A few weeks ago, Grace and I headed out to the US for our friends Natalie and Jeremiah’s wedding. Natalie was the one who introduced us way back in September of 2011, and so it was awesome to be able to come out and celebrate with them.
The wedding itself was to be out in Boise, Idaho – a good 12 or 13 hours drive away from Denver, Colorado – and a few States over. We set off on a road trip via Salt Lake City to get there, and that’ll be the subject of a separate blost post later on down the line…
Everybody met up a few days before the wedding, with us staying in various AirBnB’s and such, and it was nice to see some old faces from around the US that we hadn’t seen in a few years.
There’s a family tradition to have a ‘mock wedding’ the night before the actual event, where close relatives get together to slag off the bride and groom in one way or another. It was pretty bizarre, but endearing, and they were much nicer to Natalie and Jeremiah than we would be in Scotland at something similar (!).
After everything wrapped up, we headed back with Natalie to her cousins’ – Colleen and Taggart – who were rather graciously hosting both us and another couple of Natalie’s pals from London. Naturally, there had to be a bit of a nightcap.
On the day itself, we headed over to meet at a church, to grab a coach out West to the winery where the wedding was going to be held.
There were wine tastings to be had, and I had a particularly tasty Sauvignon Blanc that actually tasted of peaches. Delicious.
The ceremony was to be held outside, and it was blisteringly hot. So hot in fact, that the bottoms of my shoes melted off and I had to stick them back down.
The ceremony itself was lovely, with close friend Andre officiating.
We retired upstairs for food and limitless wine.
The first dance came…
…and so did the rather unorthodox second dance…
…and then the rest.
Things got a bit mad by the end.
When the time came to head back to Boise, the sun was going down, and the light outside was beautiful.
The coach journey back was a bit more lively than the one out…
Before long, we were back in downtown Boise, and hit one of the local bars, in full wedding garb.
When the bars closed, we ended up back at an AirBnB where the madness continued.
When we finally got back, even getting into bed was a bit of a struggle.
The next day we shook off our hangovers with a leisurely float down a river with beers in hand, which was sorely needed.
As we all had a final drink and prepared to head off on our various ways, it was tough not to feel sad. After being to a lot of weddings, I’ve come to realise that the ones you come away from with the best of memories are those that become something more than just a single ‘event’; The ones where you spend a few days together. It doesn’t always happen this way, but sometimes you truly feel a shared sense of community develop, and you leave feeling like you’ve made bonds with those that were there for life. I’m really glad that we were able to go and be part of that, and really happy for our pals Natalie and Jeremiah.
The 13 hour car journey back to Denver, however…
Thanks 🙏 for including us in wedding 👰.. beautiful pics.. and everyone seems like they all have a grand time.
As it should be…
Thank you for your kind words, my friend. What a pleasure it was to have you and Grace come to support us in our marriage. The memories will last a lifetime.