A Wedding

Emily and I drove to Iowa City the Wednesday before the wedding. Nine hours to Iowa City that night. The next morning we left for Ames early. We briefly said "hello" to Emily's parents before going outside in the bitter cold for two hours for engagement photos. It was frigid. We romped around town through snow and made ourselves entirely wet and cold at the cost of some pretty good photos.

We stopped in the middle of the outing to warm in our cars and drink some hot cocoa. That night we had a Lowry (Emily's side) family dinner. I met some of the in-laws over ham and veggies.

Friday may have been the most stressful. We set up the reception hall (in the church that I attended at college) with tables, chairs, table covers, fake greenery, candles, etc. We also set up the church (University Baptist or Emily's home church) for the ceremony. Mostly we moved chairs and sound equipment out of the way to pretty up the church. Aside from Emily's family, my good friend James (a grad student in Chemisty at ISU) helped with all the moving. He was the first of many people with whom I caught up after a long long duration. In the year and a half I last saw him he has met a girl and engaged her as well as published a paper. Congrats to him.

That evening the groomsmen arrived:
Adam D. - my college roommate
Adam B. - the StL bro (with cleve)
Joe G. - my bio-bro
Jacob M-M - my bestest buddy and best man.

We did the dress rehearsal. Apparently, Emily, by this hour in the day was very upset for lack of me and my decision making abilities. In fact she later chewed me out a little for my flightiness. We organized the loose ends that night before the ceremony and proceeded to drive to Emily's parent's house for the rehearsal dinner. The pasta my parents catered was delish and the deserts were bountiful. A house of four filled with 40 that night and we had a grand evening of chatting, joking and meeting new people.

The wedding party and cleve trooped out after the meal and we ended up at a reputable bar in downtown Ames called 'Old Main'. That night I dubbed cleve "anti-Jiminy Cricket". The name came from his insistence that I drink more than my conscience told me to consume. We tried all 17 of the martini flavors and the cocktail that drained into my stomach sloshed around for the next two days. My brother drove Jacob and I back to our hotel room where we both passed out after strategically placing a wast bin next to our beds...just in case.

I woke up bright and early at 6:30 the next morning still under some headache influences. I drove forty miles south with Emily to the pastor's house. I hadn't met the guy (pastor Dave Young) before that weekend and wanted a chance to familiarize myself with him and his family. They are good people and the visit was beneficial even if my stomach didn't agree. Emily dropped me off at the hotel and I laid back in bed for another hour and watched a bowl game with Jacob before we both slowly dressed and left the room.

We drove to the church and met the rest of the wedding party for more photos. The girls all wore converse shoes under their dresses. The guys did nothing interesting. I gave all the groomsmen some quality liquor and a book.

Quotes include:

• Chuck Norris once visited the Virgin Islands, shortly after they renamed them the Islands.
• How much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could Chuck Norris? All of it.
• Chuck Norris clogs the toilet even when he pisses.
• Chuck Norris does not leave messages. Chuck Norris leaves warnings.
• Water boils faster when Chuck Norris watches it.
• Chuck Norris drives Optimus Prime to work.
• Chuck Norris invented the internet so people could talk about how great Chuck Norris is.
• Chuck Norris doesn't wear condoms.. there is no protection from Chuck Norris!

I grew more and more nervous as the actual ceremony approached but Emily calmed me down right before we entered and alleviated a lot of nerves. The service was beautiful... I hear. It felt like 5 minutes long. In reality it lasted 45. As soon as the announcement was made we strolled down the aisle, signed the marriage certificate and drove away quickly.

We stopped at the reception hall and finished some last minute set up. A friend did most of it but we checked out the pizza and deserts. That's right we had Pizza and it was delicious. I was moving around the hall all night long talking to family and friends that I didn't actually eat any pizza. I had one breadstick and a piece of cake. I mingled around and tried to talk to as many people as possible. I returned to the head table for 'the speeches.' Jacob gave a fabulous speech about friendship and tied it in to the relationship that Emily and I have. Anda (Emily's speech assignee) talked about her devotion for Emily...and that was it. Nothing about Emily and I. I wished both of them the happiest of lives together and laughed.

I should also mention that the outdoor temp when we left the hall was a balmy -3. We drove to a hotel on the outskirts of town and drank champagne.

The next day we ate brunch with my extended family. I didn't see much of them the night before and they had not all met Emily. We stopped at Emily's folks house to drop off the dress. We saw an ISU women's basketball game that same afternoon (the women won.) Near the end of the game we drove west one hour to Carroll, IA. A huge town of 2,000 people in west-central Iowa. We stayed two nights at a bed and breakfast. The shower and bath tub couldn't have been more impressive. Emily came down with an allergy and attractively looked like she developed leprosy. Welcome to marriage.

We spent the next four days with her family and then mine for Christmas. Between the wedding, Christmas and my birthday we had a full car on the trip back to Memphis. The night before we left town I saw a friend, with whom I haven't spoken in 2 and a half years. He joined the marines and saves lives in Afghanistan in his free time.