A Boston Wedding - the main event

May 19th

We arrived at the Artists for Humanity-Epicenter at 8am to help get everything ready the wedding. This building was so awesome! I loved it but it was empty and there was a ton of stuff to get done before the wedding. We started with setting up the sounds equipment, laying out the room, and then the decorating. Wendy had these really nice rows of silver stars that we were going to stream all over the room from the ceiling. Since the ceiling was two stories high, they brought in a scissor lift. We got it pretty much right smack dab in the middle of the room when it went completely dead. Not moving at all. No forward, backwards, up or down. So we went with plan B, C & D to get everything hung. But we were creative and resourceful and made it work.

While a group of people were working on the set up, the groomsmen were working on going over the entrance into the wedding. They would be repelling and ziplining into this wedding so they each took turns making sure they would be successful in there entrance. It was so fun to watch!

Everything was moving forward (and quickly) that morning and all kinds of things were getting done. Everything but managing the very large elephant in the room, the scissor life. By about 10am, the event staff for the building had called 4 repair companies all with the same answer, It was Sunday and no one was working. There was a much excitement when they finally got someone to come check it out. But the excitement died quickly when he too could not get this thing to move, at all. We started brain storming how to work around it. Maybe put the photographers on it, a video camera up there, cover it with black table clothes & lights and make it a part of the "atmosphere".

As we were brainstorming ideas, we heard a noise and all got excited, the scissor lift is on and working! We pretty quickly realized that the noise wasn't the scissor lift, it was the fire alarm. Yup, the fire alarm. We are about an hour away from wedding time, there is a scissor lift in the middle of the room, tables are finished, the scissor lift is where guests chairs are supposed to be the fire alarm is going off. Surely they aren't going to make us leave the building so we continued to work and laugh at it all. That is until they told us we all had to the leave the building.

They reassured us that the fire department would be here in minutes and we could get back to what were doing and it would all be good. So we went outside, trying to keep Tim occupied out front while the wedding dress hung in the front window of the building and Wendy sneaking out the back exit so they wouldn't run into each other. And we waited... and waited ... and waited.

After awhile we realized that the fire trucks were not very punctual and we eventually just went back in.

After hours with the scissor lift in the middle of the floor, they found a forklift in the back. They were able to lift the scissor lift with the forklift and move it back to the back storage area. It was quite a sight to see. Five guys had to man handle it the last few yards to get it in the door and close the door. It was such a huge relief to get it out of there. We all quickly rushed around trying to get everything perfect as guests started to arrive.

And then it happened, first the parents came in to some more traditional wedding music, then a pause and then the real show began!

The intro for the guys was awesome. Best of all times in my books. The wedding was beautiful! The venue was perfect for them and the ceremony too. They blended a Traditional Christian Wedding service with a Traditional Jewish Wedding service. It was great. Everything about it was just amazing.

After the wedding it was time to cut loose, eat from a crepe food truck, have a few speciality drinks and hit the dance floor with old and new friends.



Joe, Soccer Matt, Tim, Madeline, Jeremiah, Jay



We didn't want the party to stop but like all weddings, there comes a time to pack it all up and head home. And for us that was quite literal. After the party stopped, we packed up all the sound equipment and all of our luggage and started the drive home.


Matt, Sarah, Me, Jed




Us with Mr. Fescoe




Stephanie & Eric with Us




Robbie, Kristal, Joe, Jed, Jeremiah, Emily


It was late when we left and thanks to Joe, we hit lots of traffic. By 11 pm we were calling hotels again to get the best deals in the same area we had stayed just two days earlier. (The original plan was to drive through the night, epic fail.)

And instead of our 7am arrival, we made it home at about 4pm. The ride back on Monday was pretty uneventful, just a day of being silly, laughing, talking and driving. It was absolutely worth it and I can't wait for the next road trip.

Congratulations Tim & Wendy!

A Boston Wedding - pregame

May 17th - May 18th

This weekend we headed north for a fun road trip and wedding. Tim & Wendy were getting married in Boston on Sunday and Jed was in the wedding and our travel partner, Joe, was the officiant.

So we headed out on the road Thursday after work and got as far as we could before we stopped in Bridgewater, NJ. Friday morning we started again driving through NYC. It felt like it was calling us to come play but we enjoyed the sky line and kept going. Before we knew it, we were in Boston! Well, Quincy, but close enough. After we dropped off Joe's suit to get altered for Sunday's wedding, we were on a mission for lunch. After driving around looking for a food truck that wasn't there, we decided on Murray's Deli.

Our next stop was downtown Boston. Before the bachelor party that night we wanted to take a tour of Fenway Park and after a slight hiccup with the T, we found it.

The tour at Fenway was so much fun. We learned so much about the stadium and got to hang out on top of the Green Monster.

After our tour, we had a little time before all the festivities began so Joe, Jed & I spent some time hang out at The Bleacher Bar. This is the place to watch a game! There is a garage door size opening that looks out right onto left field. It was so cool. Unfortunately, the Red Sox were away this weekend so we will have to come and have the game day experience another time. But we really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere during an away weekend.

Joe & Jed went to meet up with Tim and all the guys for an evening at Jillians. I can only assume they spent the evening making fun memories that can never be spoken about again, like all bachelor parties should be. Meanwhile, I meet up with Krystal and we headed off to dinner at Sweet Carolines. This place was a block away from Fenway and really nice. We sat outside, laughed, talked, ate great food and unknowingly watched some guy skip out on his check.

After a fun filled night, and a few hours of sleep, Joe, Jed & I decided to head back into Boston before all the rehearsal festivities began. We had one stop to make before heading back into Boston, the very first Dunkin Donuts.

After 25 munchkins, a few pictures and some really friendly Bostonians, we headed back into Boston to tackle the Freedom Trail. Since we didn't have the time to take a guided tour, we grabbed a $3 self guided tour book from the visitor center and off we went.

It was a perfect day to just walk around the city and we enjoyed seeing and reading all the history of Boston. It was a lot of fun but before long it was time to go set up and rehearse for the big day tomorrow.

The rehearsal was great. We had a fantastic time meeting new people and catching up with old friends. Jed's video was perfect and he did a fantastic job with his impromptu MC position. I absolutely loved listening to friends and family laugh and cry remembering stories of Tim and Wendy and Tim & Wendy together. I was so thankful to be a part of it. Unfortunately, the evening wasn't without a few kinks. A busted wireless mic, an unsuccessful trip to Walmart to get it fixed (a successful trip to Radio Shack got us up and running) and forgetting my camera in the hotel room.

Even without pictures of the event to post (Sorry Lisa), we had a great time and were all really excited for the wedding tomorrow.

Boston or Bust

November 15th - 18th

This weekend Kelly, Adam, Cindi, my mom and I all headed to Boston for the Tech vs Boston College game. We were able to spend the entire day on Friday exploring the area.

When I got into town on Friday morning, I immediately picked up everyone and we headed down to Providence, Rhode Island. We have an old family friend that lives there now and we thought it would be fun to go have lunch with her.

Providence is a really cute little town. They recommended a restaurant called The Duck & Bunny. It was FANTASTIC! The atmosphere was great, the food was amazing and they had cupcakes! We sat and ate and laughed for hours.

We said goodbye to our friend, Diane, and headed back to Boston before the Friday evening traffic. But on our way back, we drove through the campus of Brown University & drove by Gillette Stadium, Home of the New England Patriots.

Brown University

When we got back to Boston, it was time to try our hand at the public transportation system. We were able to successfully navigate our way through the "T" to get to the Sam Adam's Brewing Company. We got there just in time to take there last tour. Our tour guide was so much fun and we learned a lot about beer, tried some different grains and were served 4 different kinds of beers (one you can't even get in stores!). We made a quick stop at the gift shop to get some mementos to remember our trip and we were off and running again.

Our next stop was The Blue Man Group. The lead Blue Man is a guy that Kelly went to High School with and they have stayed in touch over the years. They put on an amazing show. It was so fun when her friend came out in the audience and saw Kelly and the excitement on his face when he saw her was priceless. After the show, we were able to take pictures with him and the other two guys before they headed back to take off all there makeup. He even asked us to stick around and we were able to go back in the VIP lounge and wait for him until he was done. It was such a neat experience.

After the show, we were starving so headed to dinner. I have read about a place that was near by called Picco. It was a HUGE success. Unfortunately, they didn't have a table for us but we were able to eat at the bar and it worked out great. We ended up with way too much food but it was completely worth it.

We were all ready to call it a day after dinner but when Kelly found a dessert place, we had to check it out. So we dropped of mom and Cindi in the hotel and Adam, Kelly and I all went to find this highly talked about dessert restaurant. Finale Desserterie & Bakery was just around the corner from our hotel. You could tell it was good and very popular when we found ourselves on a two hour waiting list to sit and eat. So we decided to check out their bakery section and just take some back to the hotel. I am sure it was not the same and I would one day love to go back and try something off there menu but there bakery desserts were great and even mom and Cindi got to try some so it was a win-win situation.

The next morning was game day! On our way to Chestnut Hill, we found a cool looking doughnut place, Twin Donuts, that we just had to try. It filled up fast with lots of locals and at 9 am they were already out of a handful of their pastries so we knew we had found a winner. We couldn't stay long since we wanted to check out some of Boston College's campus so we were back on the road in no time.

By the time we found parking, took the shuttle into Chestnut Hill and to the stadium, it was game time so the campus exploring would have to wait until after the game.

The game wasn't pretty but it was definitely a win. The stadium was really neat but it kind of felt like we were at a high school football game. At the beginning of the game the seats were pretty empty and as they filled up during the game, more people seemed interested in socializing then watching the game. Of course, it was a pretty ugly game so I can kind of understand. It was another nail biter of a game and Tech was able to pull it out in the end.

After the game, we took a detour through campus on our way back to our shuttle bus. Their campus is BEAUTIFUL! And I think the campus was a lot hillier then Tech. We climbed a lot of steps but it was definitely worth it.

That evening we went to dinner at Cindi and Kelly's families house that lives really close to campus. They were very gracious hostess and made a very nice pasta dinner. It was fun to hear stories from when Cindi and her family were growing up.

Sunday morning we had to squeeze in a few more things before we headed to the airport. Adam and I really wanted to check out Fenway Park. We were really hopefully that we would be able to take a tour but learned that they had shut down the tours for the Spartan Race. We were definitely disappointed we couldn't get in but we made the best of the situation and just walked around Fenway and tried to peek into the stadium through the fences.

On our way to the airport, I had to stop for one more cupcake. I had read about a cupcake place called Johnny Cupcakes and I thought it would be a lot of fun to try out. So after searching for parking for over 20 minutes we finally made it to Johnny's.

The store front and inside were really cool. We walked around inside for a few minutes until we realized that Johnny Cupcakes doesn't actually sell cupcakes! Boy did I feel silly for taking us on that wild goose chase... thankfully Sweet Cupcakes was just 2 blocks away and saved the day.

Our last stop before the airport was lunch. We found a place called Angela's Cafe. It was the real deal Mexican food. It was a tiny little place and the group of us kind of stuck out but it was completely worth it! The owner even came up to us after and took a picture of us (I think for their website...).

It was a lot of fun and a great way to end our trip.

Random Quotes or Memories that I don't want to forget from this trip:
1. "What do they do come out with a mic?" as a response to learning the local mascot was an Archorman
2. Mom & Cindi trying to make hokie bird & VT hand motions.
3. "Come on Cindi, put on your clothes" when they heard the review for Finale.
4. "I don't mean to say stupid stuff, it just happens."