Wednesday – 07 October 2009
We’re back. It’s been an amazing weekend… long weekend, that is. And it’s been fun, exciting, too fast/too short, and a whole list of other adjectives that are slipping my mind. In short: It’s been wonderful. I took a lot of pictures of the weekend, minus wedding (natch) and there seem to be a few that others have taken floating around various places in the Interwebs.

The wedding went off, literally, without a hitch. Seriously. Heritage Gardens was nothing short of excellent at taking care of all of the details. We arrived Saturday morning at 0900 and had a brief walkthrough of the ceremony. Amber, our coordinator, ushered us through everything, even without a few family members there. Next the wedding party got dressed and we took pictures.

Let me stop here to note that I hadn’t seen SaraRules’ dress before Saturday morning. Not during the trip to L.A. to find it. Not during the past six months that it’s been at her parents’ house. I didn’t see it until she came down the stairs from the Bride’s Room.

It was totally worth the wait.
She looked amazing in it.

Twila, our photographer, wanted to get a picture of my reaction to the dress, as SaraRules came down the stairs. I can’t wait to see that picture, because I know what the reaction felt like: A total jaw-dropping “Wow…” It was also the first time that I’d seen her bouquet: It was made of glass, as was my boutonniere.

We took pictures with our families… wait, I guess that’s just “family,” now. Twila, once again, was right on top of things – she took three pictures for each setting, to ensure that she gets “just the right one.” Parents. Grandparents. Siblings. Blended family. Wedding party. Us with Ben (our officiant). You name it, I think we have a picture of it.

Then it was time for the ceremony. We lined up and walked in. When SaraRules came down the steps and into the chapel, it was another “Wow…” moment – she really did look fantastic in her dress. We stood at the altar with our sibs as our groomsmen and bridesmaids – my Godsister, Tammy, filled in as a “stunt bridesmaid,” since we weren’t sure what Rana would have to deal with, as far as Bit and Pixel were concerned. Ben, Tammy’s husband, officiated the ceremony… and it was lovely. A nice blend of a traditional, spiritual ceremony with a few insightful words and a little humor for a modern marriage. We couldn’t have asked for anything better.

The reception was equally fun. We had lovely toasts from Adam and Melissa. We mingled with the guests and even managed to get in a bite or two of lunch. Then we danced. All that anyone knew of our dance was that it had been choreographed by SaraRules’ former classmate, Mark Baker, the Ballroom Dance Coordinator for Southern Utah University. No one expected The Spanish Inquisition us to break out in swing dancing to James Brown’s I Feel Good (I Got You). It was a big hit. Next up, SaraRules and her father danced to Stevie Wonder’s Isn’t She Lovely. Then it was time for the mother-son dance; we danced to If You Believe, from the Broadway production of The Wiz. (Mom liked my choice of song. WIN!) After more mingling, things began to wind down. But, It was awesome to have so many members of our family and friends there to share it with us.

We left the reception center… and headed to Beans and Brews for coffee. (It had been a long morning.) We went in our tux and dress. A patron came up and shyly asked if we had just gotten married; we told her that we had. She sweetly congratulated us and wished us well. Then we were off to our hotel. We changed into comfy clothes and proceeded to try and catch a nap before dinner. No such luck. We were far too wired from the day to sleep, so we chatted away the afternoon until time to head to…

…The Paris Bistro. It was our second trip to the restaurant and, again, everything was practically perfect. Our waitress, Lindsay, was attentive and quite sweet. The food was exquisite: We started with their Shrimp Paris appetizer, then SaraRules had their Bouillabaisse Provençal Fish Stew while I had the Grilled Mystic Wild Alaskan Silver Salmon. We had opted out of having dessert… but Lindsay, whom we had told that it was our wedding day, brought us a Bananas and Nutella Crepe dessert.

Leaving the restaurant, we decided to go in search of ice cream. The place I had intended to go wasn’t there anymore, so we cut our search short and opted to head back to the hotel and crash. And we did, in fairly short order.

Sunday morning, we got up and headed to SaraRules’ parents; they had decided to throw a brunch for the families family. If our count was accurate, there were fifty-three people there. It was nice to be able to see everyone once more before they took off for their respective parts of the country.

Back home to pack and then we were off for a mini-honeymoon in Las Vegas. We got under way around 1530. We stopped in St. George at the In-N-Out Burger and at the Dairy Queen and then were on the road again.  SaraRules had gotten us a room at the Luxor. By the time we got there, we were ready for dinner. After dinner and a little wandering, we were ready to call it a night.

Monday, we got up, got ready and got out. We had breakfast and then hit the road to visit Hoover Dam. The drive to Boulder City was nice, but traffic slows (to a crawl) a few miles from the dam. But, when we finally got there, I was amazed: It is an incredible feat of engineering. We walked along the front and back walls of the dam, from the Nevada side to the Arizona side and back. Naturally, I took a plethora of pictures (which are available from the link at the top of the post). Back to Vegas, where we drove around looking for Trader Joe’s, quilt shops and comic book stores. We were successful at finding all of them. We had dinner at Roy’s, a Hawai’ian fusion restaurant that SaraRules suggested. It was another fantastic place: The service was exemplary, the food was succulent. Everything about the place was spot-on. We started with a calamari appetizer, which came with a delicious macadamia nut pesto. Our main courses were: Hawaiian Style Misoyaki Butterfish (SaraRules) and  Chili Pepper Scented U-10 Scallops (me). Next came the “Roy’s Melting Hot Chocolate Souffle,” for dessert. And, were were sent a congratulatory mini-dessert of a berry custard on cake, as well. All-in-all, it was an excellent dining experience and one that I heartily recommend to anyone heading to Las Vegas.

We headed to Town Square to do a little shopping (we wound up only window shopping, though) and then headed back to the Hotel where Josh and Lish met up with us. It was nice to see them and catch up on some of the latest news from southern Utah and Massachusetts.

Tuesday morning, we got up, stopped to take pictures by the “Welcome to Las Vegas” sign…

…before hitting a nearby Dunkin’ Donuts for coffee and doughnuts (and Munchkins!) and getting on our way back to Utah. We stopped in Cedar City to watch a production of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged). It was hilarious. Thanks to Josh for getting us tickets and for the in-play nod to our new marriage. And then, back on the road to Salt Lake City.

It was a wonderful (extended) weekend. Thanks to everyone who shared it with us.

Namaste.