before i left for galveston, i tried to go ahead and put my new inside door handle and window crank handle on my passenger side door. unfortunately, what i learned was that the mount points have evidently both been too stripped to hold the new handles. so now it looks like i’ll be purchasing some more parts. ah well. it’s such a nice feeling to be okay with spending money on fixing a vehicle.
i made it down to galveston and found the place without any issues. i managed to get there about 30 minutes early. they had the wedding at an old house (mansion) on broadway (what i-45 turns into) at 24th street — ashton villa. it was a really nice location. the wedding was held outside in a courtyard with a large open rotunda, while the reception was held inside in the grand ballroom.
the invitation requested black and white casual dress attire, but i couldn’t really pull that off with my normal wardrobe. instead, i wore a dark grey long-sleeved pearl snap shirt, blue jeans, and snakeskin boots. to help sort of fit the invitation request, and to class it all up a bit, i wore my black leather western-cut suit jacket. i think it looked decent enough, but it was kind of a lot for outside in late august/early september.
i walked around for a minute or two and ran into a couple of people i knew, as well as seeing a lot of people i’ve either met in past or have seen before. i headed over to jack and he asked me if i wanted to go inside with him to mess with the projector. we were headed that way when i ran into joe levander. i don’t know why i hadn’t thought about him being there, since he and brad were roommates for several years, but i hadn’t. i hadn’t gone to his and kelly’s wedding as it was in tennessee (several years ago), but i always really liked both of them and was quite happy for them when they started dating and then decided to get married, so it was a very pleasant surprise to run into him. joe was a groomsman. he and i talked and jack eventually continued on with his work while joe and i were talking. sue and the potts’ kids, minus simcha, walked by while we were talking. joe said kelly was there too, so i went back into the courtyard and eventually found her. she was with simcha, and soon sue and jackson, dietrich, and calista showed up.
the wedding was very nice. the attendance was very good, and a lot of people managed to handle the requested dress code. mirroring the requested dress code, and the dress style of the wedding party, the ceremony was pretty informal, with a good mix of both traditional and non-traditional elements, and brad and kelli seemed to both enjoy and find meaning in the whole process. although it’s irrelevant these days, i like to imagine my wedding had a somewhat similar feel to it. after the ceremony everyone headed to the front entrance of the main house to go to the ballroom.
the ballroom was packed to overflowing, and with all of the seat wrangling, talking, moving, etc. i started feeling sensory overload. i excused myself and went outside. i spent some time walking around looking at the mansion and the grounds, then eventually i went back in. it was still packed and there was an incredibly long line for food; however, it was nice to be in the a/c so i stood against the wall for some time. eventually i went and got a glass of water and went back outside. i sat down in the courtyard area on a concrete bench and started smoking my pipe. after awhile i went back to benches closer to the ballroom, and eventually some smokers came out and started joining me. joe came out and sat down and we talked some more, then kelly came out and we all talked some. sue and the kids came out for awhile, then went back in.
after it seemed like a fair number of people had left, i ventured back inside. they were playing loud music, but there were no lines and plenty of seating. i sat down with joe and kelly, and jack sat down to eat some while he took a break. i didn’t actually eat any of the mexican food they served. i ate a handful of raw baby carrots and had a slice of the german chocolate cake (which was very good). as we were sitting, brad’s mom came by and talked to kelly for awhile. i didn’t really say much, as i didn’t figure she’d remember that i’d stayed at her house back in the summer of 2000 for a day or two while tamara and i went with brad to cornerstone. i’d seen kelly’s dad earlier, and he actually remembered who i was, which was cool. i met him about a year ago i think, at brasil. he rides, and remembered i rode with brad and kelli. eventually the dancing came to end and it was time for brad and kelli to leave.
outside, they handed out a bunch of little water guns for people to spray them with as they headed toward the car. i kind of stayed back a bit and didn’t pick up a water gun, not too excited about getting wet. as everyone waited, suddenly brad and kelli showed up from a different direction in rainsuits with big supersoakers and started spraying everyone. it was pretty clever, and funny. they hopped in the back of their ride and were driven off.
joe and kelly and i decided to try and help do some clean up with the people tearing down, so we stacked and loaded chairs, cleaned some , etc. sue had offered that i could stay at the beach house they were staying at (brad and kelli’s families had rented three beach houses for wedding party folk and guests and such), but i figured i’d make up my mind at the wedding. i decided i’d go ahead and spend the night.
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failure is not an option. it's a requirement.
Reading about weddings, or more likely hearing about them in conversation, always makes me regret that I did not try harder to attend as many weddings for family and friends. Like yours for example. I always had plenty of excuses, like not much money or leave time available. Now I wonder what exactly I was saving it for. I guess that I’ve always been a hoarder or saver, plus I’m not particularly good with events. Anyway, I know that your wedding was a particularly unique event, and despite how the marriage turned out, I wished that I would have made it there.
i appreciate you saying that. i do think my wedding was pretty cool. our parents didn’t really control us, so we were able to do things for the most part like we wanted them. it really sucks i’ll never be able to reminisce about it with tamara in future years. i still think the wedding invitations were really cool.
i’ve also not made it to some wedding and events, and for similar reasons — i’m a hoarder and saver, and not particularly good at events overall. but i also look back and think “why did money or time matter like that? why didn’t i go?” i’m trying to get better about it, but it seems like a pretty integral part of my personality. maybe one day i’ll overcome my conservative outlook on activities and relationships, and take action instead of finding comfort in familiarity. probably not, but perhaps.
didn’t you get married in germany? i remember you went on a cruise in the mediterraneans for your honeymoon, right? man, i should have gone to germany. i still should go to germany.
Dude, you should go to Taiwan. Isn’t that passport burning a hole in your…. uh… where do you keep that thing?
We actually ended up getting married in Denmark. Seems like that was the easiest place to do it, or else some travel marketer is making a lot of money selling it as such. It was a little town with nothing else going for it except for the Legoland theme park. Some people go to Disneyland after they get married — we went to Legoland… 🙂 We didn’t invite anyone for the wedding. I always tell people that we eloped. At least it sounds cool that way. It was just too complicated and after spending the better part of two years thousands of miles apart, I think we just wanted simplicity and to be alone for awhile. And besides — I’m not good at events. The cruise was on the Baltic — same idea as the Med, just on the other side of the continent, and a lot less popular. That was a cool trip being the first cruise for either of us.
Yes, the invitation to your wedding was cool. I still have it stashed away in a box full of memorabilia somewhere. I’m hoping to go back to Germany myself sometime. I’ll probably be relocating next summer again, and with a little luck, that may happen.
terry, I google my self and your failure page popped up. I have been reading your blogs but i missed the one on the wedding. I don’t make it a habbit to google my self but my friend’s name is kevin dean and we did it one time and it came up as a male stripper and pictures and things so every now and then I do it just to make sure there is not another joe Levander out there doing crazy things and runing my seller repution. just though you would like to know.