Cobe and Rachael got married in Raleigh this weekend. It was a great wedding, and a wonderful weekend all around.

Rachael looked great, and it was special to hear more about their relationship and lives together.

Cobe is Taylor’s younger cousin, and he just passed the bar this past summer. The Bride, Rachael, is crushing it in data analytics wherever she is working these days (somewhere in Raleigh, I am uncertain where).

We got dressed fancy for the occasion- it had been a while since dressing up in a suit. It seemed like before Covid, so it was hard to tell. Were skinny pants still in style? I wasn’t really sure, but old-reliable gray suit got to make another appearance: this was the free suit I got at my own wedding 13 years ago, and still fits. But, it is getting a little worse-for wear, and might not be completely in style anymore.

Back to the wedding though…

We all clean up pretty nice.

From left: Me, Taylor, Mallory and Dereck (Taylors brother), Grandma Becky, Deborah, and Ted (Taylor’s parents).

What really stood out at the wedding?

Everyone’s answer to this is going to be different.

For me, Cobe is just Taylor little cousin, and one of the “kids” at the beach house every summer for family beach week. This means it is in context of going to and from the sand, ensuring food is available for everyone at the house, etc. Cobe is just a polite, somewhat quiet little cousin.

That’s what made the wedding so special. Hearing from their friends, and listening to the stories about his relationships with his family, and his relationship with Rachael added some meat to the story. We got to hear who Cobe really is: a kind, polite, and it seems above all, humble guy who really is thoughtful about the people that surround him.

Ok, Let’s just look at pictures from the wedding.

The shared iCloud album has several hundred (thousand?) images in it, here are a few that seemed special:

Dereck dancing with his grandmother:

Here is the venue: on the 12th floor of a building in downtown Raleigh:

Kiyoe, I hope you are getting all this- you know more about weddings than anyone else reading this blog.

Cutting the cake:

I got to meet a fan of the blog: Taylor’s cousin, who reads every week.

They did some fun dancing at the end. This video kinda had me laughing as Deborah worked her way through the steps in the electric slide:

Then Ted and Deborah sharing a dance:

Other parts of the weekend

Where the heck are Rosie and Mercy?

The bride and groom had a kid-free weekend for us. Taylor is a VIP for putting everything together for the kids to be taken care of while we were out.

First, they spent time with Grandma (above).

Then, they did a sleepover with their older cousins.

Then, the babysitter came and hung out the last several hours until we got home from the Sunday reception, at around 8:30.

While they were well taken care of, there were the “other” parts of the weekend as well.

The reception was on Sunday, so on Saturday, we did a lunch at the Raleigh Times:

Then, on to watch some Saturday afternoon football games as App State played Eastern Carolina University. We went to Woodys:

The next day ( we went to bed early) Taylor and I did a quick run of 3 miles around downtown:

We stayed at the Downtown Marriot while the Latin Festival was going on:

One thing we learned about the Marriot is that they do offer complimentary toothpaste if you forgot yours. A 0.17 oz container:

The quiet weekend away from kids was 100%; highly recommend.

Dara and Ken, thanks for the awesome weekend. Cobe and Rachael, congrats! Enjoy your honeymoon in Italy! Kenna, woohoo! You made it to the blog!