Gish Hoag Wedding (Part II)

Not to be confused with Gish-Hoag-Zaga. Heh. Inside joke...

I woke up bright and early on October 17th to get the biggest day of my life started on a good note. I had lots of little things to do...but it all paled in comparison to tying the knot at 4pm! And before I knew it, the "festivities" were underway! It all started with breakfast at Perkins with some of the fellas (groomsmen and friends) in town for the big event. I really wanted to go to Wiese's Place, which was one of my favorite bars/breakfast joints while I was in college...but I thought better of it. You see, we taught the Wiese's bartenders how to make a "Special Coffee" (which includes brandy, bailey's and amaretto...you're always one away from a special day), and well...it just seemed a bit dangerous to start the biggest day of my life off in the presence of such a dangerous concoction. Turns out, Perkins had mimosas afterall (surprise to all of us), so most of the guys were able to ease their nerves a bit before standing at the altar. I, of course, didn't need to...I was incredibly excited, and yet still as cool as a cucumber.

After brunch, it was off to change into our monkey suits (err, tuxes) for pictures, which got rolling a bit before 1pm. We got our photo shooting rolling with "getting ready" pictures. Wisely, Nikki (our photographer) spent most of her time with the girls. She did get a few shots of us guys and we were proud to show off our ingenuity as we had college football playing on the classroom screen in our room in Gonzaga's College Hall in our pics. After the "getting ready" photos, it was time for the "First Look". After not seeing my beautiful bride (to be) for more than 12 hours, I was excited to see her on our big day! And let me tell you...Cara looked stunningly beautiful. And the best part? I was going to be marrying her! During the "First Look" photo session, Cara and I exchanged gifts (more on that later) and exchanged more than our fair share of kisses (NICE!). And from that point forward, the rest of the photos flew by in a blur. Bridesmaids photos, groomsmen photos, wedding party photos, family photos...and then it was 4pm. Before I could even blink, I was back in the sacristy with the priests and (gasp!) about to get married!

When Cara walked down the aisle, I was walloped with such a wave of emotion I can hardly describe. I almost forgot to breathe. My eyes misted. I probably couldn't tell you what city I was in. All I could think about was that incredible woman that was walking towards me. She hugged her dad. Then, I took her hand and we did what we were put on this earth to do. Our marriage ceremony was an incredible event. Fr. Bruno (who headed the Florence program that Cara attended during her junior year of college) brought such an amazing energy/vibe to the ceremony and blessed us sll with incredible messages/reflections throughout. We particularly enjoyed his call to take time every Thursday night away from the hustle and bustle of life to sit down with one another and just lose ourselves in conversation. After calling for our parents to give us a special blessing (which was incredibly special), he said the words that Cara and I were both so excited to hear..."well, what are you waiting for? Kiss the bride!" So, we did.

MARRIED!

And you know what that means? It was time to PAR-TAY (Gish-Hoag Wedding style)!

(But, of course that's another story for another day...)

Gish Hoag Wedding (Part I)

Well, it's been quite a while since I've shared my innermost bloggings with the world. And by "quite a while" I mean 4+ MONTHS!! A lot has changed since my last blog post:

(1) I got married (October 17, 2009) in Spokane, WA.
(2) I turned 28 (August 25th).
(3) I started my campus visits/job interviewing.

These are the big events at least. As exciting as the campus interviewing has been, it's still ongoing. So, I'm gonna update y'all on that later. And, my birthday...well, Cara came up with an amazing surprise and has already told the story (here)! So, I'm gonna focus on the wedding...from my perspective.

For starter's, let's get one thing straight: Married living is amazing! Seriously, I've got the most incredible, sweetest, smartest, most loving wife in the world! It doesn't get any better than this! So, how did it all go down? Well aside from the shock that such a stunningly beautiful woman would even agree to marry me...here are some of the deets. We returned to Spokane on Monday October 12th to make sure we could get all of the last minute "to dos" wrapped up before the big day. On Tuesday, we headed to the Spokane county courthouse to retrieve the all important marriage license. That night, we met up with our good friends, the Kelly's, for dinner. Colin and Brenna both were a key part of our wedding (Brenna a bridesmaid and Colin a reader) and it was wonderful to have the time to visit with them before things got really crazy. Speaking of crazy, the Kelly's recently welcomed a new addition into their family (read: new baby)!

On Wednesday, we were caught up in the hustle and bustle of last minute wedding to dos, vendor meetings, and Cara's parents arrived into town. From this point forward, time was really going to fly by. That night, Cara and I went to Nikko's with her parents. The food was good, the wine selection marvelous, and the service....well, the service was so-so. We made the mistake of sending the server off one to many times before ordering (we were engaged in some pretty good conversation with the in-laws...yikes!) and so our server returned the favor by forgetting about us for about a half an hour. Once we were able to flag her down, we placed our order and the food hit the spot. That is, until the bus-girl spilled water all over Cara's plate while re-filling our water glasses. I don't think it affected the amazing food too much, but it was certainly a bit odd that we got no offer of a comp'ed/discounted meal. Oh well. We had bigger things to focus on!

Thursday brought Cara's bachelorette party, which kept her occupied and having fun for most of the day. I think she had fun (you be the judge: here). To keep me out of trouble, I got a pretty good honey-do list and spent most of the day running around Spokane trying to cross things off my list. My parents arrived that night and so I had dinner with my dad, soon-to-be-brother-in-law, and my adorable soon-to-be-nephews/niece. After dinner, I spent some good quality time drinking wine with the dads while each passed along all sorts of quality marriage wisdom. Two of my best buddies (Rock and Scottie) arrived that night and so I grabbed a few drinks with them at Fast Eddies and made the mistake of arriving back at the hotel room late after Cara had already returned from the piano bar. WHOOPS!

Whatever the case, we could definitely feel the excitement building as the wedding day was fast approaching! On Friday, Cara and I had lots of little things to work on and the day flew by much quicker than we anticipated. One of the big "to do's" that ended up not getting done involved a little surprise Cara and I had planned for our rehearsal dinner. Thus, we ended up busting out an impromptu "live" version of "Gish Hoag wedding" at our rehearsal dinner. It was pretty hilarious and unfortunately, there is video footage out and about somewhere. Overall, we had an amazing rehearsal dinner at Shenanigans along the river and before we knew it, it was time for us to say goodnight. Cara and I shared a special few moments to ourselves before we both headed off to bed to rest up for the big day. And, I'll save that story for another day...