Bryan and Ren

   Those are the mashed names I just came up with for Ryan and Ben. Michael and I will always just go by Shnooks. ;) Thinking about (or trying not to think about) Mia moving to Denver, Colorado with Jay next month, made me reflect on my time with Ryan. And how even though it's sad only seeing them once a year, we have kept in touch and have both survived the distance. It's always easier traveling with our significant others; our rocks to hold us strong in our flood of emotions. 

   I didn't even blog about December 2014 when we went to Universal together, or last December when I took Ryan to lunch at Black Bean Deli. We went to Artegon for Christmas shopping and to meet Santa at Bass Pro shop!! Then we looped back to the Ringling train to pick up Ben and had dinner at Cowfish in City Walk. Thank goodness for Instagram!! ;) Although it doesn't sound like we will get to see them this year. *le sigh*

   I haven't known Ryan since middle school like I have with Miaskee, but we became best friends super fast during Full Sail, and it was sad to see her move away the year after we graduated. I mailed her one of my hand-crafted Halloween cards this morning, then remembered while we were texting yesterday that October 24th is their sixth wedding anniversary!! I'm not really updating my Full Sail blog like I wanted, and even though I say those were the best 2 years of my life, obviously we're still living in super fantastic times because I've had so much more happen that has been worth writing about on this blog since then!

                                                                                              ^^ Charlotte and Dawson

 

With her sister, Lauren

 With the pastor (I forget his name) and her dad. ^^

   ^^ The two people on the left are her step-dad, Mark, and mom, Marcie.  The girl in the stripped shirt and the guy turned away are Brittany and Austin, who were the group church leaders at Full Sail. He played guitar when we all sang some songs before the group chat.

   I don't remember too much about their special day, but a couple weeks before the wedding, Ryan asked me to do her make up (I guess Michael didn't want to do it), but I think she did it herself on the wedding day. I met her at a hotel where her family was staying. Chris Schaffer from our Film class took her professional photos. Of course I took a lot of my own pictures on my pink Fujifilm camera. It was a quaint ceremony in a gazebo at Baldwin Park. I was not officially her bridesmaid, but I know in my heart that secretly I was. When she had to put down her bouquet to hold Ben's hands for the vows I quickly ran up up to take the flowers from her, as the bridesmaid would. I like to think that I helped create the ceremony just a little bit since Ryan and Ben met the pastor that married them after I invited them to the church group that Dawson and I had been attending through Full Sail. That's how we met Charlotte who was in a different bachelor's degree program. 

   After the ceremony Michael and I drove to the restaurant where the reception was in the rich part of Winter Park, along a cobblestone road. (Neither of us remember the name of the restaurant although I'm leaning towards Pomadora?) Ryan's parents paid for our meals since we were Ryan's best friend. Woohoo!! And the cake that Ben's mom made was super delicious. That's all I remember. :)  Of course there were pictures of Ryan and I taken by Chris at the park, but I don't see any on Facebook from all that time ago.