Keep it Classy, California: The Wedding

Last week, Danny and I took a little jaunty jaunt across the country to California. The main reason for the trip was to celebrate the marriage of one of my good good buddies from Cal Poly. However, we also got to visit my family, saw some beautiful scenery and ate TONS of delicious food.  So, in the interest of keeping your lovely peepers from reading for 8 years, and my fingers from falling off from typing too much, "Keep it Classy, California" shall be a story told in 3 parts :-)

Part 1: The Wedding

Look at the gorgeous altar with the balloons a la "Up!"

As I mentioned before, the main reason for our journey across country was to celebrate the nuptials of my good friend Brian and his new wife, Heather. A little background on my relationship to the couple...Brian and I started our jobs as CSDs (basically a fancy name for a hall director) at Cal Poly at the same time. He was the first friend that I made, and one of the first people that I met. We hit it off immediately. We were both midwestern kids, slightly awed by the splendor of the Central Coast of California, in our first professional job out of grad school, with the driest of wit, the sharpest of sarcasm and just a general proclivity to be immature dicks if the mood suited us. Sure, we had our rocky times (as friends often do), but to this day, I still consider him to be my boy bestie (aside from Danny, of course).

I only met Heather briefly before I left Cal Poly. I was her host around campus and town during her on-campus interview, and I remember thinking "Wow, this girl is suuuuuuuper bubbly! I wonder where she'll get placed." The next year, I came back to Cal Poly for a visit and found out from another friend that Brian and Heather had been secretly dating (they were placed together as co-CSDs in the same apartment complex). I stayed with Brian while I was at Cal Poly and we chatted about life in general. While I was surprised that they were dating (because on the surface, I could not imagine two more opposite personalities), I came to see how happy they made each other.

So, fast forward to this past weekend. Danny and I drove to the wedding, which was on a horse ranch (I think) in the mountains of Bonsall, that belonged to friends of the bride's family. Brian's proposal was based on the movie "Up" and the theme carried through the whole wedding. Everything was so colorful and beautiful, but simple and really let the beauty of the location and their love for each other shine through. Several friends from Cal Poly were in the wedding party, and it was so amazing to see so many of my friends all together after several years.

Watching the bride come down the aisle

The officiant was another former CSD

Their first dance was to "Home" by Edward Sharp and the Magnetic Zeros, which was perfectly fitting for them, they read their vows from a brand new iPad, and they kept everyone chuckling through the entire ceremony. I haven't been to many weddings, but this was by far my favorite because it was so much about the couple and demonstrated not only their love for each other, but also the love that others have for them (they had 22(!!) people in the bridal party!).

We had a great time at the reception, and Danny and I cut several rugs. He bet money on me falling in the pool, but I kept my balance and my dignity, thankyouverymuch. Man, if I had some mountains around, we'd totes be getting married in them. But even though Columbus is regrettably mountain-free, I can only hope Danny's and my wedding is as full of love and joy as Brian and Heather's.

Congratulations to the new Mr. and Mrs!

Just married!!

A whole lotta CSDs!