Austin, Texas

The wedding was set for Thursday, February 29. Yes, Leap Day. No, the choice of date was mutual, not just because Glen wanted to avoid the yearly anniversary in favor of a four-year plan. In college, when we played the game of Hearts, we had a saying for the act of taking a unique selection of cards to give to the other players, such as three Aces or an Ace, King, and Queen of the same suit. We called this, "passing cute." In this game of hearts, our selection of Leap Day was just the first cute salvo that we had prepared.

Since we were an older-than-average engaged couple, we tried to take a lot of the wedding burden--both planning and monetary--upon ourselves, but as the months went by we were forced by circumstances to lose a little of our pride. While there are some aspects of the event that we would have liked to have been different, everything went so well that it would be tempting fate to go back and change anything.

We arrived in Austin on Sunday afternoon, February 25. We had to be in Austin three days prior to the ceremony because of the waiting period for Texas marriage licenses. Glen's parents met us at the airport with their extra car for us to use prior to the wedding. Since we had once lived in Austin, getting around town wasn't a real problem, aside from all the changes brought about by the recent surge in growth due to Austin's emerging role as Silicon Valley South. For years, Austin had been hampered by the fact that it has two major non-stop north-south thoroughfares, but was sorely in need of an east-west route. Instead of doing the sensible thing and construct the rest of an Austin "Loop" in serial, the road planners elected to do them in parallel, thus exacerbating the problem. Unfortunately, when Glen drafted the map that was sent to invited guests, he neglected to take this ongoing construction into consideration. That wasn't the only problem with the map, though--Glen used as his model a hotel map prepared by one of the rental car agencies, which, well, was less than realistic. So, number one lesson for planning an out-of-town wedding, have a local do the map.

On Sunday, we "crashed" (that is, we were tired and instead of doing anything, we rested) and went to sleep early. We had been working 10-plus-hour days and then frantically doing last minute preparations. People asked us if we were going to be nervous as we left Washington, and our common response was, "No, we'll be quite relieved to get it underway--stop the planning, and start enjoying." To save money, Glen had asked William Watson, a friend of ours, if Glen could stay with him until the wedding night, when we would check into a Bed and Breakfast together. It worked out perfectly, as William lived between the Northpark Suites where Jill was staying with her parents and the wedding site. So follows wedding rule #2, give your friends an opportunity to be generous, but do not expect it. We were happy that William was able to accomodate Glen in his home, but we had been prepared for him to say no. It turned out that Glen was able to help William as well; William called the week before we arrived and said that he was going to be out of town on our arrival. After explaining to us how to let ourselves into his home, we arranged to pick him up at the airport on his return Tuesday.

On Monday, we went to work again--wedding work. We went by Texas French Bread, the folks who were baking our chocolate wedding cake. The people we spoke with seemed a little lost as to our cake order ("...that was for Saturday?" "No," we answered, "Thursday.") We resolved to return on Tuesday and confirm it again with our payment. As it turned out, the bakery was having a bit of an east-west problem of its own, this one of the Kipling variety (as in, "East is East and West is West, and neither the twain shall meet."). In their case, neither the twain shall talk. Even though we reconfirmed and paid for the cake on Tuesday, things seemed strange. Thursday morning Glen received a call from Michael at Texas French Bread who wanted to know if we still wanted the cake--to which Glen replied, "I hope there isn't a problem." Everything worked out, but it does give us rule #3, re-confirm everything often. You may feel like the nervous bride or groom, but ignore the stereotype. You're only supposed to be doing this once, so make sure the people you hire get it right.

From the bakery, we went to the courthouse. Both of us were somewhat apprehensive about it--Glen had called the county clerk's office at least five times verifying the timing and necessary details to obtain the license. It turned out to be the work of thirty minutes. We showed the clerk our passports, handed over thirty-one dollars, and signed a statement saying that we weren't related by blood and owed no deliquent child support. In return we received an official marriage license and an envelope for the minister to send the license, once completed, back to the clerk for recording. The state is used to this--it is part of their job, after all--and they were quite efficient.

From there, we headed back to William's to make some phone calls, but got sidetracked by the TravelFest store on 6th Street. What a wonderful store--everything for the world traveler including books, bags, maps, travel agents--the only thing missing was currency exchange. We bought a driving map, a book on Italian culture, a book about a naturalist's journey in Italy, and a gift for one of our wedding party, and still had time to check out information about our next trip (Easter Island is our goal, but somewhere in the South Pacific for sure).

The rest of Monday was filled with last minute purchases--a scoop for the bird seed, a pen for the guest "mat" (a photo mat to go around a wedding picture in lieu of a guest book), wrapping paper, and foam board to back the seating poster for the reception. Then we met Jill's parents for happy hour at the suites, followed by dinner at the Eastside Cafe.

To return for a moment to the subject of rule #3, the unfortunate thing was that the Northpark Suites let us down. The rooms were excellent, but the hotel had changed computer systems in the last week and couldn't confirm which guests had reserved space at the hotel. Since we had prepared gift baskets for our out-of-town guests--a small bottle of wine, crackers, and salmon from Washington state--this was an important lapse in our opinion.

We would have had problems, though, even if the hotel hadn't messed up because we (okay, he'll admit it, it was Glen's fault) waited until Wednesday to ship some important packages from Washington to Austin (the items for the gift baskets and the wedding party gifts). The gifts for the wedding party arrived on Tuesday, the other on Wednesday, which proved problemsome. Rule #4, plan the work and work the plan. Originally we had set for these items to be available before we arrived, and we (okay, Glen) got a little lax in the final weeks. Diligence is all.

On Tuesday, we paid for the cake, visited the Texas State Capitol Visitor Center (for maps and visitor guides to Austin and Texas to add to the out-of-town guests' bags), then went by the camera store to pick up the video camera. Contrary to what Jill's dad had been told by the camera store clerks before, the camera that he wanted was not available (remember rule #3?). Bob fought with them, but without a reservation, it was in vain. It ended up that he found another place to rent a camera, and the resultant video was excellent. We also stopped by the florist, who had screwed up and only gotten three out of the four ferns that we had ordered (rule #3 strikes again). We returned to the suites to put together the gift baskets with the items that we had in anticipation of receiving the final UPS boxes.

On Tuesday night we had scheduled a "romp" with our old college friends in lieu of any formal bachelor/bachelorette party. A "romp," back in the old days when we were all poor college students, was a cheap get together starting at a restaurant, then just walking around and talking, joking, and seeing what kind of trouble we could get in. This type of simple gathering was the perfect form of relaxation that we had hoped for--we met at the Thai Kitchen on Guadalupe, then walked down to Amy's Ice Cream, back down Guadalupe to Toy Joy, down to the Natual Science building on the University of Texas campus, then back to our cars. Along the way we got to catch up with some of our friends' activities as well as reminisce about the golden days of our youth. If anything, it was hard to believe that it had been ten years since we had started romping--everything was so similar. Then we picked up William at the airport....

We have to go into this, just to illustrate the type of guy that William is. He was due in on an American Airlines flight at 11 pm. The two of us, plus Glen's cousin +Rich Everett and his fiance Terri Gailey, Mike Sumbera, and Rich (RoadRich) Simental were there to greet him. Also waiting for that flight were a group of women from UT who were expecting a friend from Peru named Carlos. When William showed up, we all clapped and cheered to see him, then he put aside his bag and waited with us the extra minute to cheer Carlos' arrival. Afterwards, the six of us retired to William's house to sit around and talk until 1 am. William was the ultimate trooper to put up with us. He even said he enjoyed it. Strange fellow, what?

Wednesday was a blur, a nervous, busy day of wrapping, making gift bags, rehearsing, and the rehearsal dinner. We had a nice party at Trudy's Northstar, a favorite mexican restaurant from our days of living in Austin. They gave us the whole balcony and we drank margaritas and socialized with the wedding party, close family, and out-of-town family and friends.

On Thursday morning, Glen and the guys went to the Jimmy Clay Golf Course in Southeast Austin for "Golf with the Groom." Jill had been working for months on the "Ride with the Bride," a horseback expedition for the women, but Glen couldn't decide on what he wanted to do the morning of the wedding, so Jill's dad started organizing a golf game. Actually, Glen had thought of "Doom with the Groom," but didn't think his future father-in-law would appreciate the myriad complexities of hand-eye coordination involved in killing aliens on another world in a computer game. As it turned out, it was "Gloom with the Groom," because of the rain on Thursday. The guys quit after four holes and retired to the bowling alley for two games (where Glen barely eked out a win with his second game of 166), but the women proved more determined and actually went through with their ride despite the weather.

It was amazing how relaxed Jill was on Thursday (wedding day). Julie, Pamela, and Jill went horseback riding in the Hill country in the pouring rain (Sharon waited in the car). (Jill says, "The last bit of road was very slick and muddy and we were very wet and muddy afterwards. Good thing we were riding in my dad's brand new car! I said, 'That's OK. It's not my father's Oldsmobile...Oh, wait...it is my father's Oldsmobile!'") From then on, Jill just got more and more relaxed. Jill had lunch with aunts and cousins at Fuddruckers (which her Aunt Marilyn mis-pronounced with great hilarity) even though Jill was still in her wet clothes since her hotel key had fallen off its chain. Then, since Jill's Dad (and the other hotel key) was with Glen and the guys golfing and bowling, Jill drove her mother and Aunt Marilyn to the alumni center (reception location) and the church to deliver items and check things out. By then it was almost 3 pm so she had to get ready quick! She was worried until Glen showed up late, totally not ready, so we got ready together, taking turns in the bathroom. Very nice, very us. We were late for the photos (darn). All through this, Jill felt relaxed, happy, calm. Even in the ceremony itself, Jill was happy and excited. The Pastor was perfect in everything he said and did. The carriage ride from the church to the reception was lovely (Dan the Horse) with no rain (although a bit cold). Halfway through the salad course (the 2nd course of 7), Jill knew it would all go by too quickly--and was right.

On Friday, we got up and rearranged our packing in preparation for the trip to Italy, then went to the Gift Opening Brunch kindly sponsored by Glen's aunt and uncle. That night our last night in Austin, Pamela and Gus (our friends from Washington), Gene and Nancy (our friends from Washington who now live in Florida), and Glen's cousin +Rich joined us to see Patty Larkin at the Cactus Cafe (small art house at the student union at the University of Texas). She was outstanding! Afterwards, we went to Taco Cabana (since it was quite late), rounding off our last night. Returning to out bed & breakfast, we fell into bed, supertired, but happy. Happy to have had so much fun and to have seen so many of our friends and family, and to be off to Italy. Not bad for the first day as a married couple.