I finished up after a long day at the office on thursday, and met Paul to go get our hair cut. I got mine cut pretty short, which I kind of like a lot, actually. After getting chopped, we met Chris at the tuxedo rental shop and got fitted up and ready for the wedding.
With that done, we had our final Richmond meal in Casa Grande, home of the delicious chips/salsa and some real, genuine mariachis. (We bailed just before they were about to serenade our table.). I had salsa all over me from a bus boy, but I didn't care too much. Salsa is water-based and it'll come out of anything.
Unlike the other guys in the wedding party, I didn't pack my stuff up when I got home. Instead, I took time off from everything and spent it just for myself. It was such a nice treat. I put in my newest arrivals from Netflix, “Supersize me” and “Escape from Alcatraz” and enjoyed them both. I liked “Supersize me” a lot because I was eager to see how a man could survive on nothing but McDonalds for a month, and “alcatraz” because I was there on that island not too long ago, where the movie was mentioned. I saw this after seeing “shawshank redemption” which now reveals a lot of tributes to “escape from alcatraz”-- tributes or ripoffs, I'm not sure. I won't let that taint my view of “shawshank” because that movie on its own is just damned fine, but let's just say I don't hold dieector Frank Darabont in the same light as I did prior to watching “Alcatraz”.
I set my alarm for 8am, hit the sack, cleaned up the apartment, packed and left. I got to Radford University around 11:30am and took pictures around campus. The fall leavws were turning, and I was really getting psyched that Jeff and Olivia's wedding would be in such a pretty time of the year. I took a brisk walk along the New River and met the rest of the groomsmen at Macado's, a former hangout spot when we were there as classmates.
After lunch, we arrived to check into the hotel, our home base for the next few days. I got my own room, a nice treat, since I didn't know what kind of classwork I would need to do and how early I would need to be awake to do it.
We all met the bridal party and friends/family there at the hotel and then caravan'ed it down to Radford for the rehearsal. With the ceremony properly rehearsed and practiced, we headed to dinner, which was prepared by Spinnaker's. Good stuff! The wedding party presented Jeff and Olivia with their gift--a digital camcorder.
When dinner was done, I had everyone come hangout in my room for some drinks. Lauren and Bruce worked on a game that we could all play (since there were so many of us) and we played that for several hours. Good times!!
On saturday morning, we got up and met in the lobby for some bagels. It was chilly, dreary and rainy out. We were a bit worried about the outdoor wedding but learned that the bad weather was going to leave us behind a bit later in the day. So, we got started- first, to the reception area to help the photographer set up his studio for guests of the wedding, then to lunch (again, at Macado's), then back to campus to work on decorations. By this time, the sun was breaking out through the clouds. It looked good, although it was still a bit windy.
With the decorations up (and chairs completely re-aligned), we went into Heth to change into our tuxes and play some pool. When it was time for the wedding, we waited for the Muse bells to chime, and the ceremony began.
The reverend stood out in front of the fountain (a famous landmark at Radford). Leading the processional was a bagpiper, clad in his formal Scottish getup. Following him was Jeff, the groom. And then we came in, escorting each of the bridesmaids to the front. Olivia's parents came down the aisle with Olivia, which was really neat. They “gave her” to Jeff and sat back down with the audience.
This ceremony- in fact this whole wedding-was different from any other wedding I'd been to. Jeff and Olivia made almost everything, from the decorations to the invitations, the programs, the script of the ceremony itself, etc. It was beautiful, and having it at Radford in the gorgeous fall setting made it even better. I hope they were really pleased with things, because for an outdoor wedding with so many unknowns, this came out pretty darned close to perfect.
Jeff and Olivia didn't want a long ceremony, so by the time the chimes from Muse Hall were ringing their 15 minute tones, the ceremony was wrapping up. I made it through the ceremony without tearing up at all, but I attribute that to not being able to see Jeff, Olivia, or Christina's face...any one of those from my view would have gotten me going I think. When the recessional completed with the bagpiper, that's when I finally got a little misty. Olivia seemed really really happy and despite all the stress that the wedding had created, she just seemed so.. Happy. Jeff too was in a terific mood, and it just warmed my heart to see everyone so content.
We took a whole bunch of photos while the guests went to the reception. After about an hour, we were on our way to join the guests and get the buffet line started. :)
