Mike and Lacey's Wedding

One hell of a day!

I think back to last weekend and I get a little emotional. It always seems to bring a smile to my face when I think about The Boys -- our little group we had back in the days of high school. Mike got married to probably one of the sweetest, hip-hip ladies around, Lacey. The Boys are now spoken for, married, hooked-up, except for Jarrod -- who's already engaged, so you can say that's close enough.

On top of that, Sean and his wife Tami had a baby daughter last Thursday. Talk about one great event after another -- and yes, another sign that we are getting old (and hopefully mature)!

Last Saturday was the big day, as Mike and Lacey have been planning an outdoor wedding for quite some time, to be held at the parents of Mike's farm. Everybody prayed for that day to be perfect. As it turned out, the prayers were answered on that day.

Early that morning, things looked gloomy, as the skies over southwest Minnesota was covered in clouds with a slight breeze. Rain was in the forecast. But that didn't stop Mr. Mike at all. I had to drop Katie off at the farm at 9:30 in the morning to she could help out the ladies with their hair and make-up ... and wouldn't you know it: Mike was all ready to go, tuxedo and all, when I dropped Katie off. Nervous?! Probably!

But you've got to hand it to the guy. Mike was on the ball, making sure everything was good-to-go, things were set up, and people had everything. It's a classic sign of nervousness, maybe a little neurotic, but it's normal, especially when it is somebody's wedding day.

By the time the actual wedding rolled around, the clouds started to part and out popped the sun, like it was some sort of sign or something. Wearing a black, polyester tuxedo really turned up the ol' body tempurature as I started to sweat profusely. Lucky for us groomsmen, there was still that slight breeze, which made it bearable. A funny moment when Kevin (Mike's brother and best man) and I stood at the "altar", the cameraman was in the background in the pine trees behind the minister taking pictures. It startled me, to say the least -- but I had to make a joke out of it.

"What is that? We've got the paparazzi here?"

The farm was fabulous. Everything was green, there were enough chairs, everybody could hear (through a pretty good sound system), everything was perfect.

Afterwards, as far as the reception went -- damn, the food was good! I ate a little too much though, as it kind of put a damper on the drinking for the rest of the night. Every drink I had, my gut would hurt ever so little, so I had to space them out. With all that food in my gut, I didn't get completely bombed out of my gourd (like I did at my wedding), but just enough for me to loosen up a little bit.

Mike was in pretty good shape -- since he probably learned from my own mistakes and decided to pace himself by skipping straight-up shots of Jim Beam. Good man ... at least he won't have a wife will hold that against him until he dies!

We danced, we drank, we sang. I ended up spending LOTS of money that night, especially when I had to get new drinks because they kept on getting knocked out of my hands. As the night wore on, I began to get a little tired (since I'm now based on school-time) and others started to make their way to the chairs on the sides of the dance floor. Deep down, I found a second- and third-winds, so I grabbed a few people back out on the dance floor. My God, I still have the moves!

Another funny part was that I tried to dance with Lacey's youngest sister Heidi, who was a junior bridesmaid in the wedding. Heidi would have nothing to do with me.

"Yeah, typical. The ladies, young or old, just don't care about me!" I said.

All-in-all, a great party. Things went well, there were no fights, at least. I gotta wish the newlywed couple all the best.

I am without speech!