Meet my bridal entourage. A 6 part series.

Part 6:

Katybeth (Maid of Honor)

My buddy...

My pal...

My bro...

My soul sista... 

My best friend.

Katy and I met when we were about 7 or 8 years old at our local summer camp. Eight hours at camp can be grueling if you don’t have the right friends to spend it with.. This was before the days of cell phones and AOL chat rooms, so you never really knew who was going to be at camp that year….well…until you showed up for camp that year! Katy was definitely one of those people who made me look forward to going back to camp year after year. We quickly became buddies and spent our days riding waterslides, windsurfing, swimming in the lake (Buddy Check!) and making/attempting to sell bracelets out of our bead boxes! Ha!

Katy and I attended different schools, so once the summer camp phase ended, that-was-that. It wasn’t until high school when we ended up in the same class and eventually exchanged the look that said: “Hey! Don’t I know you from way back in the day?”  We quickly reconnected and shared our memories of that simpler time. Some stories were better than others and some stories were just flat out embarrassing! Apparently I was a really weird kid. (Those are the stories I’d prefer NOT make a cameo in her Maid of Honor Speech!) None the less, just like that….we were buds again.

Eventually high school graduation came and went and we had one last chance at “summer camp” before going our separate ways for college. We traded in the eight hours of waterslides and windsurfing for eight hours at the beach, concerts at night and breakfast at 6am- because we hadn’t gone to sleep yet. We literally spent the entire break listening to nothing but Prince and Ashley Simpson on repeat. That was such an awesome summer-one that I will never forget. We were still riding the high of graduating high school with a new found sense of freedom and our biggest concern was what kind of bathing suit we were going to wear the next day. We’ve all heard the phrase: “Enjoy it kid, these are the best days of your life.” In a way, they were. To this day, that summer holds some of my all time favorite memories.

Fast forward to present day and Katy is still my bestest bud.

Naturally a girl’s best bud….gets to be the maid of honor! There was never any question that Katy was the girl for the job. We actually made a ‘maid of honor pact’ when we were younger. We agreed that when it came to that exciting moment in our lives- we would be each others #1 gal. Katy has always been the type of friend that ‘just gets me.’ Judgment or jealousy does not exist amongst our friendship, and it never will. Katy has always taken me for exactly who I am and I the same for her. That’s what best friend’s do- they love and support you unconditionally and above all …celebrate your happiness. That’s exactly what Katy has done from the moment I made the phone call to tell her I was engaged- she has celebrated in my happiness!

As far as best friends go- Katy is the crème de la crèm.

She has beauty, brains, wits, and one hell of a fashion sense. I know there are only bigger and better things in Katy’s future and I will continue to be her biggest supporter in celebrating her much deserved happiness and success!