Blog Master G

Jen and I are now married. Husband and wife. Mr. and Mrs. Gabe. It’s quite an overwhelmingly exciting feeling and one I’m not quite sure I’m ready to put in words just yet. But I wanted to write something.

Yesterday was one of the best, happiest, and most nerve-racking days of my life. Everything was just perfect. My bride was stunningly beautiful. The flowers were bright and gorgeous. The weather was just right. The friends and the family came in force with smiles I’ll never forget. It’s all a bit too much even to digest. It will probably take some time.

We just saw the official photos that cousin Cyd took for us. They’re incredible. I can’t wait to order larger prints. Our favorite one is one that Cyd took just moments after we had left the Chapel. It wasn’t planned. We’re standing against the stone of the Chapel. That photo isn’t yet in digital form, but it will be.

To see so many people come from far and wide and to be celebrity for a day (and night) is a pretty unreal feeling. It really made us feel special knowing that so many people care enough about us to have come to celebrate the Big Day.

I was so nervous the morning of the wedding that I felt queasy up until the service began. I was a nervous wreck. But standing there with my beautiful bride was amazing, a feeling I’ll never forget. It didn’t really cross my mind that there were 150 people in the pews behind us. My reading went really well. And once the service was over, I felt great. On top of the world. After the receiving line we headed down to the Jaguar limo with the red carpet and bottle of champagne on ice that sat waiting for us. That was such a great feeling.

More than a year’s worth of hard work and planning paid off. Everything went off without a hitch. Jen did an excellent job.

The one thing that’s been bothering me today that I’m sure I’ll get over is that I discovered this morning that the end of the service was accidentally recorded over at the reception. We have a lot of footage of the reception and the first part of the service itself (including Jen coming down the aisle), but we don’t have our exchanging of rings and vows on tape. I’m disappointed that something went wrong, but we’ll always have the memories (and tons of great photos), and that’s what counts. We’re not really video people anyway and probably wouldn’t watch the video too often. We didn’t want a professional videographer, so that’s the risk we took.

If that’s the worst thing to go wrong — and something inevitably does at just about every wedding — then I’d say we did just fine. The service and reception were incredible and I wouldn’t have changed a thing.

I really like the new ring on my finger and that Jen and I are now married. It’s going to take some getting used to.

Tomorrow it’s back home to San Francisco for a night, then off to Hawaii (the Big Island) through Sunday. I’m looking forward to the lava flows and mai tais on the beach.