Wedding Day and first couple days of marriage
So the wedding day itself was absolutely beautiful. Woke around 9, lounged for a couple of hours. Corey came up to mine and Andrew's room around 10 or 11, and the three of us drove to Ashland to eat lunch at the ABC. Andrew told the waitress that I was getting married, and from that point on we got exceptional service. Everyone who was working stopped by our table at one point or another to offer congratulations. I got lots of practice with my "thank you" during that meal. The food was good too (Corey loved the salad... he ate the whole salad before even touching his sandwich and I mean cleaned plate loved the salad) and on top of everything else my dessert was on the house.
That was the last non-nerve-wracking part of the day, at least for a couple hours. Over the course of the hour+ drive back to the wedding site, I began to realize that the wedding was coming soon. I was most nervous about saying my vows. I had put so much of my energy, my heart and soul into writing them, and I accordingly worked myself into a nervous state of mind about not being able to get the words out for every reason you can think of.
We forgot to pick up tape for my mom. On top of that, we couldn't even find the tape store! [/silly jokes from the drive]
Over the course of our engagement, the exact spot of our ceremony was quite controversial, with no less than four spots getting serious consideration. Up to last week the front runners were in front of the BBQ grill and on the deck/stage area. During the rehearsal, both of those ideas were scratched in favor of being right in front of the tree with pink flowers. Interestingly, it turned out that none of those spots won out... in fact we wound up getting married in front of the fence that faces the river. I'm told the trees branches would have conflicted with the arch. In any event, I'm glad that it wound up where it did. It really was a beautiful set up, and I can't imagine any other set up being close to this nice.
So there is the arch under which we got married, with the seats all set up. In reality, we didn't need so many seats, with only some 20-25 people who actually needed seats.
Moments after walking to the arch. Heart pounding.Thankfully my ibuprofen from a few minutes ago had started to take effect. I developed a headache around 4:10pm, wedding was scheduled to start aroudn 4:30 (though in reality was around 4:35 or 4:40)..
Andrew and Felicia, best man and maid of honor beginning to walk. This is pretty darn close to my angle. Crazy nerves with quite possibly a silly grin to hide behind.
My 6'6" brother Corey, my groomsman. And Amanda's 5'6" or so bridesmaid Jennifer. The height difference was twice as amusing as I'd hoped.
My bride and her father... one of the few moments that she was looking up as she walked. Freakin' beautiful dress. It should be noted that moments before this shot our friend Jet, who was DJ'ing, had allowed the Flower Duet to play for several seconds longer than it should have. The three of us were probably the only ones who noticed, but you can see Amanda thinking 'it went too long!"
Enough said?
I have many pictures of us kissing. These are two of my favorites. This was taken in the on-site gazebo moments after the wedding ceremony had ended.
A short while later, cherry Pepsi in hand, Amanda went to visit her uncle Todd. He was busy grilling/BBQ'ing chicken, burgers, and other such foodstuffs.
The bridal party.
Amanda with her girls. I like this picture, so I put it in the entry.
Stu. I wish I could remember what song was playing.
At left, you see Amanda's cousing Josh. He's ringing one of the 'newlyweds kiss' bells that were at the tables. This was one of the last kisses before the bell got old. Love kissing Amanda but come on, I'm not a dog who responds to bells!
Umm. Amanda made it explicitly clear that she wanted to do the whole cake thing without shoving it in each others faces. Let it be duly noted that I tried to do that. You can see how that ended.
Taken just a moment after the last picture. It's an awful picture, perhaps. But it ably illustrates the chaos that I cannot describe nearly as well.
The Gilbert clan. From left: Rayetta, Robbie's head, Kent, Todd, Amanda, me, Josh, and Amanda's grandparents.
The Edgewater Inn was more motel-ish than I'd expected. But that didn't stop the view from being nice. A riverside room is quite a plus. Pay no attention to the highway, that was a non-issue. It was really a pretty view. You can actually see the french doors that lead to the view in the mirror in the next picture...
Decent shot of the room. Small in terms of space, but here you can see the spa, my favorite part of the room. Not pictured - a ceiling fan (very convenient that night) and a built in faux fireplace (not so convenient but nice décor nonetheless).
Much as I liked the dress, neither of us could wait for this part...
The bed, with flowers that Jennifer and Amber had brought to decorate.
The spa, with our wine glasses. The room came with complimentary champagne, although in all honesty I should have gone for the sparkling cider... champagne just doesn't do it for either of us. On another note... notice the position of the jets relative to the water level? They should be left turned "off" until they are submerged --- which took way too long! --- but for a brief moment Amanda didn't heed the warning posted next to the on switch. Water sprayed - everywhere! - it was truly great. I was on the phone trying to reach Felicia at that point, but I had to hang up mid-ring because of how loud and messy it was. What good fun!
And finally, the condition we left the room in. I prefer to pick up after myself when leaving hotels. But we didn't this time around. So there!
The rest of Thursday flew by. We had lunch with the Gilbert clan at Subway, went to the mall, and generally shot the breeze. The only problem was that there was no breeze. It hit something like 95 degrees in Medford that day. It was oppressively hot. Uncomfortably so. We left Medford around 6, and got home close to 10 o clock. We made it home safely and without any tickets, even though we tried hard to, and for a brief while thought we were about to be pulled over! .... After a few minutes of emergency cool down procedures (I'm pleased we'd brought up all the fans before leaving) we started to unpack... a process that is still in some ways underway today.
The rest of Thursday (what little was left) and Friday were pretty uneventful. Friday saw us taking a walk to the duck pond, getting our marriage application approved by the county (and me not being allowed into the courthouse with my belt on), and gambling away a healthy chunk of money at Spirit Mountain. All the while we were trying to avoid the heat ---- again, 95+ degrees (although in Medford I'm told it hit 105 degrees. Do I have to mention that we chose the right day to get married? Mid-80s at the hottest but a breeze to make it feel mid-70s through the whole wedding, almost perfectly clear skies... perfect.