The Big Event

Now that Tamara and I are married, and our joyous celebration has passed, this will most likely be the final blog entry here. But I did want to post one final entry just to sum up what a great time it was.

For me, I kept thinking it was one great extended weekend, even though things really began on Wednesday with the Bachelor Party, continued on Thursday at the Rehearsal Dinner, then of course the wedding on Friday, and a party for in-town guests on Saturday.

Several of my groomsmen and ushers were old high school buddies, and it was just so incredibly wonderful to have them around for those 4 days. We hung out, we joked, we told stories, we had a blast. I'm so glad that we have remained close through the years, and I wish we could hang out like that more frequently.

Several close college friends were around for some or all of the festivities as well, and catching up with them was awesome. They made our special day even more special.

It meant a lot to me to have a very large contingent of present and former colleagues from my school at the wedding on Friday, and Tamara had a rather large group as well. These are our local friends, and they are the people we love to hang out with on a regular basis.

The Big Day was just a teensy bit stressful. The wedding was scheduled for 6:00, and around 4:00, it started raining pretty heavily in Arlington. This rain only got heavier, and it, combined with accidents on seemingly every major highway in the metroplex, made a LOT of our guests arrive late. Fortunately, ironically, surprisingly, annoyingly, luckily (whichever word you choose to apply) -- the priest somehow thought the wedding was at 7:30, and did not show up on time. As a result, nearly everyone WAS present before the ceremony began.

The reception afterwards was incredible. The food was great, our dj was awesome, the cakes looked and tasted beautiful, and we had a fantastic time. My only complaint was that we didn't get to dance to every song we had given to the dj, because we were too busy greeting and talking to guests! (Especially House of Pain's Jump Around. When I heard that come on, I almost gave myself an aneurysm, mentally WANTING to go dance, but rationally KNOWING that I had to stay and continue the conversation.) There were a few people I would have liked to dance with, but hey, them's the duties of the bride and groom.

We exited the reception hall to an archway of sparklers, fitting on the 4th of July weekend, and we hopped aboard a horse and carriage, which thankfully had not been exposed to Beefarino. I was expecting the guy to take us right across the street to the hotel, but instead, he took us on a 20 minute leisurely tour of downtown Ft. Worth. The rain had stopped, there was a little bit of a breeze, and the people out walking around the stores and bars called out "Congratulations!" as we passed. It was pretty darn cool.

And now we're married! Aside from the rings on our fingers, nothing physical has changed, so it's still a bit surreal. But it definitely feels warm and fuzzy inside, so we've got that going for us.

We leave soon for the honeymoon!