That’s right, I talked about Superman in the toast. You’re welcome.

The wedding of and her new hubby went off without a hitch! The rehersal went well, apparently the pastor at their church got transferred a few weeks back and they had to break in the new guy that night so it went a little long. It was followed up by some trascendant Italian Beef from Portillo’s, so all was forgiven.

Earlier in the day, we had picked up my tux. I’m generally not too picky when it comes to clothes, but I was immediately alarmed by the Andes mint green of the vest. Luckily with the suit coat on it wasn’t quite as glaring. I would like to reiterate my affinity for Men’s Warehouse, their staff tend to go all out. The latest example of this happened that day… had forwarded a coupon along to spur us to get measured quicker, when I got measured the staff at the Peoria store told us to hold the coupon until we paid. We did so, and when we presented the coupon they told us we couldn’t use it. I got a call 15 minutes after we left from the store manager that was on duty and she had called their customer service line with some doubts about whether they should’ve honored it. They were supposed to, so I got a $20 credit on my card when I dropped the tux off earlier today. That’s service, people!

Anyway, back to the topic at hand… the wedding day was pretty low-key for all involved. Everyone was staying in the same hotel, so we travelled to the church in a big convoy of cars. The groom was cool as a cucumber all afternoon so I didn’t need to perform my Best Man Tackle that I had been working on. He was a little shakey during the ceremony, but that can be forgiven. 🙂 I lost a bet that was going to cry during the ceremony, she got her “game face” on as one groomsmen described and made it through with nary a quiver in her voice.

The reception was really great. One of the wait staff, Baltazar, did a fantastic job delivering beers to the head table. At one time I had three different varieties of alcohol lined up in front of me, which was good because I had to give the toast. I never plan for public speaking of this nature because I feel it robs the moment of the appropriate levels of emotion. I had known both and her husband since college and I was able to resist the urge to tell a few embarassing stories that I had about each of them. Instead, I told the tale of how I came to know that the two of them were dating (their origin story, which I related to both Superman and Spiderman)… a large surprise given I hadn’t known them to have 6 words with one another up to the point that they were holding hands watching Family Guy in my dorm room. I feel like the speech went well and nobody threw any fruit at me so I guess it was OK.

The rest of the night dissolved quite quickly into the open bar, the dance floor, and pleasant conversation. The reception actually broke up rather quickly with the exception of a group of around 30 people that decided to close out the evening. I’m very happy for my two friends that they could find real happiness like this, I hope that the years to come are good to the both of them.