Dave & Ali’s Wedding
It took a week, but I finally wrote down what I can remember from the wedding weekend. The pictures can be found in my Flickr Set.
Ahad and I headed out to Pittsburgh on Thursday. The ride out wasn’t all that exciting. The high point was seeing a sign on the side of a barn for the World of Pigeons. We were on a schedule and Ahad wouldn’t stop. If you are in the area I think its at Exit 189, just follow the signs on the side of barns. Seriously, could you pass up the World of Pigeons? What could possibly be there? I found a picture of the barn on Flickr. All I can find are pictures or people talking about the barn after a quick search. From what I could find no one has tried to find the place.
Thursday night we had to go to the mall to try on our tuxes. Being in the car with Dave, Ahad, and Matt might have been my favorite part of the whole trip. Just like old times. Everyone’s tuxes were alright. Matt’s shoes were a little tight, but he survived. Dave on the other hand had a bit of a problem. His pants were about four inches short. To make it even better, he was wearing white socks. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera and I don’t think to go to my camera phone. The right size pants were not going to be available until Saturday morning. This caused Dave some concern but it all worked out.
After the mall went out to an excellent restaurant and some clubs in Pittsburgh. And that’s all I have to say about that.
We had some guests in the room Thursday night: Dave and Ali’s brother Bob. Dave was an excellent guest. Bob on the other hand tried to get in bed with Ahad. Ahad was not a fan of this idea and nearly killed him. We thought he had settled down and went to sleep. He wound up getting up and leaving the room. He left the bathroom light on and the door open. My key was on the table and he took that with him. A half hour later Dave’s phone started ringing. We didn’t pick up the first time because Ahad and I weren’t really sure what was going on. Dave was not woken up by the ring. On the second call I answered and it was Bob. He was outside and couldn’t get it. He claimed he didn’t have a key. Ahad let him back in and Bob moved his sleeping location to between the beds, on the floor, right next to Dave. In the morning I was digging around looking for my key while Bob was claiming he didn’t have it. He finally searched his pockets and found it.
I had hoped to get into the city to hang out with Stef but we got up late and the rehearsal started at 5 so that didn’t fit in the schedule. Ahad and I went out to Denny’s because no one else was up yet and we were starving. I love Denny’s, I hate that we don’t have one here. The Extreme Grand Slam is the go to item. It has everything you could possibly want and its cheaper than anything else on the menu. You can get another Grand Slam with less items and it costs more. Makes no sense. You’d be stupid not to get the Extreme Grand Slam. I also ordered a Berry Banana OJ Fizzle. Its strawberry, banana, orange juice, sprite, and lime and its fantastic. Our waitress was also right on the ball.
For rehearsal, it was a little difficult to find the church. Ahad just turned down a road thinking he had seen a church. We gave him the benefit of the doubt because he doesn’t have much church experience. Still, we had to turn around twice on the way to the church. The only thing to come out of rehearsal was that we were going to have a problem on Saturday with Anne. She worked at the church and was in charge of organizing everyone and telling them what to do. She really enjoys the telling you what to do part.
After rehearsal we had to get to the dinner. We didn’t have directions but there was going to be a train of cars heading there. Never a good idea. Ali’s Dad was flying through all these windy roads. We were third in line and the car behind us was flashing his lights because people were falling off the train. Ahad tried flashing Bob in front of us but that was no use. After we got there Bob said he thought we were warning him about a cop. Somehow everyone made it.
Saturday morning we had eight people at Denny’s. I ordered the exact same thing and shared the greatness of the Berry Banana OJ Fizzle. We had a different waitress and it was no where near as good.
The church was a little warm. The secret of staying cool was to position yourself over the air vents by the windows. I think Dave’s sister has pictures of this. Ushering went well. Dave was worried that his side would be empty but it turned out most of the early arrivers were for him. This made Anne unhappy that we were not making things even. We continued to ask which side people wanted to sit on. Unfortunately Mike asked when Anne was standing right behind him, she flipped and yelled at him while he was taking someone to their seat. The only worse Anne moment was before things got started and the videographer was attaching a microphone to the microphone where the readings would be done. Apparently if that microphone is touched the church will fall down. That’s how Anne reacted from the back of the church when she saw him touching the microphone, her eyes almost popped out of her head.
The service was nice. We were dripping sweat standing up there in the heat. Ahad claims that when he gave Dave the ring it was sopping wet. After that we took about a thousand pictures.
During the week the limo ordered to go from the church to the reception was switched to a party bus so that the entire wedding party could ride along. Two bottles of champagne were ordered for the few mile trip. We were given the first bottle and thought it was odd that it was half empty. The second bottle was also half empty. Bob asked for more champagne. The driver responded by saying his name was John. I think you can see where this is headed. When we asked for another bottle he leaned over into the passenger seat to look, while the vehicle was still moving. Bob told him he would take care of it. Bob also told us afterwards that he was slurring his speech. During the ride we were up on the sidewalk, almost hit a ton of parked cars, almost ran into a cop car, and barely missed hitting the side of the bridge. Dave’s brother-in-law wound up behind us in Ahad’s car to get it to the reception. He saw everything and couldn’t believe it. He’s a cop but Ahad doesn’t have a siren on his car. Somehow we made it in one piece. Ali’s Mom called the limo company and also canceled the charges on her credit card.
The reception was enjoyable as you have seen in the pictures. The country club was very nice and the mashed potatoes were top notch. When we get the video I will do my best to share.
Back at the hotel we went to the bar afterwards where another wedding party was hanging out and singing karaoke. I didn’t hang around long. Matt was trying to get into fights with Pitt fans from what I hear.
Sunday we went to Ali’s house for brunch. Again, excellent food. I loaded up on shrimp, Ahad made the “Janke, the ocean called” joke. We stuck around and made Dave open our gifts before we left. He loved the deli slicer and wireless/talking meat thermometer. He couldn’t contain himself after he realized it had a belt clip. We also showed him the clip of him dancing from the engagement party. It was a big hit. Ali’s family was clearly concerned as to what their daughter had done by marrying him.
The ride back was uneventful. I struggled to stay awake. I didn’t want Ahad to be lonely even though I wasn’t much entertainment while being awake. We stopped at a rest stop on the turnpike and it was packed with PSUers returning from Arts Fest. We were more wiped out than these kids were, thats saying something.
Some items from the weekend that didn’t fit nicely into the story:
On the ride out Ahad was noticing how trucks often don’t have matching mud flaps. I can’t believe this! It was shocking. Take a look. Also take notice of the corners, sometimes the mud flaps looks the same but one has rounded corners. This really bothers me.
I’ve been noticing this summer a lot of people sticking their arm out the window while driving. Some just stick it straight out, others move it around I’m guessing to the music. Sometimes I think that they are signaling that they are turning. Why are people doing this? There is no reason to extend your arm past the side mirror. I don’t even rest my arm out the window, but thats more because I’m too short.
Dave mentioned that his dad had recently had knee surgery. Ahad and Matt have always admired his calfs and were concerned that they wouldn’t be the same.
Dave: No, one of them is just stronger now.
Me: Yea, but now he walks in a circle.
That killed Dave. This is why he’s the best. He loves my stupid comments.
Ahad is on a different softball team at work this year. Some Hedge Fund members joined the Mutual Fund team. This drove Dave nuts because the team is not diversified enough.
Pittsburgh roads are terrible. They have you crossing six lanes of traffic to get to your exit, which is 50 feet from where you get on. Ahad also had some trouble as we averaged two turn-arounds per trip.
Did you know Wendy’s has a Vanilla Frosty? It was on the sign at the Wendy’s next to Denny’s. I’ve never seen these before and it really bothers me. A Frosty is chocolate by definition.
The wireless/talking meat thermometer has two parts to it. The actual thermometer and the unit you carry with you. One takes AA batteries, the other AAA. Does anyone else have a problem with this? If something comes in the same box, everything should use the same types of batteries. I have enough of an issues with different size batteries, but thats a story for another time.
Ali’s family lives on September Drive. I had mentioned to Kathleen that all the houses should be re-numbered on all the roads (there was also an October Drive). You know, 30 houses hath September … I mentioned it to Dave as we were leaving and he flipped. He had said the same exact thing to Laura and she called him an idiot. Dave also added that you should have to live on your birthday. I had just thought you should move each day.
When we were in Florida for the Orange Bowl we were in a gift shop near Evan’s house. I picked up yellow glasses and thought about buying them but it seemed like a stupid purchase. There is a picture of me wearing these, it was my Facebook/Myspace pictures a few weeks ago. Ahad found a necklace with a spinning dollar sign that was perfect for Dave. He didn’t think it was worth the purchase either. I made the deal that if he bought that I would buy the yellow glasses and wear them. Ahad forgot to bring the necklace along Thursday or Friday and didn’t give it to Dave until right before the wedding. He would up wearing it during his wedding. At the reception the girls were discussing Ali’s ’something borrowed, something blue’ and Dave said he took care of his ’something ghetto, something bling.’
That’s our Dave.