Johnyk gets married!

Just sitting back relaxing after a long weekend. It’s been a long and tiring weekend, but certainly a joyful one. (I can’t believe I actually used the word joyful :) )

My buddy John got married this weekend to his lovely bride Dana. Congratulations again guys! I had the pleasure and priviledge of being his best man for the event. This wasn’t my first time in that position, but it was the first time I had to give a speech in front of 170 people! (The last time was down in Mexico with a group of about 20 people – all of whom I already knew) I’m pretty sure I was more nervous than John for most of the day.

The wedding was fantastic! The actual ceremony took place at the St Maurice church on Meadowlands. John and Dana opted to go with a full mass for the service. Father Galen was the priest who gave the mass. I think he did a really nice job, and everyone else seemed to appreciate it too.

I should really mention just how beautiful Dana looked! I’m sure John was thanking his lucky stars when he saw her coming down the aisle.

After the ceremony, we all headed out to Strathmere for the reception. But of course, before the reception, there were pictures to take. Actually, I think the photographer, Miv, did a really nice job. Of course I’m no photographer so we’ll know better when the pictures are ready. John’s hoping to be able to post them on his gallery, but he’s not sure if he’ll be allowed to do that or not. I’ll post back here when I know.

The reception was held in “The Lodge” at Strathmere. It was a really nice spot. There was a loft type area, with 4 or 5 tables, and the main floor where the rest of the tables were. The head table was set up in front of a large fireplace which is obviously not used in the summer. Off to the left (facing the head table) on the main floor was an area that got used for a dance floor. There was also a back lounge area which I didn’t notice until the end of the night.

The food was excellent. For appetiziers we had soup (roasted red pepper) which was very good, and salad. The main course was chicken and vegetables. The vegetables naturally included potatoes. :) For desert we had some sort of strawberry pastry type thing.

The reception went pretty much by the book. Drinks before the meal, then the meal, then speeches and then desert. After desert, there was dancing, dancing and more dancing.

Getting back to the speeches…I got to go first. That was a good thing because I had been so nervous up to that point that I was having trouble enoying my meal. John suggested I have a few drinks to loosen up, but the book I read suggested against that. In the end I opted to listen to John, but since my stomache was doing somersaults, I wasn’t really able to drink too much. I think the speech went ok, not exactly as I had rehearsed it, but it went ok. The rest of the speeches were really nice too. I particularily enjoyed Dan’s (Dana’s father) speech and I thought John did a really good job on his too.

After my speech was over, I was able to breathe easy and get down to some serious drinking…more on that later.

I forgot to mention that rather than kissing when people clinked their glasses, Dana had decided that in order to get her and John to kiss that you had to sing a song from a disney classic movie. I’m pretty sure the table with Steve, Matt, Robbie, Al, and everyone else sang the most songs of anyone there. Very entertaining. The bridesmaids showed up us groomsmen with a nice song from Beauty and the Beast (I think). We (Greg and I, accompanied by Trev, Steve and Grant) did eventually sing something, but it wasn’t from a disney movie, it was from the Simpsons. “See My Vest” :)

So basically the night was filled with much drinking and lots of dancing. I had a blast. At one point, Steve got it into his head that it would be a good idea to steal one of the golf carts and take it for a spin. Naturally I was right on board with that plan. As soon as the coast looked clear, I jumped into the drivers seat of the cart parked around back of the lodge and took off. I went and picked up Anna, Matt and Steve and away we went. Steve quickly fell off, but since I didn’t notice I just kept driving. We did a few laps of the building and eventually were shut down by the staff. They weren’t pricks about it or anything, they just asked us to give the cart back. I was really impressed.

Eventually it was time to shut the party down. We loaded all the presents into Alyssa’s car and then everyone went off to bed. I tried to get Amy and some of the girls to go swimming with me in one of the pools, but alas…it was not to be.

All in all, a fantastic wedding. I’m really looking forward to my own wedding now.