Liz and I are officially married. I got to say that I thought I wouldn’t feel any different but I really do. A little more responsible, committed, and closer to a new family I’ve grown to know and love over the last 5 years. We had a great time and really enjoyed spending time with extended family as well as our immediate family and friends. Everything was perfect as could be, and everyone seemed to agree.

Throughout the night I kept telling myself to enjoy every moment because I knew our day was going to go by fast. If there was one thing I learned from hang gliding two weeks prior, it was that new and amazing experiences can kick your ass so hard and go by so fast without you being able to process how you felt or why. Even though I made an effort to enjoy every minute it still moved faster than I wanted everything to, but I loved every second.

We’ve been doing great as husband and wife for a little over a month now.. I can’t believe it’s almost been two months already. We’re just now getting back into our normal routines, even with the fall time change I still feel like I need another hour to catch up on everything I need to do. New gifts, new families, and new memories have enriched our lives along with our commitment to each other. We are very thankful to have had our good friends there to share in our experience. The holidays will be extra special for us and everyone in our family this year.

We’ve decided to make the majority of our wedding photos and videos public. They may not be the most interesting pictures or amazing action packed movies, but they serve a special place in our hearts. Regardless, enjoy a tiny look into our special week.
 

Here’s a slideshow of photos I have posted on my Flickr page. Special thanks to Dave Luchansky over at ACandidAffair.com.

On our way to Epcot

Walking around Epcot

Hotel hot tub

Hotel walk-through.

Mini Golf.

Worst tour guide ever.

On some People Mover thing at Magic Kingdom

Eating at the Sci-Fi Dine-In Theatre.

Rocking the small boat on the lake.

The following takes place between 8:45pm and 8:47pm.

What could possibly be called an epic battle occurred this Thursday evening. The two fierce and agile competitors battled for new grounds after a key piece of territory was introduced in the form of a cardboard box containing one wedding present.

Luckily this brave journalist was there on the scene to capture the key events:

Lt. Lucy guards her post from potential intruders.

A CHALLENGER APPEARS!

Perhaps it was just a diversion...

Suspicion sets in as Lt. Lucy turns to the journalist for intel on the enemy location.

Perhaps a quick glance to locate the enemy won't hurt...

The enemy strikes and engages in close combat!

Lt. Lucy is forced to retreat from the bunker!

Scout Ricky has claimed his territory... for now.

As my future wife and I were driving to our local government office’s Administration building this morning to pick up our marriage license, I got to thinking about the whole marriage industry; the hoops you need to jump through, the people who profit, and what you gain from it all.

In traditional means, first thing that needs to happen is the guy (usually) is the one to propose to the girl (usually). At this moment, you’re basically saying in public, “I want to go into business with you”. Of course there’s love, romance, a ceremony to invite family and friends to; all marriage really is, is a contract stating that you won’t fuck the other person over without legal cause. Romantic.

Let’s back-track a bit.

When I was a kid, it was never my dream to one day get married. I don’t think it was any guy’s dream, at least I hope not. My dream was to see a G.I. Joe make it from the top of the waterfall in my backyard all the way down to the bottom pool (I did it once and it ruled). So what’s with all these little girls that want to grow up to have a ‘Cinderella wedding’? Is it some conspiracy I don’t know about? Should I trash some Disney movies? Burn magazines? What?

My theory is that parents are to blame for subliminal pressure put on their daughters and society is to blame for the tantalizing image they entice girls with. Ya I ended that sentence with a preposition, so.

The American image of a girl in a white dress walking down the aisle with her dad to marry some guy is classic at best. I think marriages are more likely to end in divorce because of what this image represents. Dreams, passion, love, romance, everything a drama free soap opera could offer. Complacency sets in and you’re left with reality instead of ‘happily ever after’. I believe most people that have this fairy tale vision of their life end up disappointed with their reality and turn to the person they married and cast blame rather than owning up to society’s flaw.

All I know is, I’m a realist now. I was a dreamer. I did dream big, I still do, but only for things I feel I can control. Marriage is a partnership and a business of trust and happiness. And just like start-ups, 85% of marriages fail in the first 5 years.

You want my advice on marriage? Take some business classes.

Traveling to Oxnard for tasting #2. Finding the place was easy thanks to google maps, but there’s no proper exit going west bound on the 101, so we had to find our way onto the other side of the freeway by some magical mystery route.

We ended up on time and at A Gift of Taste. First impressions of the place was “wow, this is kinda ghetto”. But the cakes tasted way better than our first adventure, granted they didn’t have the pomp and frills of the last time.

So we had the Chocolate w/Mocha Chocolate mousse, Marble w/fresh strawberries, and a white cake w/raspberry-chiffon custard. All of these were pretty sick, despite the fact that they looked like something I could have made in 5 seconds, but it got the job done as far as tasting goes.

The fresh strawberry one was my favorite, but we’re also thinking about our location and time of year we’re going to be having the wedding. We’re also unsure that everyone would like strawberries, so a strawberry-chiffon custard option would most likely be our best bet.

Ultimately I felt like we weren’t getting the proper attention at their small cramped table on the side of the wall. We were more like a side-show to their plethora of decorations they had on display in their crowded store (reminded me more of Hallmark than a bakery). They forgot forks at first, the cake fell over and went everywhere after one person would attempt to cut with the side of the fork, and we were told we would be one of four wedding cakes that day. Yah, wedding cakes.

We have two other places in mind to check out, so we’re hoping to feel comfortable with the people and the taste of the cake and be done with our decision. This hasn’t been the easiest decision making process like I anticipated, but perhaps we’re making up for everything else which came together so smoothly.

Today, me and my future extended family went to our first location of cake tastings called For Heavens Cakes. Granted I’ve never been to a tasting before so I had little to no expectations, so the name of the place wasn’t out of place with my feelings about it all. My first impression going in was YES CAKE. But no, it’s not all about the cake. There’s money and thinking involved. F***.

First they brought out four samples for us four that we could try.

Out came some of the more popular samples people tend to choose from. White cake with a raspberry puree, chocolate devil’s food, yellow cake, and a weird donut looking orange flavor one. I wished that I liked chocolate more cause that one was super good. I never really liked yellow cake, the orange one was plain weird, so we eventually decided that white cake would best. Okay time to think. They won’t make you another cake, so at this point you have to imagine what these flavors would taste like if you shuffled them around with each other.

So we got white cake decision out of the way. Sweet. Now we had to pick a type of filling. Strawberry sounded nice. Okay. Then the frosting, buttersomething or other. K. Then flower arrangement decor. Uhm, fresh? K. Then it’s all about design. Luckily we went in there with a photo my fianceé picked out, and I’m not super picky and I naturally agreed that it looks rad. Simple right? Maybe for us.

Then they did the whole “Oh you gotta book us fast if you wanna have something locked in for your wedding!”. No. “We’re going to be airing a reality tv show in May things will really pick up for us then so you gotta throw a deposit down soon!”. Really? No. We’re not getting married in June or July and how much attention will you really be giving us in September if you have a “reality tv show” to deal with? Hmm?

Regardless, we’re looking forward to the next place on our list in the next week or so. Overall it was a good experience, but I don’t see us locking this place in just yet.