My baby brother, Dave, got married on Friday afternoon, and it was a busy stretch of days surrounding the big event. He and his bride, Alicia, decided to get married outdoors at a place called Gale Woods Farm. It’s a park that is a working farm – kids or whoever can come out and see the animals (we saw chickens, cows and sheep), the garden or the fields. The setting overlooks Whitehill Lake, and it’s a neat place for a wedding. We were out there Thursday night for the rehearsal and it was a beautiful, warm day. When I first approached the clearing that was the setting for the wedding, it didn’t seem big enough to host the 200 people that were planned to be in attendance. It just seemed smaller than it really was.
On Thursday night, after the rehearsal, we made our way over to the community center in Mound for the groom’s dinner. A Mexican buffet was served (we were all glad to see a buffet since it was 8 and none of us had eaten yet), and it hit the spot. Most of my pictures came from the groom’s dinner since I didn’t get any on the chaotic day of the wedding. A few highlights were mom and dad’s gifts of household items that went along with a story. There were a few bumps in the story-telling which served as humorous points, and they had to tell Alicia to watch out for Dave’s Whatchamacalit. Dave gladly pointed out that it was a King size candy bar. Next Darla (Alicia’s mom) and John (Darla’s husband) produced a picture of them in the American Gothic portrait – it was their housewarming present for the new couple.
Friday morning started out with some decorating in the pavillon which was about 200 ft from the wedding site. After helping out a little with the setup for the reception, I headed out with the guys in the wedding party to hit some golf balls at a nearby golf course. I didn’t have my clubs, so it was tough adjusting to shorter clubs, and it wasn’t too productive for me. Our hotel was about 20 minutes from the Farm, so after running back there, I was really tight on time to get dressed and ready for pictures. We made it back for pictures, and we got some good family pictures – I’m excited to see how they turn out.
Dave asked me to read a little verse during the ceremony, and as of an hour before the wedding, we couldn’t find the verse. We finally found it, so as relatives were filtering in, I was trying to balance reading my verse, greeting them and watching the girls. It was a busy, but fun time. Dave was in his normal, relaxed state throughout it all. The actual ceremony was minutes away. As we walked down the aisle, it was great to see all the relatives who made the long journey to the wedding. Dave played a little guitar interlude as we walked up, and then low-fived all of us on his way to the altar. During the ceremony, everything was pretty relaxed – the serious and light moments pretty much equalled out. Katie was sitting in the front row, and during the vows, ran up to me. I moved to pick her up, but it turned out she was just trying to get a mini-pumpkin next to the altar, about 2 feet to my right. Fortunately, it wasn’t too distracting. Dave and Alicia admitted they wrote their vows at 3:30 in the morning the night before. That shouldn’t be unexpected coming from them – everyone in the crowd thought that was funny.
After they said their vows and were announced as Mr and Mrs Newell, we formed a tunnel along the path between the pavillon and the wedding site to greet the guests. I was holding Katie at the time and everyone kept asking her name and her age. She did a good job meeting all those people at once. We took a little hay ride after the meet and greet and got ready for our big entrance to the dinner. At the dinner, they served a roasted pig, it was from Divine Swine. Dave said they were much cheaper than many other alternatives, and it turned out to be a good meal. During the meal, Katie wanted to go outside and blow some bubbles. She gave me a good laugh while the two of us were walking outside the pavillon, she kept saying to herself, "I’m Katie; I’m 2 and a half." She’d been saying it to so many people over the past couple hours; I guess she just couldn’t stop.
Marc gave the best man speech, and did a nice job. Dave didn’t have much prepared for his speech, but he was touched by all the people who made the trek for the wedding. In retrospect I wish I had gotten up to say something too as both the co-maids of honor made speeches. We cleared out for the dance, and as that started Katie got really excited. She loved the dance and was out on the floor non-stop. She probably danced to 7 or 8 songs before she started to run out of gas. We ended up leaving the dance with grandma a little early at about 9:15, but even by then most people were starting to filter out. When we got back to the hotel we figured we’d have two sleeping kids and we’d bring our nephew Parker over and have three heavenly sleepers. When we got to the room, Katie woke back up, Amelia never really slept, and we woke up Parker during the transfer of rooms (he had fallen asleep on his grandma’s watch). So after about an hour of crying, we finally got peace and quiet about 11.
Saturday started early with a planned breakfast with my uncle Ron and his family. It was supposed to start at 8:30, but after all the commotion the night before, we didn’t wake up until 8:30. So we sprinted again to get out the door and to breakfast. It was fun to get to talk to Lance (my cousin) and Karyn and their little AJ at breakfast. I don’t get to see my cousins very often, so it was good to reconnect. Grandma was able to get a picture with all 6 of her great grandkids, and amazingly enough 5 of them were looking at the camera.
We went to Alicia’s mom’s house for the gift opening in the afternoon. Her mom’s house is essentially a horse farm – they have 48 acres and 4 horses, and they have a neat old farm-house. Dave and Alicia made out pretty well with the gift opening and they are off to Italy on Tuesday for their honeymoon. The spontaneity will continue on their honeymoon, as they don’t have any plans once they arrive in Rome. It’s always good to hang out with Dave and Alicia because they remind you that you don’t have to plan everything – it all works out in the end.
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