Wedding 2.0

Alicia and Carlos were married again on the last Sunday in August. Last week I put my toast into the blog. This week I'd like to give you some snippets of things that were happening and my reactions.
 
During the week before the wedding Alicia stopped by our house. She had two lists for us. One was a packing list of everything we needed bring with us on Sunday. The other was a timeline for the wedding day. Starting from setting up the venue in the morning and going through the clean up after the last dance at 10:30. It listed what was happening when and who was in charge of what. Is it possible that she's even more organized than Debbie?
 
I got to meet Carlos' brothers on Saturday. I know that Carlos is a good man. When I met his parents in March for Wedding 1.0 I knew he came from a great family. Meeting 4 out of his 5 brothers reinforced that.
 
Andrew and I arrived at the venue around 10am. The family of Alicia's friend Colleen Mans is there helping with the setup. By family I mean it was her parents, two sisters and one brother-in-law helping out with setup and takedown. They were fantastic. I think Deb Mans got sick of me saying thank you, but they deserved it.
 
I decided not to bother taking any pictures since there was a professional photographer. One less thing to worry about. And by the way, having the timeline from Alicia really helped. I was able to focus on what I needed to do and to let the rest go knowing someone else was handling it.
 
We got a bit of bad news prior to the ceremony when we found out my dad wasn't feeling well enough to attend. A bit of worry as he had to be pretty bad to miss this. But there was too much going on to focus on that.
 
It had been raining that morning. Not a good sign when you're having an outdoor wedding ceremony. But by the time of the ceremony it was bright and sunny. They had sunglasses to give out as party favors. It was a perfect choice, almost everybody was wearing them while we were outside.
 
At the start of the ceremony I got to walk the beautiful bride down the aisle. Unfortunately, the aisle was way too short and it was over quick.
 
The ceremony alternated English and Spanish with a Lutheran pastor and a Catholic priest. I cried a bit, luckily I had put some kleenex in my pocket in advance.
 
We had people from all over at the wedding; from around here and Argentina, from Colorado and Canada, from Massachusetts, Manhattan, Miami and Mexico. (Yes, as I'll explain, I doubled up on one for alliterative purposes.)
 
I've always heard about Alicia's cousins in Argentina since she was young, so it was nice to meet one of them. Alicia's cousin Antonella is now living in Miami and was able to come up for the wedding with her husband.
 
Lots of good food at the reception. Lots of dancing going on as well, including a father-daughter dance.  I'm not a good dancer, but I enjoyed taking a turn on the dance floor with Alicia. This was followed by a mother-son dance.  Carlos' mother started with him and then all his brothers took turns dancing with her as well.
 
The dancing continued until 9:30 when the DJ announced the last dance and then the couple was leaving.  They left, and everybody else just kept dancing. The shuttle driver to the hotel showed up at around 10:30 and said it was his last trip. That's when the dancing finally shut down. I have to get a good bottle of scotch for the DJ as my last to do for the wedding.
 
 So finally about 14 hours after leaving home Andrew and I arrived back there. We had to unload my brother-in-law's truck. He had brought all the gifts and other wedding stuff in his truck. (Thanks Scott.)
Plus, we had a bunch of stuff in my car including leftover cake, cupcakes and a carved watermelon. A long and wonderful day.