We ended up spending our first night together in our apartment.  It was a short night though, as we didn’t get back until about 9:30 and we were up again at 3:15 in the morning.  We drove over to Bethel so we could leave Beth’s car on campus and Pat took us to the airport.  We thought the line wouldn’t be that large, cuz we were at the Humphrey Terminal… That was a bad idea.  We didn’t really get to the airport until about 4:35 or so, and our flight left at 6.  After standing in line until about 5:30 they finally opened up another line for people who had flights at 6 and shortly there after.  Which was a good idea, because there were a lot of us.  So we got checked-in and through security and to the gate with about 15 minutes to spare.

My biggest concern on the airplane was finding the shuttle service that was supposed to get us from the airport to the resort we stayed at that was about an hour from the Cancun airport.  Having never been there I didn’t know what to expect.  Let me tell you:  The Cancun airport is for mainly tourists.  It’s set up nice in that way, but you gotta be careful.  Everyone is trying to get you to take a taxi or shuttle ride from them.  If you know what you’re talking about they won’t blow smoke at you and direct you in the right direction.

So we find the shuttle service, get our own 10-passenger van to the hotel.  It’s a sweet place.  They greet you with Mango Juice to drink, check you in, and carry your bags to your room.  All-inclusive is the way to go.  The min-bar in the room is refilled daily, and it’s all free.  Okay, not really cuz you pay for it in the all-inclusive fee, but it seems free.

The place was great.  It was right on the beach, and Beth and I agree that it was the nicest one along that section of beach.  The Copacabana was down the beach from us, and that place looks cramped.

We’ve got some good honeymoon pictures.  They’ll be up sometime.

Most of the vacation was spent relaxing on the beach and hanging out at the resort.  We wanted to tour the Mayan ruins, but we didn’t get to the place to book the tour early enough and they were booked solid.  So none of that was happening.  But the weather was nice, with only rain for an hour or so during the day on Christmas.

The day of the wedding arrived.  I must say it’s a very strange feeling.  All morning I was like “I’m getting married today.  My whole life is about to change… this is weird.”  Now don’t get me wrong I was (and still am) excited to be married, but it’s a weird feeling, and I think most married people could attest to that.

My brother, Pat, and myself all got ready at my house and we go to the church to meet the rest of the wedding party.  We get there and I remember I forgot the ties for the ushers and Brad.  Whoops… so we send the parents home for those.

The pictures went amazingly smooth I felt.  I think they’ll be pretty fun to get back.  Looking back there are a few pictures that I wish we had gotten taken that didn’t, but it’ll be fun to see what’s there.  I loved our photographer.  He was really fun, laid back, and easy going.  Whatever poses we wanted he took.  I feel that most photographers are kind of stuffy and have a set list of things, but he wasn’t like that.

The wedding was great.  It was (almost) smooth.  My mom almost tripped and broke her ankle coming down from lighting the candles that Beth and I would use to light the unity candle.  That was kind of funny. I feel like there was one more slight blunder, but I don’t remember what.  Either way it was good overall.

Beth got to walk down the aisle to a trumpet!  Thanks Brad!  She was pretty excited about that.  And at the reception Brad played the trumpet to announce our arrival!  It’s nice to have friends who can do musical stuff!  I have to give props to Katy for being so amazing on the piano.  She just played a bunch music which was very nice before and after the wedding.

The reception was good.  We were hoping people would stick around more than they did, but a lot of people had to run off to Christmas with families or go get their houses ready.  It seems like I talked to a lot of people, but I don’t remember a lot of that.  The whole time was a blur really.  But it was great!

This will be in 4 parts so it’s not one long essay.

But I’m pretty sure ya’ll know that I’ve been pretty busy.  But life is going well.  I suppose I should recap….

Beth’s graduation was fun.  It seemed a little more interesting than mine.  I think the speaker they had this time was a lot better then the one they had for mine.  It was kind of interesting to see the Master’s people graduate and get their hoods.

Beth and I decided that we should stay in the cities and finish a few things up here that needed to get done before the wedding, so on Thursday we decided to go back to LP.  Of course, that was when the rain/snow was coming down.  So after we finished getting the last things done we got our stuff together and drove up in the crazy weather.  It wasn’t to bad, just have to be smart about it.  I didn’t see any cars in the ditch, but I did see on tractor-trailer slide a little bit.  Beth had a more exciting trip than I did, seeing how we drove separately.  I’d say you could hound her to tell her stories of it.

So we get home and go the church where our amazing families had been busily preparing the church for hours by this point.  I was in the kitchen working on foodstuff, and Beth comes in.  Some one mentions the rings.  I turn to her “Did we pack the rings, and marriage license?”  her reply “I told you that was your job.”  So after a run to our cars we find nothing.  Oh poo!  Beth runs to her house cuz she unloaded somethings, and it’s not there either.

We call the landlord to see if they’ll let some one in to pick them up, and that’s not gunna happen.  We try to find a FedEx or UPS someplace, and find one in Alex (45 minutes away).  The roads are bad, but they say if we can get there by 6pm we can overnight it (this was 5pm).  We set out on the roads to try and make it on time, and we do with about 10 minutes to spare. So we end up sending our apartment keys UPS Overnight to one of Beth’s Cousin’s so he can pick up the rings and marriage license (which also has Beth’s hair piece and earrings in the bag).  He gets the keys, and is able to retrieve the stuff we need.  So we are able to use our real rings for the wedding ceremony.