end of the night

it was a long day, but a good one! by the time diana and i had made it to the hotel we were both exhausted from all the wonderful events of the day! it was truly a special day.
the thing we were the most excited about was this: today was a great day, but it is just the beginning- now comes the good part: spending the rest of our lives together!
(more pics)

winding down

by the end of the night, after having a wonderful time, people started heading home. as the crowd dwindled, we migrated out to the reception hall lobby where there were comfortable couches to sit in! over the next half hour we played around, just enjoying the joyful celebration of the day!
diana and i said our goodbyes to everyone, thanking them for making our day so special!
when they say that your wedding day will be one of the happiest days of your life, i now know just how true that is! it was an amazing time, and i even get a parting gift: a brand new wife!!!
(more pics, and some random pictures i have left over from the night: 1, 2)

life saver!

all that fun and all that dancing made me pretty thirsty! i wasn't really interested in drinking any alcohol, what i really wanted was some good old fashioned diet mountain dew! unfortunately the bar at the reception hall only served coke products. i knew nothing could quench my thirst like a diet dew could. i was quite disappointed and really wanted some- in steps jeffry lee! he hopped in his truck and drove down the street to the gas station and came back with two diet mountain dew 2 liters just for me!!! thats why i love me some jeffry lee! best man? no, bestest man!

flower toss

the final event of the night was diana's throwing of the bouquet. we called out all the single girls who were there to gather on the dance floor and diana flung her flowers behind her! who caught it? josh's girlfriend amanda... you do realize what this means, right josh?!?

dance dance revolution!

now, its time to dance! we had gotten all the formal stuff out of the way, now it was time to let loose! for the rest of the night everyone had a great time just moving along with the music. there were a bunch of fun moments during the dancing: the girls did a little line dancing, aaron lip synced a bit of vanilla ice, and adam cut a rug with my 90 year old great aunt!
(more pics: 1, 2, 3, and a video)

first dance

as the night progressed, we finished our meals. then it was time for some dancing! after everything was cleared from the dance floor, the dj invited diana and i to come and have our first dance. our first dance was to the song 'better together' by jack johnson. it is a song that diana put on a mixtape she made for me when we were first dating. i fell in love with the song and it became a part of our story.
it was really great to get a moment with just her and i out on the dance floor, we could just talk with each other and take a minute to realize what had just happened- we were now married!!!
(more pics)

the cake

diana and i both agreed that we didn't want to go nuts with a cake. in fact, we didn't even have one out on display. we had some cake, but it was just the sheet cake that everyone was going to eat after the meal. we didn't bother with one of those fancy shmancy cakes that look good, taste bad, and cost hundreds of dollars.
when it came time to have the cake, we didn't have any sort of formal cutting or anything like that. the cake just came out after the meal and we dug in! we did feed each other a small piece of it though, but there was no cake in the face or anything. i had been given very strict instructions that i was not allowed to mess up her make-up...
the cake sure was good though!

cardboard me

my old roommate from college, robb, had a fun story to share. back in college when we were going to room together, along with rex, robb decided to spend a semester studying in belize. rex and i knew we would miss him, so we decided to make a replacement robb for that semester. here is what we did: we went to the movie theater and purchased a life size cardboard cut out of james dean, then i took a photo i had of robb and brought it to kinkos and had them blow it up to be life size. i cut out the head and put it on the james dean cutout and voila! we had a replacement robb! we kept it in our dorm for the whole first semester. rex and i got used to it pretty quick, but every time someone would come into the room they would be startled by the scary looking man standing in the corner! eventually when robb did come back it was really funny because everyone would say hi because they recognized him, even though they had never met him!
fast forward a couple years, and robb and tracy got married. at the wedding there was a time to share any stories we might have about the couple, i shared this story and then pulled out the cardboard replacement robb! i said that it was a gift to tracy, in case robb is ever at work late or out of town for the night, she could have an extra robb so she would never get lonely! it was a huge hit and many of robb and tracy's family members took pictures next to it at the wedding.
fast forward a few more years, by now i had completely forgotten about the whole thing. its my wedding day and robb and tracy are there. robb takes the mic to share this story, and then pulls out the james dean cardboard cut out, but this time its got my face on it!!!
needless to say, now diana has a replacement me for when she gets lonely!
(more pics)

story time

one of the last minute ideas i had for the reception was for people to come up and tell stories. it was so last minute, in fact, that i thought of it while we were sitting at the head table at the reception!
i grabbed the dj's mic and made an announcement to everyone that if they had any stories about diana or i that they would like to share, they were welcome to grab the mic during dinner and share all their most embarrassing memories of us. hmm, maybe i should have thought this out a bit better...
aaron, adam, and my old roommate from college robb each came up to embarrass me, lissa and rhonda came up and shared stories about diana. it was really funny to hear everyone's stories and remember all those great times!

tweet cam

at the reception bubba and tweets got to sit at the head table with the wedding party, that meant that they got to sit with their mom and dad, which they were quite happy about. through out the night tweets hardly left our sides, she was quite taken by diana's dress and stuck close to her all night! at one point i pulled out my camera to take some pictures, and as always, she wanted a turn to take pictures! here are the photographic gems she came up with!

reception time

after we took care of clean up at the church, we all headed over to the reception hall. by the time we got there everyone seemed to be having a great time. we had gone against my mom and aunt's wishes, and didn't have a seating chart. they tried to convince us many times, but diana stuck firm and told them no. it turned out to be the right choice, i think, because there were a ton of people there who had not told us they were coming, and a bunch who said they were coming but didn't show up! if we had spend the time creating a seating chart, i think we would have just wasted our time and confused everyone!
when we got there everyone was enjoying the appetizers and drinks that were provided. diana and i didn't actually find out that there were appetizers until a couple days later- by the time we got there they were already gone!
the DJ introduced everyone from the wedding party as they walked in and we all got to have a seat at the head table. now that the bride and groom had arrived, it was time for the fun to begin!
(more pics: 1, 2)

the whole (new) family

a first look at the new family- diana and my family united together! it sure helps out that everyone really likes each other. my sister jill is really excited to have a new sister, my parents and diana's parents get along really well together!
its cool to think how diana and i falling in love has impacted so many different people in such a great way! as much as it makes everyone else happy, i think diana and i are the happiest about the whole thing!

words to live by

the passage diana and i selected for our wedding was Colossians 3:12-17, which says this:
"As God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him."

husband and wife!

...and now we're married! just as simple as that! we kissed and walked out to much cheering! after laughing with diana and high-fiveing the guys in the back of the church, the two of us headed back in to dismiss everyone and thank them for attending. diana and i hugged each one of the guests- the flower on my lapel was totally destroyed by the time we got to the last row!
after everyone was dismissed we went to the foyer of the church and smiled and chatted with everyone. when it was time to go, diana and i walked out amidst bubbles and cheering. jeffry lee and barbara hopped in the front seat of my mom's car, and diana and i got in the back and drove off! all we did was drive around the block, because we needed to go back to the church and help with the whole cleanup thing...
(more pics)

the ceremony

here it was, at last. the day that diana and i had been looking forward to for a very very long time. i had always heard that the wedding day is supposed to be so great for the girl, its the fulfillment of all the dreams she has had since she was a little girl. well, i've got to tell ya, it was pretty good for the boy too! the ceremony was fantastic, i could hardly whip the smile off my face! everything went perfect, diana was radiant, everyone was there to celebrate with us, it was just perfect. by the end of the ceremony my cheeks were killing me from smiling so hard!
(more pics: 1, 2, 3, 4)

its official!

all this wedding planning and the ceremony itself doesn't actually make you married, in case you were wondering. the thing that actually makes you married is this little sheet of paper! pastor randy insisted that we sign the wedding certificate before we walked in for the ceremony- i guess that means we were really married before the whole thing even started!
diana and i signed it, and we needed witnesses to sign it as well, so barbara and jeffry lee needed to put their signatures on there as well.

a first look

we headed back upstairs to see the girls. up until this point i had never seen diana's wedding dress. i had successfully avoided it for the past 8 months and had no idea what it looked like.
our photographer suggested that i wait for her in the sanctuary of the church with my back to the door and wait for her to walk in and then i could turn around and see it for the first time. then diana and i could have a couple minutes to ourselves. as the picture shows, i was quite pleased with the dress and how gorgeous my soon-to-be wife looked in it!

suit up!

the girls have been at the church for a little while already getting dressed and ready. the guys arrive around noon and we head down into the basement. we find a room that would work nicely for a changing room, and head in. each of us brings our tux with us and we proceed to change. we were joking the whole time about different things, but had to choose our words carefully with jackson there!
a few of the guys must not have ever been in a wedding before because they had a bit of trouble with the different parts of the tuxes, from the cuff links to the button thingies for the shirts. as we were looking through our tux bags we saw that each of us had also been given a little pocket handkerchief. after a bit of back and forth on it, we decided to wear them with the tuxes.
now that we were all dressed up and looking good, it was time to head out and find the ladies!
(more pics: 1, 2)

the big day

after breakfast we all arrived at the church to get ready for the days events. a busy day is ahead; the weather looks good, the sky is clear, the nerves are calm, everyone is joyful and excited. i this is going to be one to remember!

suits and eggs

finally! the day diana and i had been waiting almost a year for is finally here! the day starts off with diana and the other girls heading out to get their hair done. the guys and i plan to meet up for breakfast around 10:30 am. but before we do that, diana's dad and step dad still needed to get their tuxes.
i drove over the the hotel and picked up her dad and we headed to the tux shop. i got what we needed from the store and dropped it off back at the hotel for her step-dad. then we drove over to the restaurant we had planned on meeting everyone at for breakfast. unfortunately, there was a little change in plans: the place we were going to go wasnt open! i guess the night before a car hit a phone pole near by and everyone in the area had lost power because of it, so the place wasnt open because they didn't have power! we acted quickly and told everyone to meet at denny's instead! phew, that was a close one! we had a great meal, jackson even came along! papa was far too kind and actually picked up the tab for all the guys that came, which is always nice!

rehearsal dinner

after talking with my brother, i headed into the rehearsal dinner. everyone had beaten me in, so i was the last to arrive. we had the dinner at uccello's in caledonia. we had our own little banquet room off the the side all to ourselves. it was a really great time, and the food was amazing!
everyone seemed to have a great time! it was really cool to see my friends and diana's friends mingling and hitting it off together! my parents and diana's parents had a great time as well! i think everyone was just excited for the events of tomorrow- i know i sure was!
(more pics: 1, 2)

my brother's call

ever since the summer i knew my brother wasn't going to be able to attend the wedding. it was a very unfortunate thing that i was really bummed about, but thats what happens when you've got a brother in the military. since he wasn't going to be able to be a part of the celebration, i knew i would at least be able to talk to him the weekend of the wedding on the phone, and i eagerly awaited his call!
now, here's the thing: at&t sucks. at&t sucks big time. i've known this for a while, my phone has terrible reception. i can't hold a phone call for more than a couple minutes inside my house because their reception is so bad, and recently my phone has decided not to ring at all sometimes when people call- it will just let me know that this phantom caller left a message. this happened twice when chad called. once it beeped that i had a message without ringing when he actually called, and the other time it rang once, then straight to voice mail. this did not please me, it did not please me one bit. typically i am a fairly even tempered man, slow to anger. but this? this i could not handle. both times when i got his message saying 'well, i guess you are busy...' i flew off into a rage here to for unseen! my wrath burned with the fire of a thousand suns (just ask jeffry lee, he happened to be there for it and was genuinely frightened!) i screamed and yelled and brought down curses the likes of which had never been heard before, and at&t was the recipient of that hateful wrath. after the second missed call i finally changed my incoming message to 'please leave a message. if this is chad, please call me back! my phone has not been ringing when you called, so please try again. if i still don't answer, call diana's phone!'.
anyway, i've made peace with my phone (i will be leaving at&t the very moment my contract is up. curses be upon their heads), and on the way to the rehearsal dinner the phone finally rang!!! i got to talk to chad and share with him all the great stuff that was going on. he even surprised diana and i with a wedding gift: he informed us that his wedding gift to us would be two plane tickets to come and visit him in japan!!! wow!!! diana and i were both blown away by his generosity! i've always wanted to go to japan, and diana has always wanted to travel more (our honeymoon was the first time she had ever left the country). i was so overcome with excitement at getting to talk to chad and then to hear what he was getting us for a wedding gift that i'm sure i didn't make much sense while i was talking to him... we got to talk for about twenty minutes. it wasn't as good as having him there with us, but it was really great to connect with him during this exciting weekend!

once more, with feeling

diana and i arrived at the church just as everyone else was pulling in. we got into the church and greeted everyone. pastor randy, the pastor from my church (first highland crc) in indiana, arrived to organize the event and let us now what we were in for. we all gathered down at the front of the church and he gave us the rundown.
once we were all up to speed on what we wanted, then it was time to go through it! we all gathered in the back and walked down in the order that we would be for the wedding. i had to go back and forth about 6 times to walk in all the grandparents and parents! the two women we had playing the piano and organ were there as well in order to get the timing right and everything set. we got the hang of it the first time through, but it was a good idea to go through it a second time. by the time we did it twice everyone felt comfortable with the order and everyones places.
randy did a great job of taking control and letting us know what we needed to do. after that, it was off to dinner!
(more pics: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)

flowers and fabric

we finished up with the set-up, but our preparations were far from over! a few months ago when met with the woman who would be doing our flowers, she said that it would be important for us to stop by and check on the flowers the day before the wedding. she said that it would be a busy day and we probably wouldn't want to, but we really should. she was right about that first part! after the busy morning and afternoon, the last thing we wanted to do was drive across town to check out the flowers! but its a good thing we did. there wasn't anything wrong, but seeing them really got diana excited and pumped her up again just as the exhaustion was hitting! the flowers were amazing and looked great.
after we checked them out, we quickly stopped at the fabric store to get some clothe to drape over the unity candle table. we wandered around for a bit, but then found some fabric that diana really liked. now, with all the errands out of the way, it was time to head back to the church for the actual rehearsal!
(more pics: 1, 2)

the church set-up

after we got the reception hall in order, the next thing on the list was the reception hall. we drove through taco bell for lunch, then headed over the the church: covenant christian reformed church. we got right to work with trying to come up with a good way to set up the stage. diana wasn't totally sure how she wanted it, other than she didn't want it too crowded up there. there were a bunch of fake trees already up there and around the church that we could use. we also brought some strings of lights, flowers, and some tulle to decorate. so we got busy! the guys moved the heavy stuff while the women told us where to put it. i strained my back a bit, and was worried that i was going to be in pain for the whole weekend, but by evening, it was all better!
after a bunch of brainstorming and trying out a few ideas, we picked a set up that everyone liked.
(more pics: 1, 2)

reception hall set-up

friday morning diana's bridesmaids drove up to help out with setting everything up. first on the list was the reception hall. the tables were being set up when we arrived, so we got right to work. mom and aunt ruth (she and uncle don were the master and mistress of ceremonies) got busy making the center pieces for each of the tables. the rest of us strung lights on the fake trees scattered around the room. everyone offered a hand, even the kids, and we got it done very quickly! we had a bunch of different center pieces, some of them had candles, others had flowers, and all of them had rocks on the bottom of them. it took a bit of doing, but we also got my computer set up with the slide show that was going to be playing on the screens for the first hour as everyone arrived before dinner was served.
by the time we were done we were quite happy with the results! now, off to the church!
(more pics: 1, 2)

the poco hotel

thursday afternoon i drove down to diana's to see her and her family. her grandma was in town from florida for the wedding, so we stopped over there to see her and talk with her. again, we figured we would be too busy the day of the wedding to really get to spend time with her. we had dinner there and had a great time!
we headed up to grand rapids together with our dog. there wasnt going to be anyone around to take care of poco because they were all going to be at the wedding! so we had to bring him up with us. jeffry lee and aaron were willing to house him for the weekend, so he headed over there when we got into town. when we first arrived the dog had a really hard time with the new setting. we hung around their place for an hour or two, and by the end of the night he was feeling comfortable enough to let jeffry lee and aaron hold him. he really liked to wander around the kitchen floor and nibble up any crumbs that were on their floor (and there were many...). we set him up in the basement so he could also have his food and pee pad near him and there would be no chance of him messing up their carpets.
diana felt pretty good about leaving him there, but we did stop by regularly during the weekend to check up on him!

get with the program

thursday morning my mom and i headed over to check out the wedding programs. my mom did a ton of work getting these together, it was one of those things that diana and i werent able to take care of being out of town (and we had totally forgotten about having them... some of the details get lost when planning a wedding!)
we met my sister and the kids there and took a look at what the design place had come up with. after a few corrections and additions, it was ready to print! a couple hours later they were ready, so i picked them up. when i got home with them i looked at them a bit closer and found a few spelling errors, but they didn't seem to bother diana (and it would have been pretty expensive to reprint them), so we just kept them as is. that night diana and i signed each one, folded them, assembled them, and we were done- now we had some nice pretty programs for the days events!
(more pics: 1, 2)

a little sneaky

wednesday night i came into grand rapids to get all the wedding stuff ready (i took thursday and friday off of work). diana had a bunch of stuff to do too, but had to finish up a few things in buchanan before she and the girls came up to join us. they did come up to visit shortly on wednesday night. diana had set up a dinner with her good friends josh and tshecomah. she came up with her sister and lissa. we went to josh's favorite: blue ginger. they have great chinese food, and we all had a great time. it was a chance to spend some time with her friends a bit more one-on-one than we would get to a couple days later at the wedding! when we finished dinner, we were up for more, so we went to main street pub on 28th street. it was a great time, even though i was exhausted!
(more pics)

wedding cd

one of the things that diana and i had talked about doing for the wedding was making a cd of songs that we really loved and played a part in our relationship. we wanted to make this cd and give it to our guests as a party favor at the wedding, and as a way of giving them a little insight into our lives through the music we love together. the grand plan was to take all these songs we always listened to and burn a bunch of copies to give out. in the fall we made a couple 'rough drafts' of the cd just to see if it would work. after a few tried we settled on a playlist we both liked. now all that remained was actually making them!
now, here lies the problem: i like to procrastinate. these cds were no different! finally, the week of the wedding i realized that i still needed to make the copies of the cd and figure out how to package it- yikes! so finally, i got to it. i went out and bought some cds and started burning. i got to work on the label for the cd (i had bought a label making program and enough stickers for all of them a couple months before). after a little trial and error, i got one that diana and i both were happy with (well, i was happy with it anyway. she didn't think a picture of us should be on it. what?!? thats part of the reason for making a label!)
for the first part of the week, while i was at home, i burned all the copies of the cd and printed off all the labels on my printer. all that remained was assembling them. wednesday night i drove up to my parents place to get ready for the wedding and took all the stuff with me. i spent wednesday night and thursday morning getting everything put together. finally, after too much work, i had the final product- and it looked good!
(pics of the project: 1, 2, 3, and the song list)

just in case

i have a lot of cds. for many years it was a habit of mine to go to the cd shop almost every week and pick up a couple albums. while it was fun to collect and listen to new music all the time, it leaves me with one big problem: where do i keep them? i've always been very attached to cd cases. while so many people have easily moved on to mp3s and itunes, i can't let go of the physical cd and its case! i've always thought that the artwork on the album and in its booklet is a large part of the artistic expression of the music.
because of that, i have always been hesitant about getting rid of the cd cases. well, now with a wife on the way, it was finally time to get rid of them. diana's friends miranda and levi recently got rid of all their dvd cases and bought plastic sleeves and boxes to store them in. it seemed quite handy, so i decided to follow their lead. i went and got four boxes (each can hold 100 cds), and 400 plastic sleeves. it was a major undertaking, going through the hundreds of cases and transferring them into the plastic sleeves, taking out the booklet and putting that in there too. it took a while, but now that its done, i am quite pleased with the results- instead of a six foot tall bookshelf filled with cds, now i just have four boxes which can easily fit onto just one shelf! diana is very happy with the extra room too.

ready for a roommate

i'm finally ready! after all these months of working on the house, i think i'm finally ready for a wife to move in!
for 5 years i've lived here alone, able to do what ever i wanted with this place. by nature i am a pack rat. that works ok if i'm the only one living here, but as soon as you add a girl into the mix, well, then i have too much stuff and not enough room!
thus began the great clean-up! its been a ton of work sorting through everything, throwing away a lot more then i ever thought i would. part of the process of getting ready for her to move is has been fixing things up and making them look better. this is where my dad and brother-in-law would usually come in. over the past year we have built a shed in the backyard, put in a new floor, a new toilet, new carpet in every room, and repainted almost the entire house! most of it is written about here, in case you would like to hear all about the challenges and great results that have come from all that work! a very special thank you goes to my papa and tim, my brother-in-law! you guys did a ton of work and the place is infinitely better because of your work.
needless to say, diana has been very pleased with the results!

painting, round 4

one week left, and only one room to go! in preparation for diana's arrival i have been repainting all the different rooms of the house, and now i am finally on the last room!
the second bedroom, which we have begun referring to as the office, is the last room that needs repainting, and finally i am able to get to it! diana and i selected a nice shade of blue for the room. it took me a few days to complete, as painting often does. i started on sunday night with a couple coats of white for the trim, window frame, and door frame. monday i put down a primer layer on all the walls, and tuesday i finished up with two layers of blue on the walls. it was a lot of effort (mostly due to the fact that i desperately hate repainting walls...), but it got done and it looks good!
(more pics: 1, 2, 3, 4)

school bells and wedding bells

tuesday when i came into work i found my room a bit different than when i left the night before! monday night some of the moms of my students came in to school and decorated my room in celebration of my upcoming wedding! there were ribbons, streamers, posters, bells, and a bunch of other decorations all over the room! they had even collected a bunch of different items and gave me them as gifts- each one had a message written on it: a measuring cup telling me 'make sure you bake for your new wife!', a hanger with the message 'make sure you do laundry for your new wife!', and a bunch more. during lunch i opened the gifts and had a really fun time with the kids!
(more pics)

the day after

the day after the bachelor party was a rough one, to say the least...
i stayed overnight at aaron and jeffry lee's place, but i got up around 11am because i was having lunch with my parents and the kids. i got there in time and got to see the kids, but i certainly wasnt feeling my best. bubba wondered what was wrong with me and i told him that my tummy hurt...
by the afternoon i was feeling a bunch better, and it was time to go! i packed up and drove down to see diana at her place. lissa, one of her bridesmaids, was in town, so we went for dinner with her, miranda and her husband, and diana's sister. it was a good time, most of the conversation centered on the up coming wedding and trying to get plans straight. around 8pm it was time for me to go, i still had a ton of stuff to do that next week, and wanted to get started on it!

burger run

when we got home from the party, aaron realized he was hungry. adam was willing to take him to steak and shake, and i figured i'd go with him. on the way we kept cracking jokes and laughing hysterically! i went into one of my laughing fits because it was so funny! when we got to the drive-thru we had a really hard time calming back down from all the craziness. on the way back to aarons, diana called and we got to talk for a few minutes- it sounded like they were having about as crazy of a time!
(more pics)

bachelor after party

after we got back from the house we waited around for about 45 minutes for the other group of guys to get back. while we waited we hung out in kitchen and messed around. aaron and jeffry lee have a white board up behind the oven, so we messed with that for a bit. mostly we just talked loudly, cracked jokes, and had a ton of laughs! a few guys didn't stick around for the other group of people to show up. tim headed out, he did have to go and pick up his three kids for the night, after all!

(more pics: 1, 2, 3)

chili dogs and taxi rides

when it was time to go we headed outside. we had to wait a little while for the taxis to show up, but fortunately there was a guy selling chili dogs right there on the street corner! score! timmy and i each got one as we waited, and let me tell you this: it was one of the best chili dogs i have ever had in my life! timmy still rants about how amazing the chili dogs were.
once we thanked the chili dog man for making such great chili dogs, our taxi was there, so we hopped it! only one of them came, so we ended up having to go in two sections. timmy and i made sure that we were on the first load! jeffry lee was on the second load, and he had some pretty crazy stories about what happened for that half hour while they waited for the taxi to get back...
(more pics: 1, 2)

extreme close-up!

the night of the bachelor party i had my camera with me, as always, and i was busy taking tons of photos. every time i would take one someone would comment on how the flash was blinding. i decided to put this to the test and took some really close up photos of everyone who came! some of them are a little too close up, but check them out anyway!
(close-ups: 1, 2, 3)

bachelor party proper

that's when the night began: we arrived at mojo's! jeffry lee pulled a few strings, so we got right in and we headed up stairs. it took a bit for everyone to get there and get in, but once everyone arrived, the party got really great! we had an amazing time doing the things that guys do at a bar! i was hoping we would be able to play pool there, but when i saw an opening and got hopeful, we realized that it was empty because it was out of order. as the night progressed we had more and more fun, for a while there we even stepped out on the dance floor and did our thang! we spent the time there just mixing it up, talking with everyone else who came. it was really nice to see all the different people mingling with smiles on their faces.
(more pics: 1, 2, 3, 4)

song and a dance

after we said goodbye to papa, we walked over to mojo's. along the way we walked through the monroe mall amphitheater. just as we were right in the middle of the floor, the huge outdoor lights come blasting on! i thought it was strange that they would come on just at that second, and then a voice came up over the speakers, thats when it hit me: this was for me!!! my buddy zagman somehow has the keys for the monroe mall amphitheater and opened it up and turned everything on! i look over to the stage, and there is adam walking out on stage with a mic in his hands! he gives a little salute to me, saying this is my bachelor party and telling everyone to give me a round of applause. and wouldn't you know it: there were a couple dozen other people walking by at just that moment who start clapping! adam proceeded to sing through an original rendition of 'the graduation song' by vitamin c. he took the lyrics and altered them so that they were about diana and i! most of the lyrics i should not share here, but trust me, they were funny! (unfortunately it all happened so fast and unexpectedly that i didn't have time to get my camera for any good pictures)
it was an unexpected treat, and certainly one of the highlights of the night!

bachelor dinner party

we got downtown and had planned to go to hopcats, but the place was packed. we didn't quite take into consideration that this was infact a saturday and march madness was in full swing... oops. after waiting about twenty minutes, we decided that we would move up the street a little bit and instead ate at bar divani. just as the guys were making their way to bar divani, my dad called and said that he couldn't find a parking spot anywhere downtown. (in case you are wondering: yes, i did in fact invite my dad to come along with us for my bachelor party. why? because he's cool!) he drove up and i hopped into the car with him to drive around a bit and help him find a place. we ended up going into the parking garage at the b.o.b., it was almost totally full, so we had to go to the top level! when we finally arrived at bar divani, the guys had started ordering and we joined them. they were already having a blast! it was really funny to see my brother-in-law hanging out with they guys along with us, it was really cool that he fit so well into the mix! after a little bit of time, even papa was digging it! he chatted it up with adam and kevin and seemed really at ease around everyone. the food was delicious and we all had a great time talking and laughing. next stop: mojo's!
(more pics: 1, 2, 3)

ready to roll!

by six o'clock everyone started showing up. jeffry lee, aaron, rex, freddie and i were already at jeffs place from seeing the movie earlier. soon, the cars started pooring in! we had a huge collection of people, all the guys in the wedding: jeffry lee, aaron, rex, my bro-in-law tim, and the two ushers adam and dusty, and we had a few other people join in the fun too: zagman, max, and even aarons little bro kevin! we were all set for an awesome night on the town! jeffry lee, dressed all fancy, was the man in charge for the night, and he had planned ahead and called a couple taxi's to bring us downtown.
(more pics: 1, 2)

bachelor pre party

ah yes, the rite of every young man as he prepares for his wedding day: the bachelor party! jeffry lee, being the best man, was in charge of planning this party. and he took his job very seriously! we had been talking about and making plans for this for a couple months now, and now the day finally arrived! i didn't want anything too shady, not the stereotypical bachelor party stuff, i just wanted to hang out and have a good time- and we did!
jeffry lee, rex and i had planned on hanging out for the whole day, so we started right away at noon! i headed over to jeffry lee's house and we hung out while rex drove over. when we were all together we stopped in for lunch at applebee's. we chatted and enjoyed the food. after that we went to the mall to see 'i love you, man' with aaron, freddie, and max. the movie was hilarious, and provided us with a running joke for the rest of the night: 'slappin' da bass!'

bachelor party eve

i headed up to grand rapids on friday, the 20th. jeffry lee and some of the guys were up for something, so we met up at fridays (big surprise, huh?). as a nice surprise chris kootje was there! wow, i hadn't seen him in about a year and a half! it was really great to catch up with him and hear about the excitement in his life (he recently got engaged)! we just hung out there for a little bit, because at nine we went to go see 'watchmen' across the mall.
when the movie was done, we had a little more time to kill, so we headed back to fridays. chris soon left, but jeffry lee, freddie, and i kicked it for a couple more hours. with the bachelor party looming, it was great to just chill for a bit and get everything organized with jeffry lee.

no more depot

on diana's last day at home depot her coworkers took her out to hacienda for a good bye party. it didnt start until 6:00 pm that night, so i raced right out of work and drove straight there, and i actually made it there in time! diana didn't know i was coming, of course... we had a great time, a bunch of her work friends were there and shared some stories of the great times they had had at work... well, at least about good times they had there avoiding work! it was really cool to see everyone together one last time.
i didn't get to enjoy the festivities all night, i had to head back home and get some work done, after i left they went to another place to meet up with even more coworkers. diana took it like a champ. she said that she was said to see everyone go, but was doing well. at least until she got home that night and called me- she was crying because the reality of not working with those people anymore had sunk in! i told her we would come and visit regularly, i mean we have a home that is in constant need of repairs- we will have to go to home depot regularly!
(more pics)

a quick update

we are having so much fun here in riviera maya, we have been so busy enjoying everything that i've only got a minute to update! this place is really amazing, its so beautiful! we have been spending our days soaking up the sun, and our nights enjoying the delicious food.
i'd love to tell you more, but we're off to the beach!
oh, be sure to check out some of our wedding pictures at our photographers website here!