Wedding Bliss

     I am now a married man! The wedding took place August 13 and it was great. It was nearly a flawless experience. I don't really know what I was expecting, but it went WAAAAYYYY better than I was thinking it would. We got hings kicked off on Friday with a family dinner after I got off work. My family all lives close by, but Shannon's family had to drive down from northern Indiana and Michigan. She also has family out in Utah. They couldn't make the trip due to one of her cousins also getting married on the same weekend (we called the date first...just saying). Our families got to mingle while we chowed on Steve's Famous BBQ. I met Steve through work. He makes killer BBQ and was more than happy to cook some for our occasion.

Shannon and I enjoying the family dinner on the eve of our wedding

     After the dinner, we finished the set-up of the church. Shannon and I were hoping to go out and do something together, but we never got the chance. The dinner clean-up and wedding set-up just took too long. My wedding morning started early with a bachelor ride. Keith came over to the house. He, my Dad and I went out for a 22-mile ride. It was supposed to be an easy ride, but you know how that goes. It was attack after attack the entire ride. We were all feeling it by the time we got back. Then it was time to get ready and head to the church.

      The wedding ceremony was quick. Our coworkers were trying to guess how long the ceremony would last. They had the Price Is Right rules, closest to the time without going over. Shannon's boss's wife got the closest. It lasted a little over 10 minutes. Pictures were quick and painless. I think that was the part I was most concerned with. We had limited time to get them in before the reception and I really despise taking pictures. Caroline A. Evey did our official pictures. She's a friend of ours and did a great job. I highly recommend her so look her up if you need a photographer!

    Shannon had a great idea to place a different cake on each table during the reception. We had some of the best cakes and one heck of a food spread thanks to the Austins. You guys are the best! My parents surprised us with a wedding decorated tandem, complete with cans and the "Just Married" sign. Shannon and I didn't ride it. We didn't want to get nasty bike grease all over her white wedding dress. But do not fear, it did get ridden, only it was Keith and I on it instead of the bride and groom!

     Here's a few of Caroline's pictures:

The rings on the church sign prior to the ceremony

A group shot of all the people that attended the ceremony

Amber, Shannon and I after the ceremony

On the tandem decorated just for us

You can pretend you signed the guest book if you just rub your finger across the screen

One of the many cakes that decorated the tables in the reception hall

     Some photos taken by my Grandfather:

My Dad with the tandem

Keith and I on the tandem

     Picture of Keith and I riding the tandem taken by Dina:

     We spent a few days in a cabin just north of Springfield, TN. It was a nice cabin with an even better landscape around it. Nestled in a little hollow, a rocky ridge surrounded the rear of the cabin. Two creeks cut through the property, one fed by a spring, the other fed by an undergound creek that emerged from a cave. Of course we brought bikes and were able to explore the local farm roads. The weather was perfect! We followed the ride with some creek and cave exploration. I wanted to go through the cave, but the entrance was a 20 foot vertical shaft. With no rope handy, it was a no-go for cave exploration.

The great sight of bike stuff in the cabin

We went out cruising the backroads on our first ride as husband and wife.

It was a beautiful day on my favorite kind of roads.

Our cabin for the week.

One of two creeks cutting across the property.

The creek leading to the cave

Where the underground creek emerges from the earth

Me climbing the rock wall in search of the cave entrance

Made it to the top!

More than one morning we woke up to the sound of turkeys in the backyard

    One afternoon, we bought a case of root beer and sat in the creek. The water coming out of the cave was cold which was refreshing and good for keeping the root beer cold.

Nothing better than a natural cooler

Keeping it cold as it's enjoyed

     We ended our wedding week with a trip up to northern Indiana to visit Shannon's family and have a reception in Goshen for her Indiana friends. We camped  at Starve Hollow Lake Recreation Area in southern Indiana along the way to break up the drive. It rained the whole time we were there, but it was still fun to camp.

Looking across Starve Hollow Lake early in the morning. The water level was way down due to a project to remove sediment deposits in the lake. Made for an ugly bog in most places.

     The reception felt a little weird since the wedding had been over for a week. It was good to meet some of her friends and friends of the Toney family. The main food was muffins, which is my most favorite food in the world. We had all varieties of muffins and had tons left over to snack on for the next few days. The reception was in a nice neighborhood that had a pond at the back. We got to take a paddle boat ride around the pond which I thought was really cool.

Some leftover muffins

Shannon and I cruising the pond in the paddle boat

After a lap of the pond, we went back to shore and picked up Amber and her two roommates, Victoria and Holly. We almost had more weight than the little boat could handle!

      We ended the weekend in South Haven, MI again. It seems all of our trips up north end in South Haven. We can't stay away from the place! Amber was having a birthday party, and celebrated it with some tubing on Lake Michigan. I enjoyed the tube ride and the relaxation time on the beach.

Dark clouds moving across the lake in the late afternoon

    It was a great week and I am so happy to be married to the greatest woman in the world. I want to thank everyone for the help setting up and cleaning up, for the support and attendance of the ceremony and receptions, for the wedding gifts, and for leaving us alone for a week so we could spend some uninteruppted time together! Thank you all!