July 19th, that means August 19th is 1 month away

The past week in summary; bridal shower, making limoncello, bottling limoncello, tasting limoncello, first dance lesson, delivery of an overwhelming amount of wine and champagne and finalization of the rehearsal lunch menu.
The coming week in summary; marriage license, haircut, tux fitting, meeting with Alison, bachelorette party and the clock continues ticking.
Did I mention the limoncello? Hope you like it, we do. Okay, seriously, that's it, I'm going to bed now.

Bridal Showers - Not Just For Brides

Back in February Carrie said, “Honey, I put my bridal shower on the calendar, it’s on July 16^th at the Toser’s house”, my reply, “Great, is there anything I need to do?” “Nope”, “So this doesn’t affect me in any way shape or form?” “Nope”, “Noted, have fun”. Then I hear a few weeks later, “I know you’re supposed to work that night, but do you think you might be able to show up for a while to play some games?” Well, we know where this goes; of course I took the night off. I’ve heard from some people that recently it’s become trendy for the groom to make an appearance at the bridal shower… I don’t know who sets these trends or how they become trends, I haven’t seen #groomsatbridalshowers trending on twitter, but hey… Carrie figured I was keeping some sort of secret when she asked if any of her sisters had called me for an interview prior to the bridal shower and my answer was a truthful, “No”.

Early on, I figured I was going to need male moral support, you see a bridal shower is, traditionally a large gathering of women. I’m not quite accustomed to said gatherings, but Dave is an expert, every day of his life for the past 24 years has been a large gathering of women, so it was nice to have the support of a seasoned professional and some good advice; grab a platter of hors d'oeuvres or a bottle of wine and make the rounds serving or pouring, it’s an excellent way to say hi to everyone.

I didn’t quite know what to expect, I envisioned a lot of women sitting in a circle watching Carrie open gifts, jeering unsolicited advice at unnecessary decibel levels while spilling copious amounts of chardonnay and riesling.  I was way off.

We played a fun game with totally off the cuff results, although I’m told Carrie may have snuck a peak a few times. We sat back to back; I had one of her shoes in one of my hands, one of my shoes in my other hand and vice versa for Carrie. Natalie and Alex asked us a series of questions, i.e. Who is the most grumpy in the morning? Who is the first to apologize after and argument? Who takes the longest to get ready? Who has better taste in decorating? We had to raise the shoe of the person who we most thought fit the description in question. With roughly fifty questions the general consensus said Carrie and I were pretty close to par with a few comical discrepancies. To make a long story short it was incredibly heartwarming to see such a great group of women all of whom are very important in Carrie’s life, come together to support her decision and surround her with the immense love that she so clearly exudes everyday.

Linda, thank you for the sincere toast.

Kim and Nancy, special thanks for hosting.

Every single one of you awesome ladies that was in attendance, thanks for including the groom, I thoroughly enjoyed it. 

Stag Party

First off… I haven’t intentionally been a bad blogger, I’ve had plenty of material, and I’ve wanted to sit down to hammer at the keyboard with our plans and activities several times now. Unfortunately for this little blog we are keeping a lot of details on the hush, so you’ll just have to show up and see for yourself.

Bachelor Party, last weekend, Las Vegas (Enough said, right? Nope, keep reading). All six of the wedding ninjas made the trip plus another four cohorts made for a total of eleven guys. I had an incredible time and everyone in attendance had a great time, not once did I look around and see a fellow stag party participant not rallying in sixth gear wide open.

There was a lot of sun and enough cheap beer to put the Kalahari’s dunes three feet under. When all was said and done, someone’s cell phone had the black screen of certain electronic paralysis (FYI, cell phones are not made to pace laps while swimming in a resort pool), no one married a stripper, no one extracted any teeth and no one was stranded on a roof, at the end of the day no movie clichés were fulfilled, but I did lose my voice. I found it a few days ago, it arrived on my door step via first class mail, post marked from the 12^th floor elevator lobby of Caesar’s Palace, where Charlie Sheen may or may not have made an appearance and destroyed some hotel property. Short of a baseball game (Go Rivercats!) one excursion with 11 guys wearing matching shirts, glue-on costume mustaches, aviator sunglasses and a scramble golf tourney, it was impossible to keep eleven grown men together. I don’t care if you’re giving away free beer and NFL tickets, you could tell 11 guys that if they show up at the same place at the same time, they’ll all get two hundred dollars in cash, I guarantee you at least two of them wouldn’t make it, so apparently we’re going to have to hire a sheep dog for the rehearsal and the wedding.

Bottom line, good times were had by all and it was just a prequel to the impending celebration that will be our wedding. 

 Editor's Note* On the 18th hole we had a bet; whoever had the shortest drive had to buy drinks, naturally, I was up first and I was foolish enough to let one of the fellas tee up the ball for me. You can probably see where this is going, but I didn't, I smashed that ball so hard it should have carried all the way to Reno, but it was a gag ball, I pushed it no further than the ladies tee box (those of you who golf, know what that means) and it erupted into a streaming ball of pink ribbon. That is what is wrapped around my head in this picture, pink ribbon from the gag golf ball. Thanks Guys.