4/25/16

Wedding Weekend

For those that did not know, Sarah and I got married on April 23rd! It's still soaking in for both of us. It was a surreal experience to see all of our favorite people, many of whom traveled a long way to be with us, together in one place at the same time. It was a whirlwind weekend, but we were both glad of our foresight and experience in past weddings to know what to avoid and what to have hired done instead of stacking it on top of all our other obligations. We were busy but never too stressed, and got to focus on the important things.

The wedding was in Pella for several reasons even though neither of us were originally from here, but the best part was having the opportunity to show our friends and relatives where we've lived the last few years. This is especially important with our move to Montana looming on the horizon. I'll continue on that at a later time.

Highlights included:

  • Almost twenty crazy guys from all over the place riding in the back of a horse trailer in camp chairs, ramming go-karts into each other over and over followed by barbecue, hitting nails into a stump (a game cleverly called "stump"), other shenanigans, and telling stories around a fire until way too late
  • Shepherding a tour of about twenty people around my plant and office at work
  • Watching things start to fall into the places we'd arranged for them at the rehearsal, followed by the dinner at Monarch's with even more people I hadn't seen in years. We even got Sarah's Grandma out on the town for a nightcap
  • Finally seeing the moment we'd all been waiting for unfold smoothly
  • Taylor Hallengren's great Matron-of-Honor speech, and my cousin Noah's once-in-a-lifetime Best Man speech. Not a whisper was spoken while he was speaking, and it seemed to make an impression on all. I will never forget that speech and how affected I was by it
  • Having a perfect spring day to show off my new bride, take pictures, meet and greet even more of our favorite people, and have the best day ever.
Many thanks to:
  • Robin Nossaman for filling in last minute on the piano after an emergency in my family. She and Bre Vogel did wonderful work for us!
  • Jessica Hartwick, our talented photographer and the most patient person in the world
  • Fr John Speigel, Patrice Langenfeld, Lynn Cooper, and Carol Laughlin for making the ceremony happen
  • Our aunts and uncles, siblings and cousins (one in the same in both our families it seems) for being there without question, for being good sports, and for being good examples
  • Our friends of all ages who thoroughly enjoyed themselves all weekend. We would have been disappointed if our wedding had not been a good time, so we were glad you all seemed to have as much fun as we did. Thanks to everyone for being there!
  • Our parents for contributing so much to the day, including time, patience, advice, money, and support
We will leave on our honeymoon in Iceland on May 3rd. Our plans aren't set in stone yet, but we fly into Reykjavik, then our idea is to make a loop around the either the western or southern parts of the country, taking in as much as we can. More stories forthcoming!

Thanks again for everyone who made our day perfect!