I put word out that after the rehearsal dinner, we would be heading to Beth’s condo and anyone could join us. As part of her gift to us, Beth rented a four bedroom unit right on the beach and it became an excellent support space for wedding activities. That night, Dad organized a huge game of poker, which we dubbed The Texas Hold ‘Em Honeymoon Tournament. 50% of the pot would go to the Honeymoon Fund! I have to say it was nice to sit down at the table and already own half of the pot. I definitely felt like I had nothing to lose. I liked the idea of splitting the pot because I think it helped encourage some people to play that normally wouldn’t just to help send us off in style. Well, I made it to the final table and was slowly getting beat down by the power players. I made my move and went all in on a pair of Kings against Eric’s pair of 8’s. Everyone gathered round. I was feeling fairly indestructible when the flop revealed a third King. But, when the turn showed an 8, for a moment, I thought I was beat. The crowd reminded me that he would still have to pull out another 8. One card. Only one card would save him. We all prepared to bid Eric farewell and I began to figure out how to slide his massive pile of chips towards me when the river card was revealed. Aahhhhhh! An Eight! An 8! He was spared and I was eliminated. I began chanting, “I was robbed!" Eric felt pretty bad for knocking out the bride-to-be and I laid on the guilt in an attempt to assuage my ego. But, actually, I’m quite proud to be part of one of the greatest hands I have ever seen played out. OK, it took little skill on either of our parts, but it sure was as exciting as it could have been. Eric went on to take home the pot and as a gesture of good will, he gave us the whole kitty. I insisted he take at least his buy-in x 2. The $200 Fund was put towards two wonderful dinners out and tickets for a tour of the old gold mines when we stayed in Julian for our honeymoon.
While all the action at the tables was going on, busy bees were buzzing away in the kitchen assisting Toby with the Cake. There was much to do. Toby was given about 300 miniature cupcakes, supplies she requested for a basic icing, chocolate shell candies, 300 skewers and some styrofoam shapes. She began constructing a most original cake, that we nicknamed Sputnik after the original concept was drawn up. There were several issues that came to light that prevented her from going with the original design, but I very much enjoyed watching her creatively improvise and delegate tasks to her volunteer sous chefs including Justine and Victoria and probably a few others. I love how it came out and everyone seemed to appreciate the design and taste.
And, if that weren’t enough entertainment, Beth’s place came with a hot tub, Several people, including me, took advantage of the beachside bubbles and midnight moon view. It was pretty heavenly, I gotta say. And it’s convinced Daryl and I to consider adding a hot tub to our list of future amenities for our southwest oasis.
One of the big surprises for the evening was to see our childhood friend, Al (Now Vince) Williams and meet his beautiful wife, April. I haven’t seen him in 20 years. Jason, Al and I were very close and I hardly recognized him when he walked in the room. But, as soon as I hugged him, I felt like we were all twelve again ready to stay up all night playing games and drinking Dr Pepper. It was so surreal to know the three of us are all grown up, parents and spouses. I felt like it was an inside joke: the three of us sitting around pretending to be adults while all the while we could look at each other giggling inside knowing we were just wearing adult costumes. Shhh. Don’t tell anyone. Tee hee. Anyway, he was all grown up into a fine young man, which pleasantly surprised me since he was such a teenage terror. We think of him as an extended brother and I think we all felt like we would make good efforts to stay in touch and maybe even visit. We’ll be up in Oregon for Christmas which is very near where Vince lives now, so we might try to rendezvous.
Several people commented how much they enjoyed these more casual events. It gave us lots of time to catch up with people. I had already prepared myself and warned my guests that I would probably not get a lot of one-on-one time. But, at times it felt more like a family reunion than a wedding.
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