Dave & Esther's Wedding

It happened on June 6 (D-Day!), 1998, in the late afternoon. Other key players:

Officiator	Charlene Belsom Zellmer, Unitarian-Universalist Minister
Best Man	Thaddeus Zukowski
Matron of Honor	Laura Libby
Poem Reader	Esther's brother Ed
Ushers	Esther's brothers Ed and Lex
Site	Rockwood Manor Park, Potomac MD (in front of gazebo)
Music	The Celebrated String Quartet
Caterer	Not mentioned by name, due to The Disaster
Photographer	Diane Knaus, Annapolis MD
Florist	Karin's Florist, Vienna VA
Honeymoon Site	Steele's Tavern Manor, Steele's Tavern VA

(My friends are now probably thinking, "Why a U-U minister? I thought you were Jewish!" Esther's friends are now probably thinking, "Why a U-U minister? I thought you were Catholic!" The answer should now be obvious.)

The night before, Thaddeus, being a professionally-trained chef, cooked the rehearsal dinner, composed of several courses of excellent taste and abundant quantity. Despite his extreme humility, it got rave reviews.

So how did The Big Day itself go, you wonder?

• We got rave reviews on the ceremony, most of which we wrote ourselves.

• People also loved the site -- we liked it so much ourselves that when we found out, in March, that the only dates available were June 6 and Halloween, we took it anyway. We wouldn't have minded Halloween itself, which has numerous interesting possibilities, but the site is so perfect for an outdoor ceremony, and the weather is usually pretty yucky in late October....

• The music was great, but I predicted that, having heard CSQ before, at Leah Kenyon's wedding.

• The main minor goof was that, silly me, I didn't realize that she was supposed to switch her engagement ring to the right hand! We held hands during most of the ceremony, and I felt her engagement ring there. I thought to myself, "Wait a minute, isn't that her right hand? Naah, I must be just nervous and flustered and confusing left and right." So, when it came time to put the wedding ring on her, I reached for the hand with the ring that I thought was already supposed to be on the hand the new ring goes on! But nooooo.... After a couple tries, I realized what was going on, reached diagonally from what I knew was MY left hand, and got it right, er, left, er, correct.

• The food was delicious, except maybe the cake. We don't know; we didn't get any, due to The Disaster. It was supposed to be a Baked Alaska, not an Exploded Alaska!

• The minister apparently used her connections "upstairs" to get us great weather, cool and dry. This turned out to be necessary, due to The Disaster.

• Then of course there was The Disaster....

Some pictures are available on Bruce Feist's page of stereograms from my wedding.

The honeymoon was wonderful. We didn't get to do as much hiking as we had hoped, due to two and a half days of rain, out of our one-week stay. The poor visibility also prevented us from seeing anything from the star on the mountain that overlooks Roanoke, so we didn't bother to go up the mountain. However, we did get to see a lot of historical and natural sites (including Lexington (which has the Stonewall Jackson House, Washington & Lee University, and the Virginia Military Institute), Monticello, Dixie Caverns, Natural Bridge, and Natural Bridge Caverns), several wineries (Afton Mountain, Mountain Cove, Rockbridge, and Totier Creek), and other points of interest, plus do some hiking in the George Washington Natural Forest and Douthat State Park. The B&B was excellent, conveniently located a few miles off I-81 between I-64 East and I-64 West, for easy access to everything from Roanoke to Monticello. The breakfasts were delicious, and could be taken either in the dining room or delivered to our room! Speaking of our room, not only was it comfortable, but it had a double jacuzzi in the bathroom, and herbal bath salts supplied. (The first night, we used some bubble bath we had brought.) They also had a great dinner available (the night we chose, the entree was a whole stuffed Cornish Game Hen per person), albeit for an extra price, and a gathering for tea and cookies in the afternoon, plus juice and pop anytime.

The whole operation was quite a learning experience, so we have developed a list of wedding tips.

As of two weeks later, we've finally got the presents unwrapped, many of them put where they belong, some of them even tried (the steamer, wok, and waffle iron work great!), and most of the thank-you notes written. Moving her into my house proceeds apace, with major rearrangements and throwing out of duplicate items and yet more junk. She's now removed everything from her apartment, and cleaned it up. We're now using one of other bedrooms for our joint computer room (leaving the main part of the basement for pretty much just the TV and a few bookcases), and another for a "dressing room". At least the master bedroom is staying where it is! B-)