Just wanted to let y’all know that I’ve finally gotten pictures of the honeymoon to Maui posted to the web, including the crappy waterproof camera pictures taken whilst snorkeling.  Most have at least a descriptive title so you can know what you’re looking at.

Honeymoon in Maui via Flickr.com

Enjoy!

Yes, I am planning on detailing out our Maui adventure at some point… I just haven’t gotten to it yet.  I will soon, however!

Speaking of Flickr, I believe there are still some of you who have not uploaded your wedding photos to the flickr account.  We REALLY would like you to share them.  Please contact me if you need assistance.

My best man John stayed the night with me (as Jess was staying at the Red Lion Hotel).  We had stayed up late playing video golf on the xbox and I rolled out of bed about 9am or so.  We sat around and watched a little TV and talked a bit, but then he headed off to his brother’s house (in our neighborhood) to prepare for the day.  So, I was on my own.

I can tell you this now… I was very anxious.  I wasn’t nervous, but I couldn’t sit still and couldn’t focus on anything.  I basically wandered around the empty house wondering why time was going so s-l-o-w-l-y.  Ugh, that was the worst.  After about an our of that, which felt like 5 hours, I finally decided that it was time to hit it.  I started to get ready about 10:30am and jumped in the shower.

I wasn’t in the shower 5 minutes before I heard a door close and someone shout.  Thinking it might be John, I didn’t worry about it… Until I heard doors opening and closing multiple times.  Since John would come in and park it on the couch, I knew something else was up.  So, I rush through my shower to see what was going on.  When I get out and walk into the living room I find Jess’ uncles Tom and Ron in the kitchen whipping up a storm for the brunch that was to happen on Sunday morning.

That threw me off a bit, just because I wasn’t expecting it and I have a hard time relaxing when people are in the house.  I went back into the bedroom to finish up getting ready.  Later in the day, I realized that in my haste to get dressed and see who was in the house, I neglected to put on any pit-stick.  This will come into play later…

After I was dressed and put together, I started loading up the car with all of the stuff I needed to take down to the Linen Building for the service and reception.  John rolled up and we were on the road.  I needed to find $80 in singles to use for the photo booth at the reception, so I stopped and one bank on the way, but it was closed.  No big deal, but we moved on.

We hit the Linen Building around noon and found Jess’ dad and a few aunts and uncles around.  We put all of the tables together and and got all the various decorations out and ready.  After about 45 minutes that was finished and I needed to go check in to the Modern Hotel across the street (the Bridal Suite).  As I was doing this, my other groomsmen started showing up as we were scheduled for “guy” pictures at 1pm.

I still needed to get that cash, so I bolted out in search of a bank.  The first one I stopped at wasn’t open.  The second one was only open at the drive through and they couldn’t send that much cash through the tube.  I went to the nearby Albertsons and asked the courtesy counter if I could by the singles, and they said they didn’t have that many.  So, I had to jet 20 blocks to the nearest Albertsons with a bank inside.

I get down there and ask for the singles, and the counter lady I’m sure thought I had a stripper party that night or something.  Oh well… I also picked up some beers and cokes for the guys in the room.  I was going to stop and get something to eat along the way, but I was already 10 minutes “late” for the pictures to start in the room, so I just ran back to the suite.

I should mention, that it is already quite warm outside.  Couple that with the stress of the day and I’m sweating up a storm.

I get back to the room and the photographer chick gets there.  She only wanted to take pictures of us after we got our pants on, so we sent her away and started our getting ready.  Eventually we call her back and she starts snapping.  Of course, we have no clue what we’re doing, and she isn’t giving much direction.  If any of those pictures turn out I’ll be amazed.

Finally, it was time for me to go meet Jess at her hotel and get going with the pictures.  I tell John that if he could have some food for me when I get back to the hotel, that would be tremendous.  Not that I’m hungry in the least, but I figured I should eat at least something.

I drive over to the hotel and have to wait outside while the photographer arranges the whole thing.  Basically, I walked into the lobby and she took me off into a side entrance area, next to some coke machines… classy.  I stood there with my back turned while she went to fetch Jess.

I should mention, that I had really no clue any of this was going to happen.  I had, at most, a vague outline of the timeline of the day but no details.

Anyway, Jess finally comes around and taps me on the shoulder and I turn around.

She was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen.  Hands down.

The photog left us alone for a couple minutes to chat which was by far the best part of the day to that point.  It was a touch of normalcy in an otherwise insane day.

With that, we’re whisked away in the car to a local park downtown for some outdoor shots.  Remember how I mentioned that it was hot that day?  Well, it was.  We’re talking upper 90′s.  Jess in 30 lbs of dress, and me in black layered polyester.  All without the antiperspirant.  She took her time posing and directing us, and I’m sure the pictures will turn out well, but I was seriously about to spontaneously combust.  After about 45 minutes of that, it was back to the hotel to grab the whole wedding party for more pictures.

While we were wrangling everyone, Jess and I had a couple minutes in the room, at which point the AC units were on full blast.  Jess sat on one, shooting cold air up her dress, and I sat on the other, whisking cold air up the back of my jacket.  So sweaty…  John had a couple of sandwiches delivered to the room, and I choked down half of a club and a little water.  Not much, but something.

Well, it was time for more pictures with the party… Guess what… they were outside too!  Yay!  After more sweating it was over to the Linen Building for the family pictures.  I bet you can guess what is coming next… yes, they were outside as well.  At least these ones were in the shade.

I did my very best to put a happy smile on my face but I gotta tell you… I was just about circling the drain at this point.

Finally done with pictures, we had about 30 minutes before the ceremony.  We were all waiting around in the reception hall and guests started arriving to the wedding hall upstairs.  It was at this point where I started to feel quite poorly.  Combine the heat, the stress, the dehydration and everything else and I just felt like total crap.  Not like I was going to pass out or anything, but definitely rough.  Those pictures completely drained me.  John mentioned that I was WAY nicer than him putting up with all that because he would have told the photographer that he was done LONG ago.

But, no matter, it was near game time.  We had already gone over the whole plan the night before at the rehearsal, so everyone knew their part.  We headed upstairs to get this show on the road.

The house was full… wow… lot of people.  My parents decided that they did not want to walk down the aisle and went ahead and seated themselves and Jess’ mom almost had a conniption.  That was until I convinced her that it really didn’t matter.  Not sure if she believed me, but she calmed down a bit.

It was 2 minutes after 6, so I stepped over to the quartet providing the music and gave them the high sign.  They started playing the ‘entry’ music.  My boys and all did a quick huddle and then headed up the aisle.  We stood up there as the brides maids and flower girl and ring bearers came up.  Maya and Zac looked absolutely adorable.  Hope she got some good pics of them.  Zac especially was great.  I was wondering how he would do, but he was a total trooper.  Marched right up the aisle, then stood right in front of John the whole time.

Finally, it was Jess’ turn.  She walked up on her dad’s arm.  Who gives this woman… I shook his hand and took Jess’ hands.

We put together a very simple service.  The judge (who was terrific, by the way) opened with a little intro about marriage.  Rolled immediately into the vows.  I said mine.  Jess started her’s when what shall be referred to as the “Cell Phone Incident” happened.  Of course, she didn’t stop or even waver at all.  What a trooper!

After the vows, we did the rings.

Closed with the Irish Blessing:
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind always be at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you in the palm of His hand.

Just like that we were done.  When the judge “presented” us to the crowd, I have to say, I was a bit taken aback by the volume of the cheers coming from the assembled throng.  Mainly because that was also the first time I actually turned to look at them.  I’m not a huge fan of being the center of attention, so during the rest of the time up there, I looked over them or down the aisle.  Turing to face them was the first time and it was a bit much… Great, but overwhelming.

As we headed out, I finally saw some of the friends in attendance.  Slapped a couple fives on the way out.  We had planned to head back to the hotel suite for a couple minutes to decompress, then meet our wedding party in the hotel bar for a round of drinks.  The quiet of the suite was really nice.  We didn’t stay there long as there was partying to do.  As the guests at the wedding filed downstairs to the reception, we had a round of drinks.  That was a real nice touch, I thought.  Just to hang out before the REAL craziness started.  A random guy at the bar even bought me a shot in congratulations.  I will say, it was by this time that I started to feel a lot better physically.  All of the stress was gone and somehow the adrenalin was overriding any dehydration or exhaustion.

Finally, it was time to head over to the party.  We sent the bridal party in first, and John went up to queue the DJ that we had arrived.  We waited outside for the word to be passed and for him to do his spiel.  This was the 2nd most nervous I had been all day… again, that whole center of attention thing.  Not my favorite thing in the world to have 160 heads all turn and look at me in unison…  He announced us and we came strolling in.  That walk to our table was a bit of a blur.  But we got there and sat down.  Whew.  We’d made it.

It was all partying from there.  I took my fancy new beer mug (I had them made for the groomsmen as well) and went up to the bar to get a beer.  The great thing was I didn’t have to wait in line.  I just walked up and they poured for me.  Got Jess a beer as well and it was on.

I have to say, I LOVED the reception.  Had a tremendous time.  Got to talk to a bunch of people I haven’t seen in a while.  Got to hang out with some good friends from work.  Got to meet some of Jess’ sorority sisters that I’d never met.  Families were there.  It was a grand time.

Jess’ brother Christian was smart enough to make each of us a plate of food and put it on our table.  Thanks, C-Dub.  I would have definitely not eaten anything had he not done that.

We did all the “dances”… Our first dance to “I’m Yours” by Jason Mraz.  Father/daughter to “Sweet Baby James”.  Me and my mom to “What a Wonderful World”.  Anniversary dance to “You Make Me Feel So Young”.  We did the cake cutting.  In fact, that small little piece that she and I cut out, was the only cake I had all night.  Grrrrr…

We also did the toasts.  Jess’ sister Ali gave a nice, prepared little thing.  Then John just got on the mic and talked.  Both were great.

Then it was just more mingling.  The best part was that fits into my personal “party style” perfectly.  I like to circulate, move around and talk to lots of people.  Maybe that is because I despise small talk and the more I can limit my time with any one group, the less small talk I gotta get into.  But, I got to see and speak to just about everyone who made it.  That was nice.

Later, Jess’ sorority sisters did this whole weird singing thing with her sitting in a chair in the middle.  I was in the back of the room when this broke out and thought to myself, wow… that’s kinda interesting in a coven-of-evil-witches sorta way.  That is, until the end.  When they finished the busted into the Idaho fight song.  HOLY SHIT… what the hell is going on at my wedding!  I stormed up there shouting “I was not informed of this!”.  Yes, for the record, I was at least 7 beers in at this point.

I spent the next 30 minutes walking around to all of the Bronco fans in attendance asking if they knew the Boise State fight song.  I did not receive the response I had hoped.  I even begged the DJ if he had it somewhere.  (he had worked Ian and Chrissy’s wedding the last summer and played it, but didn’t have it on him).  I knew the song, but 7 beers or not, I wasn’t about to grab the mic and sing it myself.

That’s when the iPhone came through.  I jumped online and was able to find an MP3 recording of the fight song.  I talked to the DJ to see if he could play it from my iPhone and he dug out the proper cable.  Next song, I was queued up.  Once the dulcet tones of the fight song were blasting from the speakers, all was right with the world.  I loved seeing a few Broncos, especially you Anne Fisher, standing and clapping along.  The whole thing damn near brought tears to my eyes.  There is your iPhone commercial, Apple.  “The iPhone saved my wedding reception!”  For the record, the fight song is now on my phone, and I shall never leave home without it.

The reception flew by WAY too fast.  I didn’t want it to end.  But eventually, the crowd started to thin and everything was winding down.  We stumbled across the street to the hotel and found a number of our younger guests at the bar over there, continuing the party.  Right on.  Too bad I’m in no condition to go on.  There are a couple pictures from this moment on the Flickr account, which you can see in my face that I’m done partied out.

Thus endeth one of the greatest days of my life.  Despite the heat and pictures and stress and everything, it was ALL worth it.  Even better that I’m now hitched to the love of my life.  I couldn’t imagine spending my life with anyone else.

Postscript-

The next morning, there was a brunch at our new house for all of the out of town and in town people who haven’t seen the house yet to come out and take a gander at it… all run by Jess’ family that were in town.

Needless to say, both Jess and I woke up pretty rough from all the frivolity the night before.  Wow… I didn’t really want to move much, let alone go an socialize for a few more hours.  But, we sucked it up, took some advil and drank a bunch of water and headed home.

The house was in full swing when we arrived.  People cooking and running around.  Organized chaos.  And that was just her family.  The rest of the people hadn’t even arrived yet.  Soon, they would all start arriving and the party was on again.

I ate a little bit of food, but the old stomach was not in the mood for much more.  Everyone really liked the house, which was great.  If I had to guess, I would say there was probably a total of 50+ people there.

Then, it was time to jump into the huge pile of presents.  Ugh… I was not in the mood for that at all.  And there we were… sat again at the center of attention feigning excitement over all this stuff when all I really wanted to do was to lay down.

Don’t get me wrong… just about everything we got was very very cool stuff.  I mean, everyone seriously got us something we really wanted (and registered for) or something that totally fits us or cash or gift cards.  I could not believe how generous everyone was.  But at the same time, if I had opened a nap, that would have been the best of all.  Also, we have started the thank you card process.  Also, there were a couple gifts without cards, so watch this space for pics if you did not receive a thank you in the next few weeks!

Then, just a few short hours after we got home (like 4, but felt like 7) the house cleared up and it was over.  Whew.  The house was maybe 80% cleaned up which was great.

Now, all we had to do was unpack from our night at the Modern, and repack everything we wanted to take for a week in Maui, which we were leaving for the first thing in the AM.

Originally, I had wanted to attempt to attend the Western Idaho Fair that night.  I love the fair.  Have since I was a kid.  But there was no way in hell I was going anywhere that night.

Finally, we were all packed, and we both crashed into bed very early.  When we awoke, it would be off to another adventure, but that is a whole different blog post.

First up, those of you who were there, might recall the infamous “cell phone” moment that occurred just as Jess was saying her vows.  What you might not know, if you didn’t hear the scuttlebutt about it after, is this…  It was my father’s phone.  Wait, it gets better.  See, he handed his phone to my mom to hold in her purse, yet did not remember to shut it off.  Of course, it rings at the most inopportune time.  So, mom is apparently fumbling through her purse to find the damn thing, but not being the most technical person, she can’t turn it off, so she’s gotta hand it to dad to finally get it off.  The whole time, I did not dare to look over at what all the commotion was least I lose my mind.  Little did I know it was my own family in the front row!

Now, it would be one thing if it was just a nice simple ring.  But nooooo… Dad’s gotta have this festive marimba type tune that keeps playing and playing.  Don’t believe me?  See for yourself below… My favorite part is when it gets even louder as mom successfully removes it from her purse.

In other wedding stuff news, I have uploaded a bunch of my own photos to our shared flickr.com account.  I know a few of you have already added your pics to the pool and I thank you graciously.  For those of you who haven’t, I’m going to keep reminding you until you do it.  As always, if you need the login information or help, just post a comment or email me and I’ll get it to you.

You can view all of the latest pics here:

• My Wedding Pics
• My Rehearsal Pics
• Some of my random wedding week pics

Finally, I’m going to leave you with a art series.  I call it “The Decline of John – In Pictures”.  It is a three part series, each one shows the effects of alcohol and emotion on a best man at a wedding.  John, I love you, and I love these pics.  Enjoy!

Part 1, The Decent

Part 2, The Fall

Part 3, The Finale

That’s all for now… there will be much more to come in the near future.

Maui was absolutely amazing.  We didn’t want to leave, but real life beckoned.  Thus, we are back and hard at work trying to catch up.

Somehow when we were gone, all of our flowers and herbs died and our lawn was taken over by weeds and crabgrass.  The house is still a wreck from having 50 people over Sunday after the wedding (namely the floors are disgusting).  We have piles of laundry and the office is full of all those gifts everyone was so kind to give us.  Hooo boy… thank you cards…

The travel day was exceptionally long.  Story to come.  This morning was also a little rough on me as my body still on Maui time, which meant my alarm went off at 3am.

But all things being equal, it is still very nice to come home.  Now, we get to get on with our normal lives and don’t have to think wedding 24×7.

I will get pictures of everything posted asap.  And speaking of pictures I know there were more of you who took photos at the wedding/reception who still need to post them to the flickr account. (View the pics that have been uploaded here: http://flickr.com/photos/habermans/) Please email me if you need the login information.

It’s nice and cool outside and football is 4 days away.  LIFE IS GOOD!

Now?  Heaven.

Last night was an amazing dinner on the beach watching the sun set.  Today I have a surprise for Jess at noon, and another awesome dinner paid for by some of our friends.  The decompression has begun!

Ahhhhh…. Maui.

Well, we’re done. Literally and figuratively. Jess and I are partied out, hung over, exhausted, yet very very happy.

Big, big, BIG thanks to all who made it to the ceremony and reception. You all made it 10x better than we could have imagined.

We’ve got family over and more on the way, so I’m off to more mingiling.

We set foot in Maui in exactly 27 hours and 17 minutes.

Tuesday

After another uneventful day at work, Jess gave me some “time off”. This is a thing that I get being an introvert that she totally understands. She went to her parents house and was mingling with the arriving family. Meanwhile, I was off the hook and was able to go home and chill out by myself. Recharge the batteries. I love being by myself and it is always a treat for me to really just spend that time to get geared back up. So, thats what I did. After I picked up the printed programs on my way home (which look amazing, if I do say so myself) I ate a little dinner… watched a little olympics… played a little NCAA Football 09. You know, normal stuff.

She came home and we did a little wedding stuff… just more organizing and whatnot. We were in bed by about 10.

Wednesday

Now we’re starting to get somewhere. Jess was actually off on Wed, so she was able to get a lot of last minute things cranked out. I was still working however. After work, I went over to her parents house for dinner with the entire family in from out of town. It was nice to meet everyone, but I’m not great with names to begin with, so I think I forgot them 3.4 seconds after I was told. But, the good thing is I’m good with faces, so I know who the are, just not who they are. I was still kinda wiped out from work, but it was fun.

After that, all of Jess’ cousins in town and siblings came over to see the house, have a couple drinks and play a little Rock Band. It was almost like an impromptu party since we had 10 people there (including us). But it was a lot of fun, and they all left around 9:30. Jess and I basically went straight to bed after that.

So far we’ve had but a taste of the insanity that is to follow. I can’t believe it’s already here. December 1st seems like it was so recent, but we’re talking over 9 months ago.

Just under 60 hours to go.

I’m sure these next few posts will be short on creativity, long on just what is going on, and are mainly designed for me to remember this whole process  But, there is no reason you fine folks out there can’t come along for the ride.

Saturday and Sunday:

I spent most of Saturday and Sunday designing all of the printed materials for the wedding.  Programs and whatnot.  This was time consuming because I’m a bit of a perfectionist when it comes to that sort of stuff… finding just the right font and getting the layout just right, so on and so forth.  So, after several hours of that, my eyes were crossing.  I broke only to get my hair cut and to set up the fancy new flickr account.

Sunday afternoon I also spent some time digging crabgrass out of the front lawn.  We never actually got weed and feed down on the lawn this year, and it looks like shit.  But we have been a bit on the preoccupied side lately, so I guess everyone will understand.  Unfortunately, I was a dumbass and spent about an hour bent over at the waist.  Now, my hamstrings are punishing my for my stupidity.  I’m hobling around like a schmuck.  Good times.

Monday:

Monday at work I was not too busy at all.  Which I suppose is a good thing, but at the same time, it didn’t make the time go very fast.  Everyone here at work is super cool including my boss, who I know has directed work away from me leading up to this whole shebang.  Thanks Mike.

The evening was spent with our running around like chickens with our heads cut off.  Jess was doing an awesome time cleaning the house.  I spent time vacuuming and fixing some printed stuff a bit for the printer.

I don’t know, but this “brunch/open house/gift opening” thing that is at our house on Sunday is kinda… um… inopportune.   I mean, we are trying to get everything assembled that needs to go down for the actual wedding… get everything we need to take for ourselves to stay the wedding night in the hotel… not to mention to start getting things prepped for a week in Maui.  On top of that, the house has got to be spotless since so many friends and family (many of whom haven’t seen it yet) will be coming by.  It’s all a bit much.  The stress level is rising hourly.

But, she really got stuff cleaned.  I assembled some of our electronics to take on vacation and various other little things.  After a long hot bath trying to limber up my stiff legs, we both crashed into bed about 10pm.

I’m gonna have to find some energy stores here soon.  Although, I’m sure I’ll fly through the actual events on sheer adrenaline and booze.  The best part is once things are happening, I can stop thinking about and planning them.  Sounds great to me.

More to come.

Anyways, remember when I said this weekend would be serene? Yeah, forget that. I’ve spent all day working on wedding stuff. Programs were first up. So, I spent a bunch of time choosing fonts and I’m still not happy with what I’ve come up with. So more to come there.

I did get one thing accomplished though. Jess had the idea to set up a Flickr.com account and invite guests to upload their pics they take of the big day. Great way to share all the photos I thought. Consider this your notice to bring your cameras and take lots of snaps. User name and password will be available at the reception (on some sweet little cards I did today) or by emailing me. You won’t need that info to browse tho. Should be fun.

I will also upload the pics of the combined bachelor/ette party that we had that I never wrote about.

Oops! Cut time!

Update:

Here is the link to the party photos I mentioned… if I get time, I’ll write a little more about it.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/habermans/sets/72157606653780171/

By the way, if you have photos of Jess and I you would like to add to that Flickr.com account (http://www.flickr.com/photos/habermans/) email me for the credentials and I’ll get them to you.

Amazing where time goes sometimes.  Remarkably, we don’t seem to be scrambling much at the moment.  Sure, we’re busy, but everything feels calm and in control.  Of course, check back with me in 5 or 6 days and you might get a different answer.  I’m sure 100% of this current state of serenity is due to all the work Jess has put in since December 1st.  Thank god she is the organized one… I can’t imagine where this whole production would be without her.  Well, that’s a stupid point, because if she weren’t around, then there wouldn’t be a wedding, but you know what I mean.

This weekend will undoubtedly be the last serenity we get until Maui on the 18th.  Once Sunday is over, then it is damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead.  Family starts rolling into town.  Once that happens, I’m sure the insanity will reach the fever pitch.  I’m going to have to seriously take care to get some quality alone recharge time this week so I’m good and ready for the big day on Saturday.

An interesting thing has taken place in my brain since we started this whole process back in December.  Early on, I couldn’t help but be reminded of the last time I did all this back in 2003.  You know, those same discussions about plans and locations and whatnot.  It was very odd, and I couldn’t help it.   It was still fresh in my brain.  But, since then, the memories of the last time around have faded further and further.  Right now, I honestly can’t remember what went on leading up to the ceremony day last time.  Which is a great thing.  I’m all about now.  It is so nice what time can do.

Not to mention, that I have no inner turmoil this time around.  I won’t lie, I had doubts last time.  I can vividly remember having a mini-freakout while driving once about getting married.  I obviously knew somewhere in my brain that it wasn’t right.

This time?  It’s the clearest of clear sailing.  Not one single time have I had even the remotest doubt anywhere in my subconscious.  To be perfectly honest, until I got half way through this post, I didn’t even realize that I hadn’t had any doubts.   That just tells me that I could not be making a better decision hitching my wagon with Jess.

I’m genuinely excited for the future.  Not just surviving.  Not just making do.  Thriving.  I can’t imagine where we go from here, but I guarantee it will be a hell of a ride.