Wedding

So last Friday (29 May), Allison and I were married, and we then took off to an adventurous and lazy honeymoon. But let's back up a bit..

I stayed with my brother and my sister-in-law, both of whom were very gracious and kind hosts. I could have stayed at my parents' house, but I would very possibly been in a constant state of battle with my mother. She and I (though we are good now) have a long history of arguments, and pre-wedding stress would not help our relationship if we were forced to be close for long periods of time. Allen and Leah (my hosts/relatives) were very sweet to let me come and go as I needed or pleased.

Speaking of coming and going, I had a few late nights during the week leading up to the wedding. We had a bachelor party sort of hang-out thing Tuesday night, the events of which will not be disclosed on this blog. Let's just say that I had a great time, and that said time involved drinking, talking about interesting things, and fireworks. In attendance were groomsmen Matt, Jeffrey, and James (and Matt's dad who was extremely entertained by the evening's events). The next day I felt fine, and had the usual morning late that my hosts prepare each day. I also had some burn marks on a couple fingers.

Wednesday Allen, Leah, Jeffrey, and I went to pick up our tuxedos (not Leah, she was there for the pleasure of our company). We then enjoyed a delicious meal at Olive Garden (during the wait for our table, I sneaked over to BAM to read Uncanny X-Men 510... thoughts: love the fight scenes, loved that they featured the younger mutants, and am thrilled to see what happens with both [original non-Asian] Psylocke and perhaps Jean coming back from the dead. Spoilers, by the way). Back at the restaurant, I enjoyed the unlimited soup and salad with the Chicken Gnocci soup. It was delicious without making me feel like I had ordered too much food (a rarity for Olive Garden).

That day, my beautiful bride and some of her group began to arrive, and I was able to see some of them. Later that night, as I began to prepare for bed, Matt called me to tell me that he and Jeffrey were coming to pick me up for more adventuring. We did some fun things, which, again, I will refrain from describing, but this time including snake-handling copperheads in the street and road trips out of the area. I slept on the car ride home.

Thursday, I got my oil changed and had lunch with Allison and her ladies at the Subway in Wal-Mart. Then, I went home to wash my car and messed with the wedding and reception music (thanks again to Tim who edited the departure song, Los Campesinos! - You! Me! Dancing!, to something with a better intro). I don't remember a whole lot more of the afternoon, but for dinner, all of Allison's family came over to eat with all of my family at my parents' house. It was busy and surprisingly fun--I expected it to be much more quiet and awkward than it was. Everyone sort of talked with everyone else, and the meal went smoothly.

The day of the wedding, I got up early to head over for the brunch and rehersal, but I kept forgetting things. While checking the car to make certain I hadn't forgotten something, I activated the car's hazard lights. To get through the story quickly, the button broke, and I had a panicked and unscheduled visit to the Chevy dealership, where they kindly fixed it in about five minutes' time (for free!). There was tons of food at the brunch, but it was really quite nice and I had a good time hanging out with my boys and Kevin (Dr. Youngblood, my old Greek teacher and our officiator). The large group at the brunch excused themselves, as I had previously asked my family to do, and we had a brief rehersal for the wedding. Afterwards, I left to take care of a few errands, and I also got to spend some time talking to Spike as we cruised the backroads.


Skipping to the wedding proper, we took our wedding pictures at 5 and the wedding began at 6:30. It went without a hitch, and according to one souce, Allison and I looked very beautiful and super excited and happy the whole time. Huzzah! I teared up during the vows, but I don't think many people noticed (no one has mentioned it to me, but Alli noticed). The reception went well despite the unplanned absence of two desserts, and I had a great time seeing people and drinking lots (~six glasses) of the green party punch that Leah made for us. My groom's X-men carrot cake turned out very well, and as far as I know nobody tried to take the Superhero Squad figures that we placed on it.

All in all, the wedding was a brilliant success and I'm fairly certain a good time was had by all. I'll describe some of our honeymoon in a later post.