Wedding v2.0 - 7/16/05

Well, yesterday was the "other" big day. Wedding 2.0 (Part Deux, Take Two, Rerun, etc...) took place at Faith Reformed Church in Portage. The reception was at the Fetzer Center at WMU. The picture on the left here was "Before." Rachel and Katie arrived at the church at 6:30am to be ready for the hair stylist. I woke up when Rachel got up at around 5...but quickly went back to sleep. They had places to go and people to see.

I, however, had other things in store. I got up for good at about 6:45 and started getting around for the day. I needed to get our headlamp replaced because it went out on Friday night. The light itself wasn't the problem, but the connector that attaches to the light had gotten so hot that the plastic casing had melted and burned up. We tried to buy a replacement, but of course there were none in stock. Luckily, our friend "Griff" was able to fix it up so that it would work for now. That took all my morning free time. I arrived at the church at around 11:15 with dad and began the process of the day. George was already there and dressed. We were a bit surprised.

Anyway, I was first for pictures, so I needed to be dressed by 12:15. A quick Subway Lunch and then it was off to be dressed. My pictures were taken quickly, and Rachel hadn't quite finished with her hair. The photographer gave me leave to join the rest of the groomsmen in our Ready Room to play Smash Brothers. Mike had the foresight to bring his Gamecube and had already been beating on George and Dan. Believe it or not, I took 2 of the 3 games I was in!

Back to pictures, Rachel and I had a "moment" once she was ready, since we had opted to do pictures together before the ceremony instead of just after. She was beautiful. :-) We then did about a million pictures with just about everyone.

The Ceremony went very well. The musicians were great, as were the officiants. The only hitch was when Rich dropped the rings. But that was funny, not bad. As this was Rich's first time officiating a wedding, Pastor Dave had been giving him tips during the rehearsal, telling him to prepare for every eventuality, because it can and will happen. Dropping the rings was specifically mentioned, by Rich no less. He made a nice recovery.

After more pictures and some cleanup...then more pictures...we got to the Reception. The reception also went pretty well. A lot of folks left early but those of us that stayed had a lot of fun too. I was subjected to the Rudowske Family Tradition of the Ball & Chain dance. The Ball & Chain has been passed down through each wedding. The ball is a bowling ball with "Life Sentence" Etched in the side, and attached to a heavy duty chain with a lock & key. The bride gets the key while the groomsmen and/or the last one subjected to the tradition shackle the new groom. The bride gets to pick the song, and when she feels the groom has had enough, she'll give him the keys. It's really quite comical. Tradition calls for the song to be a secret until he's chained up. However, the DJ slipped and I played it off like I didn't notice. However, I'd actually conspired with Dan & Daniela, who smuggled an authentic Stetson into the reception. As the song started, the Hard Hat Chris had provided gave way to the cowboy hat. Now, if I could line dance, it would've been perfect. As it was, the whole crowd enjoyed my dancing around like a fool. ;-) The rest of the evening went fairly smoothly, the DJ being the only complaint we had, but he could have been a lot worse. The reception wound down at 10:30, and we packed up to go.

On the way out of Campus, we stopped at Jimmy Johns to get a Turkey Tom (for Rachel) and a Pepe (for me) still wearing our full regalia. I think the girl working the counter could barely hold her amusement in. After that, we headed to our King Suite w/ Jacuzzi room at the Baymont Inn. That's where we took our "After" picture on the right.

Well, that's all I'm willing to divulge for now. We did have brunch at Lunchtime to open presents with the family this morning, and that was a lot of fun. Now it's back home to VA Tomorrow and off to Miami-Key West-Cozumel next Monday!

-Kal