faster and 7 slower cars. We were to draw car numbers for the running order. It was obvious that who ever got car 88 was going to win, but sssssiiince it was my bachelor party they gave me 88. I smoked them of course. And now that it's after, wish I would of given the 88 to the slowest fastest person and taken a slower car to show my drivin' skills! :)

Either way it was a blast and went by WAY to fast. We are already talking about going back!

The whole weekend was great we never had to leave the track. The hotel and a nice restaurant were on site. Everything was also in walking distance. Dad did have to leave once and that was for a beer run.

Both nights we sat out on porch, talked/caught up, drank and smoked cigars. On Saturday after the races we hung out and watched the Kentucky derby and the Phillies game. We had each on in different rooms and were going back and forth....haha.

Also the guys paid for all my snacks and things on the road trip. I ended up not spending a dime, pretty crazy.

Welp, I really had a great time and it really made my trip that everyone came.

List of the guys and help identifying them on their kart:
Jim H black helmet/red black silver helmet - light orange shirt
James H black helmet - white shirt
Michael H silver helmet - grey shirt
Joey H blue helmet - dark red shirt
Keith crazy helmet yellows/blues - grey shirt - red shoes
Clif black helmet - black shirt
James C black helmet - white shirt - black gloves
Paul P black helmet - dark blue shirt
Paul B white helmet - blue shirt
Jason green/black helmet - red shirt
Dave red helmet - dark blue shirt
Charley green/black helmet - red shirt
George white helmet - grey shirt
Me crazy gold helmet - grey shirt

Got coke for the wedding

Mary got a sweet deal on coke at work. 75 12 packs plus 55 free 20oz.
bottles. 900 cokes!!! Hahahahaha

Found shoes for the wedding!!

Keith and I went shoe shopping yesterday after exchanging my work bench at Lowe's. It had a slight bend in the center column which held both drawers in place. The right side drawer keep falling out and finally broke. Lowe's exchanged it, no receipt or card it was purchased on with no questions asked. The lady that helped me was actually the sister of a really good friend I had in high school, Will Evans. Molly, his sister, was all grow'd up. Took us a while to recognize each other too.

Well after we headed to the Kohl's out in Farragut. Keith drove and as we passed a little park we noticed several cops an ambulance, and a fire tire. Everyone seemed relaxed like nothing bad was going on.

We found shoes we both liked, tried them on, like them, paid and left. Right when we walked out we noticed a louder than normal helicopter sound. Once we spotted it through the trees it looked as if it was over by the park where we saw all the emergency crews. It was just hovering there. As we drove back we could see it seemed to be hovering around the wooded area looking for something. As we got closer traffic got worse. It was in fact hovering over the woods back and forth. Even flew over us a few times. It was close enough to see the people in it, coulda waved if they were looking.

We never found out anything about it. I'm guessing it was some sort of training exercise. Should was a strange place for it if it was.

Ohwell, I got shoes for the wedding!!

Tux Fitting

Last night all the guys, dad and I went to get fitted. Everything went great. They will be able to accommodate us and I got my rental for free. Mary is not to happy that we can't buy the tux due to them being discontinued and so popular they can't spare any. They actually had the pants and jacket in my size to try on!

After we all went to Parkside Tavern for dinner. We had a great time hanging out and catching up.

I miss hanging out with those guys.

Working on wedding stuff

I had a few things to work on for the wedding, like the invites and website, so Mary joined me.
Few other family members decided to join us. :)

Mary's First Shower!

Mary had her first shower today! It was at the Downtown Grill and Brewery. Her maid of honor set it all up and did a great job! One of the bridesmaid's was acting a little wacky about helping after she agreed to. She went about handling it all wrong and didn't even show up! It REALLY upset Mary and I. That's another story and not really worth anymore time. So anyways...Mary had a great time! My mom and aunts were there and they even invited the guys to show up after it for dinner. My dad, Uncle Bill and Mary's brothers all showed up. It was a great time! Mary got some great stuff as well. We both can't wait to put it to good use!

My Illustration book

I found out about this site called www.blurb.com from a co-worker, where you can create your own book. At first I was skeptical, but I thought why not? I was going to make a guest book for our wedding so I thought I'd make a book and see if it was worthy. Well...it is, very impressive. All you have to do is download there little program and create a layout. You can add a image wrapped cover, print full bleedm, premium paper and choose from several different sizes. Here is what I created.





It's a 40 page 7x7 inch book filled with my illustrations. I created the 2 pages to write on in the book to test out. I selected the premium page option and it's very nice. The image wrapped cover and premium paper are a little extra, but it was while worth it. I want to print more!

When and if I need to find a job after we move I may use this as a self promotion piece!

Also if you feel so inclined you can buy my book!

Honeymoon Booked!

It took us a while to decided where we wanted to go for our honeymoon. First thought was Bora Bora but not only was the price a little outrageous but the food choices were just simply gross. Next we thought a all-inclusive would be the way to go. We looked into St.Lucia but after a little research and talking to several people we decided Sandals in the Bahamas would suit us the best. The have tons of food choices (for us picky ones) and all kinds of attivities. So today my parents being so generous booked it for us! We are super exctied!
Above is a picture of the one we got. It's set back in the resort, suppose to be a little more romantic.

This is our flight agenda:

US AIRWAYS - Flight No: 2302 Operated By US AIRWAYS
Depart Knoxville, TN, US (TYS) 06/29/2009 - 05:40 AM		Arrive Charlotte, NC, US (CLT) 06/29/2009 - 06:31 AM
US AIRWAYS - Flight No: 1053 Operated By US AIRWAYS
Depart Charlotte, NC, US (CLT) 06/29/2009 - 09:39 AM		Arrive Nassau, BS (NAS) 06/29/2009 - 11:55 AM
US AIRWAYS - Flight No: 1976 Operated By US AIRWAYS
Depart Nassau, BS (NAS) 07/06/2009 - 04:30 PM		Arrive Charlotte, NC, US (CLT) 07/06/2009 - 06:44 PM
US AIRWAYS - Flight No: 2597 Operated By US AIRWAYS
Depart Charlotte, NC, US (CLT) 07/06/2009 - 08:35 PM		Arrive Knoxville, TN, US (TYS) 07/06/2009 - 09:40 PM

Less than 5 months!

Save the dates for the Wedding.

I have started working on the save the dates. These are a few that Mary and I both like. These came from a batch of about 15 that I did :)

GrayHenkelWedding.com

Got our wedding site working finally. Took a while to figure out how to get it hosted through my other domain. It was complication simplified hehe. I will be actually building a site so for now there is just a place holder. Thought it'd be a good idea to have a site for out of town folks too. Going to add directions and hotels in the area. Our story will be included as well. Now I need to get started on the invites.

The site can be seen here: www.grayhenkelwedding.com

Groomsmen suits

Does my baby know me or does my baby know me? divisional

Groomsmen suit by Marc Ecko. One of my favorite clothing designers. Mary walked in to check out a local tux shop, asked if they had any black with white pinstriped suits. They confirmed saying they had Marc Ecko suits, Mary said sold!

Wedding DJ

I called to schedule a DJ yesterday and spoke with a very nice lady at Special Notes. A DJ named Jim Ogle was recommended to us by the folks at Crescent Bend so I asked for him. She said he is very popular and was going to have to call him and see that he schedule was like. She called me back within 30 minutes and told me he was booked May, June and July and next year with the exception of Saturday June 27th. I couldn't believe it! We booked him and the contract is on the way. Everything is going so smooth it's amazing!

Wedding Menu

The menu has been sent to the caterers (All Occasion)! Not sure if this is final yet but it's a start.

Main Entree
Hamburgers
Hot Dogs

Side Items
Boston Baked Beans
Pasta Salad
Potato Chips
Grilled veggies

Trays and Finger foods
Fruit tray
Cheese tray
Veggie tray
Wings w/ ranch and blue cheese
Chicken Fingers w/ BBQ and honey mustard sauces (O'Charleys honey mustard)
Rolls

Dessert
Chocolate Fountain

I know, I know, hamburgers and hot dogs at a wedding?? It will be awesome trust me!

changed!

Our spot

The spot at crescent bend we will wed.