Last weekend was The Michigan Wedding in.. Michigan for my college roommate. (I was the Best Man.)
Thursday, I arrived in Ann Arbor for the Bachelor Party (BP). The BP consisted of dinner at a bar with the groom (my college roommate), another groomsman (fellow trumpet player from college), the groom's sister's boyfriend, and the impromptu groomsman (more on that later). Afterwards, the impromptu groomsman left the 4 of us as we proceeded on to drink the night away. I'm talking a carbomb, a weird blue shot (blue caracao + sapphire + ???), a house tequila (yecch!!!) and a few beers. The night ended relatively early, possibly partly due to a lack of enthusiasm on my part owing to my early day and traveling.
Friday, the groom was not feeling well. My stock line: I'm not sure if the BP was a success or a failure. Success: The groom was not feeling well the next day. Failure: See success. (I apologized to the bride.) The good news was that even though we left 1.5 hours later than planned, by the time we made it to the wedding location from Ann Arbor (5-hour trip), the groom was feeling pretty good.
The site for the service was a gorgeous house on Crystal Lake. Absolutely huge, nicely furnished, beautiful backyard with a trellis-y thing to get married under. I counted 7 bedrooms. Our hosts were incredibly nice and pleasant. Fantastic people. I shared a room with the trumpet groomsman. Really cool to see him again - great guy.
This wedding was more hands-on than I anticipated. A lot of setup work, a lot of detail work. The rehearsal on Friday eve was good - things were planned and the couple was receptive to polite suggestions (from anyone present) concerning things like traffic flow, etc. Worked very well.
Rehearsal dinner was pasta with sauces and garlic bread and salad. Very good. I gave 2 toasts. Not sure if there were "good" per se. In fact, I feel a little bad for the first one. I think I wished them "a wonderful wedding." I claim.. ummm... I was on drugs. Yeah. No. No, wait, ummm.. Mental illness? *shrug*
Saturday was lots more prep work and setup. Then the wedding. Very nice service. I think things went according to plan. I may have been standing a little too close, though it was where I stood for the rehearsal.
I may have been obsessing over the wedding and my part therein, incidentally.
Afterwards, photos. Appetizers. Speeches. Ugh, speeches. Maid of Honor went first - she told a funny story. I went second. I briefly related my meeting Matt and such, my meeting Rachel, "They are a perfect match", "May you have a wonderful life together", "Cheers!" Some other bits too. It's on video somewhere, I'm sure. I think (hope?) it was received well. Only comment I got was from the minister's wife when I met her - she said "it seemed to come from your heart." Not sure if that was an honest compliment or her not having much else to say - I'm gonna go with the former.
Good food - meat on sticks. Dancing in the ball room. Good tunes. Everyone not staying at the house (i.e., everyone except for the bridal party) left by 8-9pm since there were no shuttles anywhere. We danced 'til 10-10:30. Called it a night. The happy couple went off to a motel. The rest of us said goodnight and went up to bed.
Next day was breakfast and take-down (lots of heavy lifting) and a 6-hour trip back to Ann Arbor/Detroit (included a 1-hour lunch stop) which had me nearly-missing my flight to NYC (got to the airport just 1 hour in advance). Fortunately, security only took 10 min. Got slice of pizza, got on plane, smooth sailing/flying.
Fun time. Very glad I could be there. INCIDENTALLY, the impromptu groomsman was a stand-in for the third in our trio (groom, me, missing guy). So I was informed right before I left for the wedding, someone at missing guy's work had quit and boss wasn't letting missing guy take the days off. If it were me, I would have said "Too bad. I'm taking the days and I'll be back on Monday. If I'm not welcome, so be it." Missing guy (eventually) told the groom he couldn't be there. Bad form, imo. Going to be hard not to lay into missing guy when I finally see him again. (Haven't seen him in about 5 years now, the bastard.)
Excellent wedding. Worked out well. Very happy for my old roommate, the groom. Bride was absolutely radiant. Bridesmaids looked very nice. Groomsmen were stylin'. (How else could I describe us/them?) Great time. Very fun. Very glad I could be there for my friend and very honored to serve as his best man.
I wish them nothing but the best! May their life together be filled with happiness and joy. Cheers!
ADDENDUM: Changed title. Fixed a miswording. Added the following:
Forgot to mention my related health issues. This wedding injured me some. (Seriously.) To wit:
I spent the 5-hour ride on Friday crammed into two-thirds of a backseat (the car was full of "stuff", I sat behind the passenger, crammed between the door and various boxes). The backseat was molded and, thus, pressed against my back in an uneven fashion. The ill-distributed pressure against my back caused some amount of strain and resulting pain.
Prior to departing the wedding location on Sunday, a fair amount of lifting and some heavy lifting was involved (Clavinova, furniture, chairs, boxes, misc. things). This resulted in a fair amount of fatigue and pain the following days.
The ride back to Ann Arbor/Detroit on Sunday had me crammed into two-thirds of a backseat (passenger-side) due to a car of 5 people full of lots of things. This too strained my back.
Needless to say, I was in occasional pain for the following 3.5 days (no pain from halfway through the following Thursday). Very not good but not too awful as it was temporary. Even so, I still feel as though I should get a massage for my lower back or go see a chiropractor (*shiver of apprehension*). I suspect my lower back still isn't quite right.
Notwithstanding the above, great wedding! [5:18pm, Oct. 8, 2007]