Tori & Grant
Thank you so much for coming!
Saturday,
Nov. 11th, 2023
Austin, TX
Our Story
If you had told the 2012 friends version of Grant and Tori that they’d be marrying each other in a little over a decade, you would have blown their minds.
Tori and Grant met at TCU when Tori was a freshman and Grant was a junior. The two crossed paths over shared interests in the Student Filmmakers’ Association (where Grant was president) and the entertaining improv troupe, Senseless Acts of Comedy (Grant was also president of that too, what an overachiever). Once Tori joined the improv team as tech her second semester, their friendship truly began. Grant, Tori, and all the SAC members became a central part of their college experience as they all spent many late nights filming weekly comedy sketches and performing in shows every Thursday night.
After graduating, Grant, being the social butterfly that he is, made sure to keep in touch with all the SAC friends and even planned several get togethers for the comedy friend group over the years. But in 2019 something changed. Both Tori and Grant were single for the first time in their friendship and the two began talking more frequently, despite living 1,500 miles apart with Grant based in LA, and Tori in Dallas.
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Grant did, however, find himself in Dallas often as he traveled to visit family there. And each time he came through town he made sure to round up his Dallas friends, Tori included. After a while, they found themselves calling each other every night. What seemed obvious to most took them a LONG time to admit. After all, they had a great friendship on the line...
Finally, Tori decided to open a door and invited Grant to be her date to a wedding but left it unclear if it was a friend date or a date date. Even though it was obviously a real date... Grant declined. BUT then his plans changed and he accepted a few days later! It was clear that they had both fallen hard for each other and now, after many months, the feelings spilled out.
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They dated in secret for 6 months before telling their comedy troupe friends. This news was going to be shocking to say the least. Eventually, they got their improv friend, Pearce, and his wife, Stephanee, to deliver the news. Everyone was excited to hear Pearce and Stephanee's big announcement (which everyone thought was a pregnancy announcement) until it was actually revealed that Tori and Grant had been dating. The friends thought it was a joke and demanded to see a kiss to prove it was real. (Friends version of Tori and Grant would never have done this, so this was a good test). They kissed and all the friends lost their damn minds, screaming, yelling, running around the room like an angry beehive. It was an unforgettable moment.
*Video clip of this moment available here for your viewing pleasure.
Tori moved to LA in January of 2020 (great time for a move). Since then they’ve gotten to spend 4 wonderful years together traveling and exploring new cities, their favorite being San Diego where Grant proposed on August 6th, 2022 in front of their favorite coffee spot, Daniel’s Coffee Cart.
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They are so excited to tie the knot and spend the rest of their days finding comedy bits in everything they do and creating viral content with Tori’s cat, Cleo, who snores like Spongebob.
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As Grant's grandmother once said, "She was right in front of you all along."
T&G Tell All
What are 3 qualities you admire about each other?
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Tori: Grant is unbelieveably thoughtful and so caring, he really pays attention to details, he's very organized and tidy, and his dry sense of humor always keeps me laughing.
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Grant: Tori is loyal, very funny, and good with money, and also a good cook, I can't sum them up in 3. Oh wait now I'm reading Tori's answers. Can I start over?
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Who's the first person you told about your partner?
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Tori: Connor Paden because I needed an insider to tell me if I was crazy for thinking Grant might be into me.
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Grant: My grandfather because I knew how excited he'd be.
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When did you know you wanted to get married to each other?
Tori: I knew when he asked me out for our first date that we would get married.​
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Grant: The first time we played husband and wife in a sketch (just kidding, at some point I was just like well, yeah, of course we're going to get married.)
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Do you think you'll cry/get emotional on your wedding day?
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Tori: Yes, if any of my bridesmaids read this please bring tissues, we don't know when or where tears will strike.
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Grant: Pass.​
What was the process of ring designing and proposing like?
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Tori: I have no idea. Though I did enjoy trying on some designs to see what I liked!​
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Grant: Like all good marriages, it started with a lie. I lied about visiting my family in Dallas and drove to Austin to have dinner with Tori's dad and Beth, where I asked for his blessing. Then I secretly met with her grandfather to get stones from her grandmother's ring to have put into hers. Then after coordinating with the city of San Diego to make sure the string lights would be on in the Spanish Arts village, and recruiting Daniel from Daniel's coffee cart, the evening arrived. I rehearsed what I wanted to say for days and immediately forgot everything I wanted to say as soon as I began. Thankfully, she still said yes.
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What are you looking forward to most about married life?​
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Tori: Building a beautiful life together with my buddy and being able to make medical decisions for each other in the event of a life threatening emergency.
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Grant: Having an emotional support animal I can always count on. And updating my emergency contact number from my parents to Tori.
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Where are you going for your honeymoon?
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​We're planning a "mini" moon to San Diego right after the wedding for a few days and then a big Honeymoon to Thailand in January!
Travel
Getting to Austin
We recommend flying into Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. Major airports in Houston and Dallas are both roughly three hours away by car.
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Austin Airport offers several rental car options, Lyft and Uber. Parking downtown is expensive, so using ride sharing is encouraged. Our hotels and venues have parking available if you choose to drive.
Where to Stay
Austin offers many hotels and AirBnB's throughout the city. Our events will be based around Rainey street and South Austin. We recommend staying around the downtown and Zilker areas.
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Below you will find info about to our 2 hotel blocks you can stay at during our wedding weekend for a special rate!
Our Hotel Blocks
Hotel Van Zandt
Our home base hotel. The Hotel Van Zandt is a four star hotel complete with good vibes and a rooftop bar. It will be hosting our rehearsal dinner as well as serve as the pickup location for transportation to the wedding venue. Our wedding block discount has rooms for $239 a night. Parking is $56 a night. Book by 10/10/23 to get this discounted block rate, room availability pending!
Homewood Suites by Hilton Austin Downtown
Unfortunately, our wedding block at the Homewood Suites has filled and they are unable to offer the same discounted price. Currently rooms are going for $499 a night though the hotel will offer a discount of $170 off to bring it down to $329 a night.
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If you want to take advantage of this discount, do NOT book through our wedding block. Guests should book a cancellable room through the main website (must be cancellable to be able to modify and apply discount) and then call the hotel to get the discount applied to their reservation.
*If either block is full let the bride or groom know and we will attempt to get more rooms added to the block
Transportation
For those driving or ride sharing:
The venue has 2 entrance/exits, but we strongly recommend using the front entrance located on ChaPPeLL lane which is accessed from MENCHACA RD. The back entrance is located on ChaPeL lane and can be difficult to find. On wedding day both gates will be left open.
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For those taking the provided transportation:
The pick up point will be at Hotel Van Zandt. Those staying at the Homewood Suites should walk over to the Van Zandt to get a ride. Please be in the lobby by 3:15pm. The buses will be leaving at 3:30pm to head to the venue. After dinner there will be buses available every hour or so returning to the Van Zandt whenever you're ready to go. There will be one final bus ride at the end of the night to take everyone left back to the Van Zandt at 11:00pm.
Austin Recommendations
Austin has an incredible amount of things to do throughout the entire city.
Please enjoy this quick and unbiased list of some of our favorites!
Activities
Food
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Bat Bridge (Congress Avenue Bridge)
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Zilker Park
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Lady Bird Lake
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Explore South Congress Ave.
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Austin Botanical Garden
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Texas Capitol
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Austin Nature & Science Center
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Rainey Street Eclectic Bars
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Twomey Auto Works
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Summer Moon Coffee
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Matt's El Rancho
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Torchy's Tacos
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Taco Deli
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P. Terry's Burger Stand
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The Salt Lick BBQ
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Twomey Auto Works (Donnie will cook you a great steak)
The Ceremony
Our ceremony and reception will be held at:
The Vineyards at Chappel Lodge
1215 Chappell Ln
Austin, TX 78748
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Timeline of Events:
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4:00 PM Guests begin arriving
4:30 PM Ceremony begins
5:30 PM Cocktail Hour
6:30 PM Dinner
7:30 PM Speeches
8:00 PM Dessert
8:30 PM Dancing
11:00 PM Send Off
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There is free parking at the lodge, should you choose to drive yourself. Google pin available here.
Officiant
Jason Marquis
Jason is Grant's cousin on his paternal side, and his cousins were the closest thing Grant had to brothers growing up. Grant spent weeks every summer visiting his family in Illinois. Jason and his wife Stephanie live with their three kids outside Princeton, IL. Tori and Grant asked Jason to officiate their wedding because his marriage is a model for them, as well as the fact he's a good public speaker (no pressure).
Hover for a more recent photo...
Reader
Tanner Twomey
Tanner is Tori's brother and the heir of Twomey Auto Works. Growing up Tanner enjoyed getting in trouble for rough housing with Tori (and Brooke - see below) all too often and teaching them how to play Grand Theft Auto (which we mostly used to practice driving). Tanner and his wife, Kendall, have four beautiful kiddos who refer to Tori as "Tortilla" and make aunting very fun. Tori has known Tanner since birth.
Our Wedding Party
Bridesmaids
Brooke Hawkins
Co-Maid of Honor & Step Sister
Tori met Brooke in 1st grade (Brooke was in kindergarten) where the pair quickly became bus stop besties. They spent their youths making incredible camcorder movies and basically living at the Mall across the street. Years later they are now step sisters!
Meagan Hawkins
Co-Maid of Honor & Step Sister
Meagan was also part of the bus stop crew circa 2000. Tori & Brooke took great pleasure in forcing Meagan to appear in and/or film many camcorder masterpieces. Unfortunately, a lot of their work was lost when Beth taped over it with Meagan's choir concert.
Emily Bertram
Matron of Honor
Tori met Emily in high school where the pair became fast friends after discovering Emily's grandma had recently mistaken Tori for Emily at Randall's. They were often asked if they were sisters & once if Emily was Tori's mother. Then they became freshman roomies at TCU.
Cash McBride
McBridesmaid
Cash and Tori met in high school theatre where Cash was once cast as Tori's evil step sister. They weathered 2009-2012 together through many sleepovers. Now that they're both in LA, Tori sometimes makes Donnie's special Pot Roast for Cash as it reminds her of home.
Katie Ahlgrim
Diet Coke Maid
Katie and Tori met in elementary school where they became 1st grade besties until Katie's family selfishly moved away. Luckily they were reunited for middle & high school where they spent many weekends playing pageant moms in their award-winning Duo scene.
Kara Poltor
Sailing Partner
Kara and Tori met in elementary school, probably in their girl scout troop. They went on to become great sailing partners at Camp Longhorn. One time Tori got a black eye after the boom hit her in the face and she fell out of the boat while Kara just sailed away (she came back).
Linzey Weden
Flights Maid
Tori and Linzey met at TCU where they bonded in theatre classes, wanting to skip Theta sorority meetings (but going anyway), bingeing episodes of Downton Abbey until 3:00 am despite having class at 9:00 am, and dealing with an opossum that died under Linzey's bathtub.
Kaitlin Hecker
Editor (not available for work)
Kaitlin is Grant's former roommate and wife of Groomsman, Sam. Tori and Kaitlin have grown close since Tori moved to LA where they can often be found at their local TJ Maxx, enjoying cookie dough in various forms & using their majority vote to get sushi for dinner.
Groomsmen
Max Bremer
Best Man
Max was Grant's first friend in third grade when he moved to Dallas. Max is responsible for encouraging Grant to do film and sketch comedy. Since then, they've been inseparable and now Max has too much dirt on Grant for him to not continue being his friend.
Pierce Davis
Back up Best Man
Grant met Pierce in fourth grade and despite Pierce's parents disapproval, they've been friends ever since. Grant did get Pierce's electric scooter stolen out of his garage, so now he owes him for life. Don't tell Tori but Pierce and Grant have spent way too much time at Disney theme parks.
Daniel Floren
Chaplain
Grant met Dan in TCU's Senseless Acts of Comedy and his earliest memory of Dan was Dan skating to class on his longboard like some Cali-surfer bro. Now Dan and Grant both live in California so who's laughing now? Now Grant and Dan get coffee and talk life philosophy like old men.
Jeremy Culhane
Groomsman at Arms
Jeremy's first memory of Grant was meeting him at the auditions for SAC in college and thinking "this guy is trouble." Since then, Jeremy has been using Grant to #makejeremyfamous. So far it's landed him a Subway commercial with Marshawn Lynch that will NEVER see the light of day.
Pearce Byrd
Groomsman Daddy
Pearce and Grant were part of the same batch of freshman at SAC. Since then, they've always been bunk buddies on all of the group's various trips. It'll have to change now that they're both married. Or not? NOTE: Please don't give Pearce a mic during the ceremony.
Bradley Gosnell
Adjunct Groomsman
Bradley and Grant have been doing videos together for over ten years. They share a love of diners, coffee and Mark Laird. One time while filming a sketch video Bradley drove into a police shootout in Big Bear, CA. Since then, Grant drives seperately to all events.
Benjamin Yoder
Travel Coordinator
Benjamin and Grant performed improv together throughout college, but now their friendship mainly consists of planning SAC reunion trips to exotic locations around the US (and Japan)! They also share a mutual love of Google Docs. Benjamin is competent!
Sam Hecker
Cinematographer (available)
Sam and Grant met at Chapman and collaborated on their thesis film Pickle. Since then, they've lived and traveled together, like a married couple. Sam is waiting on Grant to write another short film he can shoot. Grant blames Sam for his latest Criterion addiction.
