Stephen and Heather’s Wedding
we got in just in time to go to saccino’s and pick up the tuxes and then head over to the rehearsal. the wind was blowing about 35 miles an hour, so we were pretty sure that our outdoor rehearsal at the ritz was going to be for naught. after the reheasal we went and picked up the girls at the airport and then got ready and headed over to the rehearsal dinner. this is as good a time to mention that i love cell phones. we thought we knew where the rehearsal dinner was but didn’t have directions written down. when we started to fear that brent and i weren’t as smart as we had previously suspected, i just looked up the restaurant on my cell phone via google maps. it turned out it was right where we had left it. this was not a possibility 4 years ago…..amazing.
anyway, the rehearsal dinner was at a very nice hawaiin fusion-type place and was really delicious. pictured here are lloyd and stephen, a couple of world class ladies men.
and her are heather, stephen, lillis and myself. it’s worth point out that this was the easiest wedding i’ve ever been to in determining whether someone was part of the bride’s family or the groom’s.
the next day (after much confusion) we made our way out to siesta key for brunch and a trip to the beach. of course, the winds were up to about 40 mph on the beach, so we didn’t last long. lillis had brought 5 layers of clothing, but each was thinner than a standard kleenex, so she got pretty cold pretty quick. we did stop and take a picture (after which my camera lens cap rolled 100 yards down the beach in the wind – good times).
so, volleyball has taken up 6 of my last 10 weekends. in those other 4 weekends i’ve had the bachelor party, this wedding and a trip to park city to go skiing (subtracting that means i have had ONE weekend to just do whatever i wanted and spend time with Lil). aside from that, i’ve had practice each thursday and sunday (each practice take up about 3 to 4 hours of my time), and small group is on monday from 7:30 to 9:30. all of these things are great, but it means i am CONSTANTLY moving and that Lillis and i don’t get to see each other to gawd awful much. this means, i had to forgo one of my most favorite spring traditions (spring training in florida). it was just gonna be too difficult to do, so instead my buddies are coming to the ATL the weekend of 3/29 to do our fantasy baseball draft and catch a game at turner field. sooooo, i was pretty stoked when it occured to me that the reds complex was in sarasota and when it turned out they had a home game on saturday (the only day i could have seen a game). i only got to go for a few innings, but LOVED sitting out in the sun and watching a little baseball in a small park. in the picture below ken griffey jr shatters his bat. at first i thought it was his leg, but he’s still healthy (for at least the next few days or so).
after that was the wedding. it was a lovely ceremony infused with a little comedy when a) heather’s father caught her vail with his foot after passing her off (heather fought through it like a champ and never lost her balance) and b) one of the ring bearers went up to tell his father he was hungry during the ceremony. it was an interesting conglomeration of people as a girl from a buddhist family and a guy from a jewish one had a decidedly christian wedding. the wedding was great, and the pastor did a really great explanation of why all the different types of love were important to a marriage.
immediately after the cermony we had all our picture taking. i think the photographer set a record for fewest different poses taken per hour in the post ceremony photos. holy cow, i’m not kidding, i thought i was going to starve waiting on that woman. btw, a great side plot from the wedding was the competition between the photographer and the video guy. he had a q-beam spotlight on his camera and he was constantly either getting in her line of sight or casting his floodlight on her subjects. i think she thought he was a bore, and i think he wasn’t even aware that the photographer would have stabbed him in the heart if she thought she could have gotten away with it.
so, then we hit the reception. it was the best wedding band i’ve ever heard. a good soul/funk type group who even did a really nice OutKast rendition. again, a mix of clutures is always good for dancing fun and we certainly had that on hand. here are lillis and i, pictured just after getting into the reception area. she looks lovely.
and here’s a whole group of us.
the next day was TOUGH as we had a 500 mile ride home that featured a couple of small bladders and nascar traffic. i think we got into the car around 9:30am and i got out from behind the wheel (i drove the whole way) about 8pm. next time, i’m sucking it up, paying the extra money, and flying!!!
