Picking up the story -- David, Dave, Neil, and I are sleeping in our hotel room after the bachelor party. After a much-needed night of rest, a night on which I shared a bed with David, Leavy called to see what we were up to and to tell us that he and Jesseca were at the Water St. Cafe having breakfast. We, being lazy, had yet to even consider getting up, much less showering, dressing, and making our way into town. Thus, we were unable to make it to meet them, but much later, having done all of the aforementioned stuff, we were able to go to the same restaurant, Pete and Bekah with us, and we had quite a good breakfast. Well, brunch at that point. I want to say no one said or did anything off-color or offensive, but that would just be wrong.
After that, we had just enough time to go back to the hotel and do...um...I can't remember what, before it was time to get back into the Suburban and head to the castle. For almost all of us, this was the first visit to the site. We all got to hang out on the lawn, where the ceremony was going to be, before the ladies showed up and the rehearsal began.
This was also the first opportunity to show off our battle scars from the night before, as seen here.
Anyway, everyone showed up, and eventually the rehearsal happened. Pretty straight forward, badda bing badda bam, you go here, you walk here, you kiss here. It's over. So that was that. I took people back to the hotel, then went and practiced my mom and son dance with my mom. Back to the hotel just in time to catch some people at the bar for a beer, show off some embarrassing pictures and other random junk, then we all went and got ready for the rehearsal dinner.
It was at the Crow's Nest (shot below). Only later did we realize that "Group Therapy" was the name of the band playing there that night. (Later, some of my guys tried to convince the band to let me sit in on the drums...it didn't happen).
Other things that occurred later that night:
An actual group therapy session, complete with butt-grabbing
And this...
Of course, I'm getting ahead of myself. Back to the beginning of the evening. I drop off everyone else at the Crow's Nest, then drive a few miles down the road to rescue Dave and Neil, who have managed to get themselves lost. Dave and Neil causing trouble is a theme, people. Keep that in mind. I find them, and they follow me to the restaurant. We arrive and go out to the deck by the water, where drinks and appetizers are happening. People arrive slowly, most of whom I haven't seen yet, and it's great to talk to everyone. It's also wicked hot. It's a scorcha! So I'm not too disappointed when we all head in for dinner.
The tables are set up in a big U, with me and Kia at the center. It's a good idea, altough it also makes it difficult to talk to more than just the people directly next to you. After my Dad makes a speech and welcomes everyone,
we all go around and say who we are, where we're from, how we know Aaron and/or Kia, etc. I think it's at this time that Pete works on some of his material for the reception the next day. If you were at both events, you definitely heard some of the same material. But what do you expect? Two gigs in two nights, there's gonna be some overlap.
So other people make speeches, and we eat our food. I couldn't remember whether I had gotten the chicken or the fish, and to this day I still don't know what I ate. I guess it didn't matter so much. At some point, I got up and embarrassed Kia
by reading some notes she had written me during college. I knew there was a reason I had saved those. That was pretty fun.
After dinner, my Mom somehow convinced the restaurant to give us dessert and coffee, even though they weren't planning to. At some point, other people who had not been at the dinner started coming in, and we said hi to all of them. Eventually, everyone headed their own ways, and I brought my people back to the hotel. We changed quickly and re-congregated downstairs, piled back in the Suburban, and met everyone else at the Dwyer house, a little cottage on the grounds of Belhurst Castle.
There were lots of folks there from various parts of my or Kia's life, with the majority being somehow Oberlin-related. People hung out and relaxed, played cards and guitar, sat outside and smoked cigars. It was just what it should have been, which was a chance for people to hang out and actually have time to see each other. Good times.
Eventually, the guys departed and we drove back to the hotel in the Suburban. In the front seat, Pete "entertained" us with songs and the guitar. Upon arriving at the hotel, David's cigar disagreed with him...right behind the van. We promptly sent him to bed, and the rest of us followed suit. With just me, Dave, and Neil in my room, I got my own bed. And all was well.
