Wedding Day Memories 5 years later

So today is Erin & my 5th wedding anniversary and while I was getting the boys all ready this morning, all these memories of that day came flowing back through my mind. Five years ago, I did not have this blog site and used to just write little journal posts on my home computer in Word and saved them to read again in the future. Well, it’s 2017 now and I have this blog site, so I thought I’d share my experiences from that day with all of you, my adoring public! So if you typically come here for my wrestling insights, please be warned that none of that will be talked about here in this post. This will simply be a remembrance of what I consider to be the best day of my life. A lot of people will say that the day their kids were born were the best days of their lives, but to me, Ethan, Owen & Liam’s births doesn’t come about without this day happening first — so first things first, let’s remember back to September 29th, 2012…

So the one thing I remember most about the morning of the wedding is how relaxing of a morning it was…for me at least. I know that certainly wasn’t the case on the bride’s side of things, but for me it was. I got up around 8, took my time getting showered, shaved & dressed. Headed down to the local deli to get a buttered everything bagel and headed back home to have a leisurely breakfast. I already had my bag packed for the hotel stay that night, and my tux was all set to go as well, so I tossed all of that into the truck and headed over to the hotel where all of my friends had stayed the night before after the rehearsal dinner and the ensuing hijinks at TGI Fridays afterwards.

When I arrived at the hotel, I was informed that our suite was ready, so I brought my stuff into the hotel and went to check out the room. I also checked in with my friends and family who had stayed over, and stopped by my friends’ room who happened to get a flat tire the night before (which I had to change the night before my wedding lol) to see what his plans were in remedying it.

After all of that was out of the way, we gathered up my groomsmen and were gonna head out for some lunch, but not before meeting up with a good 90% of my family who had now taken over the lobby of the hotel as everyone was checking into their rooms. I’d say it was a little overwhelming, but it honestly wasn’t…it really felt good to know that everyone was there to partake in our big day. After greeting everyone, the guys and I headed over to the Cracker Barrel to get lunch only to find that the place was absolutely packed and there was something like an hour-long wait for a table, so we decided against that. We ended up heading over to a sub place right in the same mall and had a blast, just joking around and telling stories. As I said earlier…so far, this day was quite relaxing and fun before the whirlwind which would happen later on that day.

After lunch, it was time to head back to the hotel to begin to get ready for the afternoon/evening festivities. Getting ready went quite quickly since I didn’t have to share a bathroom and had the place all to myself. So I was ready in record time! Had the tux on, vest, my grandfather’s cuff links which I had also worn for my sister’s wedding 15 years prior, and had everything in order fairly quickly. That’s when a couple of my groomsmen stopped by and needed help. To be honest, I kind of expected this, knowing those two…so it really wasn’t a problem — and truth be told — I probably would have swung by their room to double check on them to make sure they had everything figured out as I know dressing up with cuff links, shirt studs, ties and such isn’t really their thing and they didn’t have a lot of experience with such stuff. So, dressing my friends for our wedding was one of those things I kinda figured I’d be doing anyway, it just comes with the territory.

So once everyone was set, I headed down to my parents’ room to check in with them and make sure everything was good in their preparation. My Dad was all set to go, wearing his tux — I’ve always loved how my Dad looks in a tux. My groomsmen and I all opted for vests over cummerbunds, but my dad, being of the generation he’s from, opted for the black cummerbund. Since they were just about set, I headed down to check in with my brother in law, who was my best man and the rest of his family. They were all just about set to go, so we all headed down to the lobby and to the car to head up to the place we chose to get married: Farmstead Golf & Country Club.

Upon arriving at the place, I had noticed that the limo I had arranged for Erin & her bride‘s maids to take from her parents’ house up to Farmstead was there, so I was relieved. In looking up limousine companies, I found one which was fairly local to our area that had good online reviews. I called up to set up the ride and all they needed to know was how many people they were transporting, where pickup was going to be and where the drop off would be. Nothing else. No payment, no nothing. So I was a little skeptical, but in the end…it all turned out fine.

So as my groomsmen and I were assembling, my dad came running over to me to alert me that there was a bit of a problem with the bus I had arranged to shuttle everyone from the hotel to bring them up to Farmstead. Apparently it had gone to the wrong hotel and was running late. So it turned out that (I believe) everyone just hopped in their cars and drove up while only a handful of people actually took the bus when it finally showed. So naturally, that was added to my “to do” list afterwards to get a refund on the bus since it didn’t work out.

As it turned out, everyone made it up to Farmstead just fine and the weather (which was questionable all week long) held up and we were able to have the ceremony outdoors. Afterwards, we had a ridiculous amount of pictures taken and finally headed in (by being chauffeured by golf cart) for the tail end of cocktail hour and hung out downstairs in a separate room where Erin and her bride’s maids had waited before making their entrances for the ceremony.

The reception (as my Dad had later told me) was one hell of a party! I had been on the phone quite a number of times with the DJ we had hired, giving him more and more songs to add to the list to play during the reception and when I wanted them played. From my recollection, he hit just about all of them and mixed everything in really well! He even got some oddball songs I wanted to hear during dinner like a song from Kid Rock and another from John Denver. It really was one hell of a party that I’ll never forget.

The following morning, I’ll always remember as Erin & I were up early and had breakfast with my Aunt Linda at the hotel. I accidentally dropped my phone in my breakfast while looking back over pictures, so I ended up getting myself a new cell phone later on that day since that one was toast after getting food all inside it. The guy at Verizon got such a kick out of the fact that I was spending the afternoon of the first day of my honeymoon at his store getting a new phone. I guess such is my life.

It really was a great day that just as everyone says “goes by in a flash!” One thing I am glad we did manage to do is that during dinner, since Erin & I had gotten our meals first, naturally we had finished probably before some people had even been served, she had to go use the ladies’ room and I just wanted to step out for a few minutes for a breath of fresh air and a break from all the craziness that the day had been up until that point. So we got to have a couple of minutes downstairs together, alone as husband and wife for the first time. It was really nice to take that breather together. If you’re planning on getting married, I highly recommend finding a few minutes to just sneak away together and just enjoy each other’s company on that crazy day.

Looking back on this day now 5 years later, with three kids and in a new house, while I couldn’t be happier with where my life has gone in the last 5 years, Matthew Broderick’s words in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off couldn’t be more accurate: “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in awhile, you could miss it.” I find when I stop to look around and write these blogs, I’m really able to see where I was and compare it to where I am now and really look back and enjoy my memories from how I got here.

 

Sometimes I feel like we’ve been pressing a fast-forward button since Erin & I got married a little later in life than some other couples might, so we’ve had to speed through some things…but we’ve made it to where we are and while I’m not gonna lie, it’s been quite stressful at times, I couldn’t imagine anyone else I’d rather have as my partner in this crazy life that we live. Every day it seems, that I find another reason to love her and wonder what I’ve done to deserve to be married to a woman like her.

It’s truly been the greatest gift that my life has given me.