Well, the day has come and gone! Kim and Matt got married on Saturday afternoon. What started out to be a shitty day, ended up being absolutely fantastic, and quite beautiful! This was one of those weddings that was flawless! The event lasted well into the night, and the hall was chock full o’ people at the very end…probably the most people I’ve ever seen at the END of a wedding! Matt has a pretty big family!
Michelle was the Maitron of Honor, and I was a groomsmen. We both had a fantastic time…ALL DAY! Michelle started her day very early, about 7AM. She had a hair and makeup appointment at Red the Salon in Birmingham…damn, those people make some serious money for what they charge! She met up with her sister, cousin, and others, and had mimosas! Michelle actually got pulled over on the way back, speeding on Big Beaver Road, as she was running a bit late to her mom and dad’s house. The officer let her off, even though she had an open bottle of Tosti in the car! Fun stuff! I made it to Matt’s parent’s house at about 10:30AM to start the groomsmen part of the day. We hung out there for a while, had a shot of Sambuca, and enjoyed the company of the groomsmen, including David and Nathan, Michelle’s cousins.
The limo ride was great. There were so many people in the bridal party that we needed to Navigator limos to make it all work out! Did I mention that I had a migraine headache brewing from about 11am onward? I thought to myself to bring some Excedrin, just in case, but I figured since I didn’t drink any alcohol the night before, there’d be no chance in hell that I’d be plagued by a headache THIS day. I was wrong. I ended up buying some at the party store after the wedding. No help. It wasn’t until Dino brought me some at the hall that it finally went away, and that was about 1 hour after dinner! Phew!
The wedding ceremony was fantastic! It was beautiful… took about an hour. We quickly took pictures afterward, and then proceeded to the Dutkiewicz’s house for a small reception. After that, we hit that liquor store I mentioned, where we bought 2 enormous bottles of Tosti for our limo, along w/ a battle of Ballatore…a local favorite! Again, my head killed, so consuming this stuff was a deathwish!
We made it to the Mollicone house afterwards, where a larger reception was taking place. Lots of food, drinks, and sweets for everyone! Photos were being taken in the backyard, which is very beautiful. The rain was gone, so the photos were wonderful. It was kind of neat (Michelle pointed this out) that there was no sun. People didn’t have to squint while getting their pictures taken, so everyone’s expressions were a bit “softer”, if you will. Won’t you?
When we got to the hall, the bride, groom, and parents, formed the receiving long. I was amazed that this receiving line took about 1.5 hours to complete. The bridal party, and guests, enjoyed a beautiful appetizer table…it was seafood, vegetables, cheese, and crackers. The only thing the table didn’t have was lobster tail! It was awesome. Squid, shrimp, mussles, crab legs (real), peppers, artichokes, cheese, bread, breadsticks, crackers, on and on. Awesome! The dessert table was obscene. It was gigantic and went wall to wall. I barely had a chance to enjoy that at the end of the night because I was soooo full. It had fruit, chocolate, cake, and everything in between!
The head table was amazing… there were so many people in the bridal party that it had to take up ALMOST the entire width of the joint. This wedding would NEVER have fit in ONE of the two ballrooms that it took up…and that’s mainly because of how large the bridal party was!
The speeches were awesome! Sammy made a very nice best-man speech, but the I think Michelle STOLE THE SHOW with her maitron-of-honor speech! She had gone over it at home the night before, but never in a million years did I expect her to present it with such confidence, poise, and articulation! I think the entire crowd was at her fingertips! It was perfect! Sensational, rather! Good job, Michelle! Michelle’s (and Kim’s) Uncle Rico said the prayer before dinner. What an amazing prayer. That man puts a lot of work into his speeches/prayers!
Dinner was amazing. I haven’t had a filet mignon that tasty in my life, I don’t think. It was so good that I didn’t have room for the chicken breast. I had one or two bites, out of respect! Blah blah blah. 😀
The music for the evening was provided by a band. Let me just say that having a LIVE band makes all the difference in the world. It doesn’t even compare to having a DJ, even if they are all over the hall! The band even played a Beyonce Knowles song…you couldn’t even tell it wasn’t off of a CD.
One of the best things about a Dutkiewicz gathering like this is that I get to see Mr. Gordon. He was one of our “famous” high school (and Jr. High–he moved to our High School after we left Jr. High) teachers and track coach. He is always full of something funny and interesting. We always reminisce the old times, and talk about new times. Last wedding we were at, he got gipped on the cigar portion of it, and was only given one later in the night out of pity. He was pissed. THIS time, he got his cigar… a nice Cohiba, compliments of David Duck! I had the same cigar, and enjoyed smoking it with him. Man, I’m not a big cigar guy, but the cigar was awesome!
Anyway, the wedding was great! Kim and Matt are on their way to Hawaii as I write this. They will be there for two weeks! I’m sure they’ll have a blast! HAVE FUN!