Our Wedding Day

Today is the big day... The queen-mother of all days... Our wedding day!

I slept Ok last night. I fell asleep pretty easily because I was so damned tired, but I woke up around 5:00 am ready to go. I was wide awake, but eventually fell back to sleep for a couple more hours.

Alan went with me to pick up the Viper. The Viper has been my favorite car for a long time and this is pretty much the only thing I wanted for my wedding. I will probably never own one, so I felt I should at least treat myself for one day and rent one. I can't even begin to explain how awesome it was to drive this thing. The only bad thing about it was that it was a little too heavy in the front, which made the back kick out if you weren't careful. But besides that, I had so much fun driving it. I planned on getting at least 2 speeding tickets today, but was pretty lucky to get none. Actually, I was extremely lucky because I was driving very, very fast.

I took my Dad with me in the Viper to get to the chapel. He kept asking questions about the car or whatever else and it was kind of getting to me. So, finally, I calmly said, "Dad, I know you want to chat, but I have A LOT on my mind." And he was quiet the rest of the ride. He actually only told me I was driving too fast one time, and I know that was hard for him to keep in.

I showed up with my Dad at the Wayfarer's at 3:00 to take pictures. Everyone was pretty much on time. We put on our boutonnieres and began. Our photographer, Brian Glenn, arranged a special "first viewing" for Tricia and I and got some really good shots. It was a little difficult to get everyone else arranged for pictures, but I think he got most of them taken.

I met with Reverend Bruglher, who flew in from Canada to perform a few ceremonies. He is the president of the congregation, so I guess it was a privilege to have him marry us. I felt kind of honored, but I couldn't get past his sandals, the butterflies on his robe, the earring and the fact that he talked like Barney the dinasour. Other than that, he was an extremely nice guy.

The ceremony started a little after 4:00 and it was simply beautiful. The groomsmen and I came in through the back after everyone was seated and it was nice to see all the faces in the crowd. The girls walked up the aisle one-by-one, then there was Tricia with her Dad. It was so incredible to see her walk up the aisle, she was so beatiful. I shook Jerry's hand, took Tricia in my arm, and began the ceremony. It only lasted about 20 minutes, but it felt like about 5. It was quick, but beatiful.

After that, we took more pictures with the sunset, shoved Tricia and her huge dress into the Viper and took off to the reception.

The reception was at The Madison Restaurant in downtown Long Beach. Tricia managed to get the whole restaurant on a Saturday night through her friend Ashlee who manages all the parties there. Out of all the people we hired for the wedding, Ashlee was one who went way above and beyond what we paid her for. The Chapel was incredibly beautiful, but I think the reception was what really impressed everyone. She wanted this reception to be so perfect, she even made the restaurant buy new plates for us. The restaurant is impressive by itself, but the service and food are to die for. I realize that people are supposed to compliment you on this and that, but everyone, and I mean everyone, raved about the whole thing. I'm talking about older people saying that it was the most elegant wedding they've ever been to and brides-to-be sweating about how they're going to top this one. Even Jeni, the maid-of-honor, said that she doesn't care what Tricia thinks, she's copying our wedding exactly!

Pictures of the wedding are here.