Recently, many of my best friends have been getting engaged and married. The first to go was my good friend and Fraternity brother David Sibley last December. Next up is my friend Ben Bevill who will be getting married in St. Louis in late July. It seems most weekends this summer and fall I’ll be at a wedding. There is one wedding this fall that I just can’t miss, my cousin Luke’s.
I didn’t grow up having a brother so my cousin Luke Goddard was the closest thing I had. We were only three months apart and we were every family’s worst nightmare. We were loud, hyperactive, rambunctious, and I’m sure for our entire family, very annoying. The first picture on this page is Luke and I when we were 5 years old. This was taken right after our grandparent’s 50th wedding anniversary in the town of Reynolds, Ga.
The next picture is one of my favorites because it is the last time Luke and I were the same height. Luke kept growing, I don’t think I ever did after this picture. Well maybe an inch or two. It was taken on the first tee of Reynolds Golf Course before one of our many rounds we played there.



Luke and I didn’t see much of each other over the past five years because I went off to college two states away. During this time he met and incredible girl named Drew Watkins and last summer proposed to her at St. Simons Island. Luke being very creative videotaped the proposal and a few weeks ago this video was featured on TLC. Luke and Drew recently created a wedding website, I’ve had a lot of friends get married but I had never seen one of these before. They wrote about the ceremony and the bride and groom and then created pages for all of the groomsmen and bridesmaids. If you want to take a look at the website the link is http://www.weddingwire.com/lukeanddrew . As I haven’t been as close with Luke the past few years I was honestly surprised when he asked me to be in his wedding party. However, I was and still am very honored that he is including me in one of the most important days of his life.
Now to the purpose of this blog. On the site, as I mentioned before, they have pages with pictures of the groomsmen and a short synopsis about the person to the side. The first time I saw this I thought “man this is awesome; I can’t wait to see what he wrote about me”. Everyone else’s picture was completely normal. Then I saw mine, it is shown below.









What better picture for all of the family and our family’s friends to see but me with a cigar and a drink of scotch? Glenlivet aged 12 years to be exact. This picture was taken two years ago when one of my friends was going through a bad break up. I had recently broken up as well. To be honest at the time, I wasn’t that upset about it but it was an excuse to smoke a cigar and have a scotch drink and I’m always looking for those excuses. At first, I was like “Crap Luke! Everyone is going to think I’m the crazy partier in the family”. I was upset for a about a millisecond until I realized that I WAS the crazy partier in the family and that Luke’s description of me had hit the nail on the head. If someone asks at the wedding, “Hey aren’t you the scotch cousin?” I’ll just say, “Yep sure am”.
I wish Luke and Drew all the best, and look forward to hanging out with my crazy cousin for years to come.
Of course, I’ll get him back for the picture with a story at the rehearsal dinner….Just kidding Luke…or am I?