The Bauer of Love

This past weekend one of my closest friends got married. Ray Bauer wed his girlfriend of several years in a lovely ceremony at Queen of All Saints in Oakville. If you don't know Ray, he worked with me for many years at Frankie G's, is now a Physical Therapist, plays drums in the band Glorious Blue, and was the guy in my wedding with the long curly hair. For his wedding, I acted as the Best Man.

The whole series of events surrounding this wedding were spectacular. Since I was the best man, I received the fortunate pleasure of organizing the Bachelor Party! When I got married in '08 we all decided it would be awesome to go to Las Vegas. After short deliberation over deciding between a few different destinations, Ray too ultimately chose Vegas. We went at the end of July and had a blast - there were about 10 of us, including 6 of the 8 groomsman and of course the bachelor. Needless to say we tore that town a new one and were able to one-up my party by not repeating some of the same mistakes, as well as trying out a few new things.

This past weekend was basically a 3-day series of events culminating into the big "I do" and ensuing reception on Saturday. My trip into St. Louis started on Thursday morning so I could get in, grab my tux, and make it to the early evening rehearsal at the church. This was followed by a lovely dinner party at Sage in Soulard... the Filet was delicious! Also a nice surprise, was since Dave and Kathy (parents of the groom) were hosting this dinner, they provided custom made coasters with our pets' pictures on them that we could take as party favors! It was very cool and a good way to start off the festivities. I also received custom cuff links and a sleeve of Titleist Pro-V1 golf balls as my groomsman's gift.

Since Friday was an "off" day the boys took the afternoon to hit the links. We played an 18-hole best ball tournament at the Acorns in Waterloo, IL. This was great because it was like a second bachelor party for the people who weren't able to make it out to Vegas. There are also a lot of people who played that I am friends with and haven't gotten to see in a while, so it was good to get out and swing the clubs with them all. Afterward we hit the Sports Pub in Oakville for drinks and more fried chicken than you would ever want to see.

Saturday was the big day, so it followed the traditional course. Aside from the handing off of the bride by her father, and the exchanging of rings and vows, and the big kiss, I would have to say the highlight of the ceremony was when I adjusted the back of Ray's tux to make sure it was in ship-shape, imitating the tidying the Matron of Honor was performing on the bride's dress. The wedding party followed up the ceremony with a bus ride out to the park for pictures. This trip was not without incident as one of the groomsman proceeded to choke on his sandwich and Ray had to administer the Heimlich Maneuver to dislodge it... in his defense, this was a result of a medical condition and not necessarily his own negligence. After his life was preserved and everything back on track, we drove around to two different photography locations before settling on the third - Concordia Seminary - which actually turned out nicely because of the Gothic Architecture and nature in the background. We then made our way to the reception, all singing karaoke style to the jams Ray had put together in the CD player.

The reception was held at Crowne Plaza in Clayton, MO. This was convenient because they have a very nice hotel attached to the ballroom... or vice versa. Again, standard operating procedure except for the maybe 300+ guests and the groom's band breaking into the DJs set with their own performance... oh yeah, and the bride supplying a cart full of Dunkin Donuts as a surprise for the groom, who coincidentally loves doughnuts! The dinner was fantastic and the booze was flowing. The music selection was awesome too. I had to give a speech and thought I would rock and roll through it, but I may have been a bit upstaged by the speeches of the Father of the Bride and the Matron of Honor who both knocked theirs out of the proverbial park.... meh, at least mine was the last one that was delivered. It was long, I cracked jokes, and I got a little choked up, so it had all the makings of a good Best Man's toast, I suppose. Oddly enough the after party was held in Ray's parents hotel room with the bride's parents and a few other people - none of whom were the bride or groom...

That was pretty much it for the festivities. Kristen and I were lucky enough while in town to have drinks and brunch (on 2 separate occasions) with friends of her's from grad school, and also to help my little nephew celebrate his 7th birthday, which is shared with my 29th (blog post pending on that topic)...