It’s been two weeks since the wedding weekend, and it seems like forever ago. It was a wonderful weekend, a time surrounded by tons of our friends from different parts of our lives – and they all seemed to get along very well. I was pretty stressed up until people started coming – there was even the initial namecalling of “Bridezilla” by my friend Josh. Unfortunately the name stuck for the weekend, and…well, I suppose you could say there was more than a hint of truth in it. Someone had to be stressing, right? And, for better or worse, I took that role upon myself. And I did pretty good at it.
And then there was the traveling disaster of my parents as they struggled to get here from Seattle, but they finally arrived. Although they missed the first “Walker Cleaveland” dinner we had planned with Sarah’s parents, Sarah’s mom graciously invited all of our friends over and we just had a great time having wonderful food and hanging out until my parents arrived, and until we were off for the bachelor party.
The bachelor party was…well, let’s just say it was pretty interesting. It was a great group of guys, and they had a great time ‘celebrating me.’ The blow-up doll duct-taped to me was a highlight of the evening for us and for everyone else we saw out on the town in Rochester and we had a really fun evening. I think I had about 10 too many shots, and the fact that the evening ended with me on a mechanical bull for about 10min probably didn’t help (although I think it did a really good job of shaking up everything that was in me…). Luckily, I had probably the best “best man” ever and he sat with me when we got back to make sure that I had taken care of what needed to be taken care of, and was great with me the following morning.
The rehearsal went well and the rehearsal dinner was great as well. My grandpa made it from Indiana just in time to say grace for the meal, and that was really special to have him there. After the rehearsal dinner, the people in the wedding party and other friends met at a bowling alley for some bowling and fun the night before the wedding. Afterwards, the guys went back, hung out, watched some video from the bachelor’s party and went to bed…