Meet the Wedding Party - Groom-ination Style

I'm Daniel.  I'm the Groom.

So, I was gonna do a groom-inations post about all the crap I've been doing instead of doing groom-inations posts.  But, it turns out that I've been promising Nicole that I would do a post about my grooms people for a while now.  Like a long while.  Still haven't done it.  Feel pretty bad.  But better late than never, I hope. Anyway...  In chronological order... Joey! Becca! Andrew!   Yeahh! The crowd goes willllddddd!!!!  ROARyeahWOoooh!

Joey

 source - sometimes its safer to fear joey

So I've known Joey the longest, since sixth grade, way back in Miller Creek Middle School.  We knew each other and we were certainly friendly, but we didn't really become friends until high school.  We had a ton of classes together and have been best friends ever since.  Joey and I still get together with four other guys about once a year, Victor, Everly, Minh-Hai, and Jimmy.  We all used to hang out in high school, though I stayed closest with Joey.  Joey and I saw a lot more of each other than the rest of the guys because we also went to the same school for college, and even after that lived pretty close to each other.  It wasn't until I left for Chicago to go to law school that we stopped hanging out.  But it's not like we were ever gonna be less of friends or anything.  I've known Joey for so long, and we give each other so much crap, he's probably the closest thing I'll ever have to knowing what it's like to have a sibling.  (Did I just call Joey a thing?  Oh well, he knows I've said worse about him)

Becca

source - Supper Letter Club was Yummy

I met Rebecca (no one calls her that) when I moved into the dorms at UC Berkeley in August of 2000.  I think I met her the first day there, even though she lived one floor below me.  She and her roommate Rachel (Rach) very quickly became good friends with Maureen (Mo), who lived down the hall from me.  (And they called me Dan, not Daniel.  Everyone's name was shorter. what gives?)  And Rach dated my roommate Will for a while, so then I got close with all of them.  I remember a lot of good times I had hanging out in the dorm with their feminine triumvirate (ooh, big words!).  I've always had an easier time connecting with women as friends.  Not sure why.  So anyway, for a while there I never thought I would be as close to Becca as either Rach or Maureen.  I just wasn't as close a friend with her when we first met, especially since I shared an apartment with Mo for three years.  But sometimes the years go by and things surprise you.  Mo and Rach both moved away but Becca and I stuck around after graduation.  We became really close.  The kind of friend you just know will be there when you need them.  (And, by the way, that whole thing about how guys and girls can't be friends cause of the sex issue is bullshit.  I'm just saying.)  So, it never occurred to me to have a groomsman who wasn't a man.  But one day Nicole talked to me about how much she wanted to have her brother Cody stand on her side, to which I immediately responded, "well, then I should get Becca on my side."  Nicole pointed out that yeah, I should.  So here she is.  She'll be dressed like a bridesmaid but she'll stand with Joey and Andrew on my side.


Andrew

source - dude... I wanna come to the wall too!

This is gonna sound weird, since I only have three groomsmenpeople, but I haven't seen Andrew in over three and a half years.  He and his wife (also a Nicole) were in Mali with the peace corps for two years, then they taught in France for a year, and now they are in the Qinhuangdao province of China for one more year.  They have been back a couple of times, separately.  I've seen Nicole, but somehow I never managed to see Andrew.  Actually, now that I'm writing it down, it just sucks.  We were so close that last couple of years before he left.  And I suck at long distance friendships.  Like really suck.  But you know what, we both know it doesn't matter.  We're still gonna do our damnedest to make sure we live in the same area and are friends for many years to come.
Anyway, Andrew and I met through a wonderful little organization called BookWorlds.  I'm sure Nicole (mine this time) has mentioned it, but here's the summary.  BookWorlds is a club of friends that teaches real undergraduate courses at UC Berkeley about books that have their own worlds.  In their second semester, Andrew co-taught a course on Lord of the Rings.  I loved it.  It was the best thing I'd ever done in college.  I joined up with so much enthusiasm it was scary.  Andrew and I were both part of the core group of bookworlders for several years and it was a really fun time in my life.  So, thanks for that.  Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing my friend again this summer and having him stand up at my wedding.


So... yeah, that's it.  There's probably more to say.  I ramble too much though.  (I bet you can tell from the overuse of parentheses)  I'm glad Nicole only had three people on her side.  Being reduced to three spots made things a lot easier for me.  Otherwise I'd have a crappy choice of choosing who else to have stand and who not to.  I mean, Vic, Ev, Danny, Leslie, lots of people I would love to have up there with me.  I'm an over-inclusive kind of guy to begin with.  I want everyone in on the fun.  Without Nicole reigning me in a bit, I might have had a whole crowd up there with me.

Groom-inations - #2

I'm Daniel.  I'm the Groom.

This past Sunday Nicole and I went to a wedding expo and that's what I'm going to talk about.  First, I should be more accurate and call it a bridal expo because it was definitely for the brides.  There were almost no men there, not counting the working ones.  I can say counting, because I did try to count.  I almost had to use both hands.  I'm sure I missed some, so I'll estimate there were 10.  It was like swimming in estrogen.  And I do mean swimming.

Why do I mean swimming?  Is the Groom misogynistic?  Nope, I say swimming because it is the closest description I can think of to the physical experience at the expo, swimming through a sea of women.  When you picture a bridal expo, you might picture something open, with a big room and lots of different booths from vendors, photographers, florists, etc.  That's what I pictured.  And Nicole says that the other one she went to was like that.  Not this one though.  Oh, the vendors were there.  Lots of booths.  But open space?  Nope!  The ENTIRE expo was arranged in one gigantic line.  The booths were in a giant snake coil going back and forth so that every single attendee was stuck going past every single booth.  It was sooooo slooooow.  Did not like that part.  Nicole didn't either.  Bad idea by the organizers.

But, wedding expos are not usually like that (I'm told) so I feel like I should discount that part off of my impressions.  What does that leave?  Well, there was some good stuff.  The various florists had pretty amazing displays.  It helped to see things in person to get an idea for what I actually would like to have at my wedding.  We both really liked the flowers that were underwater in jars.  It sounds silly, but it looks really good.  The contests were nice.  Didn't win anything that I know of, but maybe.  Also there was free candy.  Got a few chocolate strawberries.

The bad?  No free cake.  Where's the cake?

Long story short - Bad Expo, but I'd totally go to another one.  Besides, it's fun to take your bride to a bride thing.

Nicole's Note:  The expo we went to was called Bridal Expo Chicago or more generally Bridal Show Expo.  And I definitely wouldn't recommend it.  Like Daniel said, the other one I went to was far superior in setup and free cake options.

Groom-inations - #1

I'm Daniel.  I'm the Groom.

Since Nicole has started this blog, I figured that I can throw in a few thoughts every once in a while.  I'm not nearly as into wedding planning at the moment.  I really want to get through school first.  But she does get me thinking with all of her "look at this" and "what do you think of this?" etc.

What is my first Groom-ination?
I want to be a super groom.  I can kind of understand how it might be easy to fall into the trap of being a lame groom and letting the bride do too much of the work.  I don't want to do that.  How do I avoid this problem?  I buy this T-Shirt.

 

Source 

It's a bird, it's a penguin, it's SuperGroom!!