Hey, just so you know ... this post is now about 14 years and 6 months old. Please keep that in mind as it very well may contain broken links and/or outdated information.

Whew, what a couple of days! It’s late Saturday evening and my little brother is now a married man. Congratulations, kids! 🙂

Friday morning started with a family breakfast, just the siblings and our parents … something we haven’t done for a very long time (years). The restaurant we had breakfast at was the location for the rehearsal dinner (as planned) so after eating we set up the back room for later that night. Then it was time for some random errands before heading over to the hall where the reception would take place and doing some more prep/setup there. It looked great:

We had a little down time after that, so I helped my brother replace the hard drive in his laptop and also install a new dual-DVI graphics card and wireless card in his PC. We ended up running a bit short on time so before we knew it, it was time to clean up, get dressed, and head to the church for the wedding rehearsal. After the “practice run” we all went back to the restaurant for the rehearsal dinner and a little socializing.

Saturday morning dawned gray and rainy. 🙁 I had breakfast with my brother and the rest of the groomsmen at IHOP (mmmm, pancakes!) and then went looking for orange umbrellas for the wedding party in case the rain continued (couldn’t find any, not even a Cleveland Browns one!). Once again, the morning flew by and suddenly I was rushing to get into my tux and get over to the church on time. It was a beautiful and touching ceremony.

(That’s me, second from the right). By the time the wedding was over, the rain had stopped! It was still overcast, but it was enough to be able to get some outdoor pictures of the bridal party at a local park and on the beach of Lake Erie. Right as we were finishing up it started raining again, but it was time for us to get over to the hall for the party anyway.

The reception was a blast! Great food, great music, the great company of friends and family, and a photo booth (which was a really cool idea)! When the party was over, we reluctantly cleared out, headed back to the hotel to change (my rented shoes were killing my feet by the end of the night!), and then grabbed a few beers with the happy couple in the hotel bar (just in time to see Notre Dame win a thriller over Purdue).

The weekend went too fast … time to head back to Florida. At least we’ll get to see everyone again for breakfast tomorrow before we leave.