Manfre

Post Wedding Post

It’s been a while since blogging, so I figured I should fill in some of the gaps before they vanish in my mind or too much time passes and I lose the blogging bug once again.

Pre-Wedding

The wedding went well. There was a lot of time and effort that went in to it, but that was the cost of keeping the costs down. Alissa’s family flew to our house in Cary the week before the wedding so they could spend time with her and see the house. The house is a bit crowded with 5 adults, but that is partially due to us not being unpacked from the move.

There was a of decorating and cleaning that needed to be done after getting to my parent’s house in SC. We did a decent job of shuffling things in to condensed piles that were mostly out of the way. The wedding programs were assembled at the dining room table. They were functional and looked nice.

My main tasks involved supervising the tent set up and cleaning up the ceremony spot in the woods. The tent set up was easy. We paid for the tent and those are assembled on site as part of the fee. I picked the spot and then watched others work. It was a nice gig, except quite hot. I raked a path and a clearing in the woods large enough to fit 30 chairs and for the wedding party to stand. It’s amazing how much of a difference raking made. Before, it looked like woods. After, it looked landscaped/intentional.

Bachelor’s Party

Alissa was having her baccalaureate party Friday night and none of my friends were flying in till Saturday. Instead of sitting home and surfing the web, Alissa volunteered her friend Brittany’s huband Chuck to take me out for a bachelor’s party. I had met both Brittany and Chuck once before, so he wasn’t a complete stranger. It was certainly better than having Alissa’s sister take me out to a strip club, which she was joking about way too often.

The night started with a drive in to downtown Charlotte with a stop at the first place we saw, an Irish Pub. We hung out and had a beer, then ventured on for some food. I ended up getting a free flip top lighter because we walked in to a place hoping to get food. Many of the bars in the city do not serve food. We eventually found a sushi place. The sushi was decent, but that’s when the interesting part of the night happened. We left and I randomly picked a direction for us to wander. Then we started to follow the sound of music, which led us to a KISS cover band playing in the streets. Definitely an interesting find.

Chuck had been messaging back and forth with Brittany and she wanted to leave the baccalaureate party early to get some sleep. We wandered over to the 80’s club where she was at and like a fool, I didn’t put down the beer I bought while watching the KISS cover band. It was a plastic bottle, but doesn’t change the fact that wandering the streets with an open bottle of alcohol is frowned upon. Luckily, the cop we asked for directions was nice enough to confiscate (and dump) it without arresting me. Spending the extended weekend in jail waiting for an arraignment would have caused some issues. Not to mention, it would have gone against one of the two rules I laid out for Chuck. 1. No trips to the hospital, 2. No getting arrested.

Ceremony

The wedding day started off with a lot of wandering about, being told where I could and could not be. Alissa’s friends were ensuring I didn’t see the bride before the ceremony. The ceremony went very well and Alissa was gorgeous in her wedding dress. Our mutual friend Nancy was the officiant for our wedding. I ordained her online at The Universal Life Church. Since neither Alissa or I are religious, the only options for an officiant is a notary public or what we did. I’m glad Nancy conducted the ceremony, since she added a very personal touch and went along with what we planned. The vows were composed of bits and pieces of other ceremonies that Alissa found online.

Instead of a unity candle, we had a unity cocktail. The drink was a mix of Godiva Chocolate Liqueur, Godiva White Chocolate Liqueur, Chambord and Vodka. Nancy and I went to one of the local liqueur stores the day before to stock up. We spent a bit of time wandering the fairly large store figuring out a good drink to make and then discovered the mini bottles. The mini bottles ended up working much better in the ceremony. I had the Chambord tucked away in my suit and Nancy had the Godiva bottles in her pockets. The vodka was already in the shaker. Alissa poured one of the Godiva’s and I poured in the Chambord. Then Nancy gave it a good shaking as she stated how as the ingredients mixed, as did our lives. (I don’t remember the exact wording, but that’s why we have video) The drink was tasty and after each having a sip, we were instructed to finish it. The will either be called the Moonman or Moofre. We’re not sure which one, but the name is not so important because it’s a good drink!

The only way it would have been better is if she had gone through with starting the ceremony with, “Mawage. Mawage is wot bwings us togeder tooday.” (The Princess Bride). I found out afterwards that Lauren gave her the idea was she was too nervous. I’m sure if we had the dread pirate roberts action figure on the cake, she definitely would have done it. Sadly, the release date was pushed back till after the wedding.

We had a very short rehearsal that left a few unknowns to the process. For example, when exiting, it was left up as everyone would do what Alissa and I did. During the rehearsal, we skipped away down the aisle. She couldn’t skip in heels, so we walked.

Reception

The reception was a lot of fun, despite me being really tired from the weekend full of work leading up to it. The food was amazing, catered by Ida Rosell’s and so was the cake. The leftover cake tasted better with each day. We didn’t freeze any of it to eat a year from now, since we don’t see the point of letting a good cake go bad. Our married friends told us how it always tastes disgusting after sitting in a freezer for a year. The music was done with played with winamp, vlc player, an and ipod that were piped through a receiver with decent speakers.

There was a lot of dancing, drinking and fireworks. Fireworks are legal in South Carolina, so why not have them. Jon and I were playing with our cameras taking pictures trying to catch the explosions. He did a much better job than me. He has a much better camera, lenses and understanding of photography.

At one point during the reception, Alissa and the girls wanted me to take a picture of all of them huddled looking down. The girls felt I had earned the right to take that picture, which required me to lay on my back with Alissa straddling me. If my eyes strayed at all from the view finder, I would have seen every

Jon, best man and Brittany, maid of honor made excellent toasts that had me a little choked up and teary eyed.

Mugglies

Alissa and I scavenged the local thrift stores looking for unique mugs to use at the wedding. These mugs were put out on a table for everyone to pick one that they liked/fit them. They doubled as drinking cups and gifts for our guests. Not everyone caught on to their purpose and a few forgot to keep theirs. We have Brittany’s and Chuck’s sitting in our cabinet since they live close and we’ll see them July 4th. Alissa and I each had glass boots that we found at the same place. Her’s said “Wall Drug” from Dakota? and mine said “Wyoming”.

Cameraman

For those who were at the wedding, you are probably wondering how I could leave out the cameraman. I couldn’t. The guy was “interesting” to say the least. He gave a much different impression when we first met and hired him than at the wedding. His personality could have had him in a clown suit instead of dressier clothing. My brother’s jokes were hilarious and all along a particular theme.

At one point during the reception, I heard that the cameraman was running out of storage space on his compact flash cards, which is why he wasn’t snapping so many pictures. Jon had a multicard reader and I managed to copy off most of the pictures the photographer took throughout the day. I don’t have any of the pictures from before the posed pictures after the ceremony. I still need to contact him for those. I did the smart move of having it written in to the contract that I have all rights to the photos and will be provided with the originals.

Post Wedding

Alissa and I stayed at the Ballantyne Resort, which is a really nice hotel a few miles away. It was good to be able to sleep in a comfortable bed. It was fun walking in to the hotel wearing a suit and alissa in her wedding gown. We got a lot of looks and glances from people. We should do that more often.

The following morning, we spent the day at my parents’ house and had one last chance to see many of our friends before they flew back home. It was a weekend of fun and food. My sister was kind enough to cook breakfast for the group.