Wedding – Part 1

Let me just lay this out here now. I won't be covering the whole wedding in one day. Too many pictures and video and stuff that I haven't even begun to go through yet. If you want to see pictures, I think the Facebook servers are GROANING from the uploads.

Friend me. Even if it's under a fake account to preserve your anonymity. ("Sandy Ann Coda", I'm looking @ you! ;-) )

Or to just see more of my pictures, check out my Flickr page.

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I woke up the wedding day feeling strangely calm. I tend to be a bit of a worrier, and I was starting to worry myself about how calm I was. I got dressed for the morning, and then met Tony downstairs at the hotel for some breakfast before running out and doing some errands. (Cora and I will see each other before the wedding, but not before a planned "first sight".)

Our first stop was back in Seattle at Pike Place Market. Tony's wife, Maribeth, had gotten a small bag of dried apple slices when we were down there the day before and LOVED them, so he returned to Simply The Best right there by the big brass pig, and picked her up a full sized pound bag. Then we hit up another vendor for some Renier cherries. Never had them before, but man oh man where those suckers good.

After that, Tony & I headed off to do the thing we came to do: Get me checked in at the hotel where Cora & I would spend out honeymoon night. No, we did not stay in the same hotel as all my family out in Renton. While we were there, I realized that we were a block or two from the Jones Soda Company, and that park where the guy couldn't get it up.

From there it was north across the river to Fremont. While there, we saw this bus stop,


As we were on our way to see the Troll, where Tony disproved the old saying:

You can pick your friends.

And you can pick your nose.

But you can't pick your friend's nose.

From here, it's back to the hotel to drop off Maribeth's dried apples, and then take her to the country club so that she can assist there with whatever needs done.

Right around the corner, really, from the country club is the apartment that Cora's mom is moving into. That is where the guys based their operations out of.

You know, it dawned on me, I've mentioned Maribeth a few times, but I'm not sure I've shown you a picture. Bad blogger! Time jumping a little bit, here's a picture of Tony & Maribeth, after the wedding. They drove Cora and me us into the city to our hotel. (Obviously, there is a similar picture out there of Cora and I, but you are going to have to wait.)

Anyway, while the girls were getting ready, and the photographer was with them, the guys just hung out for a while. It was me, Tony, Cora's brother, Craig, his girlfriend, Kristen, Cora's mom, sister, brother-in-law, the ring bearer, and the flower girl.

Eventually, the photographer showed up to get some pictures of us getting ready. The ring bearer was so cute. The instant the tux went on him, he became 'Mr. Serious Young Man'. He was one of the guys. Dressed exactly like all the other guys, not in some kiddie version. Cora has been watching him since he was a baby, so it was very important to me that he felt good about what was going on.

He did.

(Sorry, forgot to take a picture of him at the apartment. Here is a picture of him later in the evening.)

And for equal billing, here's the flower girl, ready to rock-n-roll!

To make sure we ate, Cora's mom & Craig's girlfriend ran off to get us sandwiches from Subway. (Turkey – NO MUSTARD!)

The ring bearer and the flower girl changed back into their street clothes to eat (we aren't that STUPID) and I put a T-Shirt on over top of my shirt/vest/tie combo, since despite the fact that I ordered a spare shirt to go with the tux, they didn't end up having a spare one in the right size.

After all the food and pictures were taken, it was time to head out to the country club. They made me wait in the men's room while they got Cora outside with her back turned. Then they had me cover my eyes while they led me out to her for the big reveal. Okay, it's probably not the best idea in the world to leave me in the men's room for an extended period of time, but this little move KILLED EVERYBODY! (Oh, and I was totally peeking under my hand to see where I was walking, but not peeking at Cora.)

But enough fooling around. It was then time for the big reveal where we saw each other for the first time, and then did all the pre-wedding photos. There are dozens, but I think this is the one you paid your money to see (you did pay the guy at the door, right?)

To borrow a line from Cora: Meet the Scopes

Warning: It will take me until at least Monday to get to the actual ceremony, sorry.