Beautiful chapel, scenery... and a rainstorm worked its way in before the church doors were even open. I don't think anyone got too thoroughly soaked, but the thunder definitely drowned out part of the service. Nice ceremony, btw - beautiful, pristine, really - and even featured Heidi jumping the gun, saying "I will!" with enthusiasm about four sentences before she was supposed to. Ya! Everything went off hitchlessly - the sermon was about the three C's, someone read from 1 Corinthians - standard fair, but the beaming people and the setting made it shine. We were out in roughly half an hour, and on to the mountain top for a reception.
A thick fog had set in and disrupted the views from the orchard hilltop. Which was completely fine - big tent to keep the people dry, classy string quartet to keep 'em entertained, and enough alcohol to kill all of the guests three times over. And the food, goodness goo: absolutely delicious on all fronts, including shrimp, prime roast, cheeses, fruits, finger foods, and yes-oh-yes-goodness-yesses-of-Joyceian-proportions the SLIDERS!!! If there were ever a hors d'oeuvres invented with Nyet Jones in mind, this was it - essentially a miniature cheeseburger, fresh off the grill. Incredible. I want one right now, actually. So much good food, delicious top shelf drinks - this was some intense revelry, as entirely expected from a Brettian wedding.
The DJ took over eventually and got the usual groom-bride and parent etc. dances going. The DJ, with apologies, was terrible otherwise - just couldn't get a feel for the room at all. In perhaps his most disastrous move, he followed up some standard rock-dance fare with Snap's "The Power." I'm not kidding at all. Somebody eventually got through his skull enough to get some Rice-friendly pop on there, and a madonna dance was seen by all. And some grind-on-Brett Britney dancing, too. I even dropped a glass on the dance floor in celebration (in my defense, it DID hit on the downbeat). Good times - I love dancing with the Beck. She got out sans sore calves this time.
Beck and I talked to an old friend "other" Rebecca (and her boyfriend Nick) from Rice at the reception for a while. We go six degrees way back - she was good friends with a good friend of mine Kat from back in the Duke days. She is saving the earth in Oregon these days and generally loving life. I played Ultimate with Nick at a Poultry Days tournament back in the day; he strikes me as an adequate dude to hang with the excellence that is Rebecca. Great to see them!
Things wound down eventually, and we headed back to the bar from the night before and stayed out way too late; some of us capped the evening by drinking beer instead of water and found themselves hanging out in the back of a rental car during brunch the next morning (boo, hissss!). Got back eventually and enjoyed some leftover gravy and biscuits before heading to bed.
I woke up around 7 the next morning and couldn't sleep - I got up and read in the lobby while waiting for the zombies in my room to arise. Elaine stopped by to say bye while Dan and Christina were still climbing out of bed; I'm pretty sure I promised to DJ her wedding, though time/date/place are not exactly set (Elaine's boyfriend, btw, another Rice grad, thoroughly passes whatever test in my book). She headed out, and we got organized enough to take our stuff down to the car and head over to Brett and Heidi's apartment complex for a RIDICULOUSLY good Southern-friend brunch. If you ever need to take out a week's worth of calories on a single plate, that is the food-genre I would recommend. The salt soothed us, and after hanging out by the pool with Matt and Ebbett for a bit, we said byes and headed to Richmond.
The flight home was terrible due to the aforementioned coffin in the back of the plane that they put Beck and me in. Do not sit in the windowless window seat, egad. We got back to Phoenix about 10, took D&C home, and settled in for a short sleep before work the next morning - the dogs were glad to see us, and it was good to be back in the familiar hundred degree weather instead of that wet, unfamiliar stuff.
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