Our day.
Friday, September 6, 2024
3:30PM Shuttle to Venue
The shuttle leaves promptly at 3:30PM from the Tru Hotel in Manassas.
4:30PM Ceremony
The ceremony will be outdoors, near the pond at Morais.
5PM Cocktail hour
We’ll have an indoor/outdoor cocktail hour at Morais.
6–10:30PM Dinner and dancing
The reception will be held indoors at the Morais ballroom.
10:30PM Shuttle home
Shuttles will take guests back to the Tru Hotel in Manassas following the reception.
The wedding party.
The bridal party
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Friend of the couple.
Michelle was the stranger waiting in Kara’s freshman dorm the first day of college. In a perfect representation of opposites-attact, the two quickly became best friends—much to the bewilderment of respective teammates and coaching staff. Kara and Michelle continued to live together almost all of college, minus junior year—and made it precisely two months before realizing their mistake. Zoom forward 16 years, the two remain best friends, with Michelle’s level headedness still the quintessential balance to Kara’s chaos.
Michelle Eatman is a finance executive of Kohl’s department store. She resides outside Milwaukee with her husband, Seth, and two sons.
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Friend of the couple
Kara and Keena had a stellar start to their friendship, with Kara calling her a bitch the night they met. They made a quick recovery of night one, and have remained best friends for thirteen years and counting. As the only bridesmaid who lives in Kara’s same time zone, and—for over a decade—her closest friend in DC, Keena has been Kara’s absolute rock throughout her twenties and into her thirties. Serving as Kara’s emergency contact in every meaning of the word, Keena has been her first call through changed jobs, relationships, and everything in between.
Keena works in brand partnerships for the Red Cross. She resides in Raleigh, North Carolina with her partner, German—also one of Kara’s best friends—and their two boys.
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Sister-in-law of bride
Kara met Theresa at roughly six AM before an Iowa tailgate, with Theresa bright eyed and bushy tailed and Kara in dire need of a hangover cure. When Theresa left, Kara’s older brother Zeke turned around and asked, “So…what do you think of Theresa?” Which he had never done. Ever. It was at that moment that Kara knew Theresa was it, and years later has become one of Kara’s best friends and sister-in-law a girl could ask for. (And FWIW, Theresa now pumps Kara full of coffee and mimosas every time she visits.)
Theresa runs + is the sole eyedoctor at Shopko Optical in Dubuque, Iowa. She’s married to Kara’s brother Zeke, and mom to Quinn and Lily—i.e., Kara’s favorite little humans.
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Friend of the couple
Danika was the first person Kara met at freshman orientation at Drake. They bonded over small town Iowa and cross-country practice, then proceeded to rarely cross paths over the next four years. The two lost contact until 2015 when Danika got stranded in Baltimore, crashing on Kara’s couch for two nights as they swapped stories on their urban hippie lifestyles. The two quickly became one anothers’ closest confidants in life and business, jetsetting back and forth from their respective cities.
Danika is a singer-songwriter and co-founder of Four Strings Attached tours. She resides in Nashville with her husband, Ryan, and two daughters—one of whom shares a birthday with Kara.
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Friend of the couple
Lexi was the bubbly, annoying freshman Kara’s high school track coach forced her to run with junior year. Through lots of miles and lots more talking, Lexi won her over. The two went on to share multiple state championships, state records, grueling practices, tears, frustrations, and setbacks. Twenty years later, Lexi has never failed to remind Kara not to take life too seriously, and remains one of her oldest friends.
Lexi resides in Madison, Wisconsin with her husband, Kevin, and her son and daughter. Kara is counting down the days until Lexi moves to Dubuque, and she can see her whenever she visits her family.
The GROOMSMEN
Debojit Nayak,
Best Man
Brother of the groom
Zeke McCartney,
Officiant and Groomsman
Brother of the bride
Brandon Lawrence, Groomsman
Friend of the couple
German Diaz,
Groomsman
Friend of the couple
Derrick Owusu,
Groomsman
Friend of the couple
The USHERS
Nora Sanzo,
Usher
Friend of the couple
Matt Cronin,
Usher
Friend of the couple
Our registry.
We are blessed to already own everything we could want or need. (And while living in a one-bedroom condo, we truly don’t have space for much else!) To support us as we plan for the future, we ask guests to contribute to our House & Honeymoon Fund.
For our honeymoon, our dream is somewhere in Asia in 2025. Kara’s pick: Cambodia, Amit’s pick: Singapore.
If you prefer Paypal, you can gift to kara.mccartney@gmail.com