Dibble Wedding

Emily and I flew home to NY to see my daughter, my mom, and her family but we chose this week to do it because of Emily’s best friend Cassie’s wedding. Her and her fiance John Dibble got engaged

while Emily and I were home for Christmas and now the wedding had arrived. Emily was of course one of the bridesmaids. The actual ceremony was held in Congress Park in Saratoga Springs, NY under the gazebo there. It was pretty hot out but it couldn’t have been a more beautiful day.

When Em and I first got home on Friday we spent the day with her family hanging out and going to see Transformers 2 with her parents after a quick bite at the Outback Steakhouse. During the day Emily and her mom quickly realized I didn’t have any nice dress clothes so her super mom

was nice enough to buy me some (she insisted!). Saturday we drove up with a rental Dodge Caliber her dad had rented us for the week. I met my mom at Country Cafe for lunch where Emily had dropped me off and had a few quick hours with her before taking her car back to Saratoga for the rehearsal dinner. I got there an hour early so got to hang out with Matt (kim’s boyfriend) and Bow Wow. We all went to dinner at Lillians in their private party room upstairs. It was wonderful and Robin (Bow Wow) and I definitely went back for seconds at the gourmet buffet that was served up. Gomer showed a fantastic slide show of John and Cass in their younger years and we all headed out to The Tavern for drinks (where Emily and I met). I was stuck in my dress clothes because we couldn’t find the rental car keys to get my change of clothes (and wedding gift out). Later, much to my dismay I found out that the lost keys were all my fault as I had put them in my laptop bag and forgotten... thinking the whole time Em had lost them... it wasn’t until Saturday morning just after she called for a locksmith that I woke up with a hangover and found them). The Tavern was a ton of fun as

Richie Ortiz was playing live there. A couple unknown drummers wandered off the street and

asked if they could jam with him and the trio was fantastic. Best Ortiz performance I’ve ever heard and Robin definitely got his dance on... I called Mike Lomanto (who introduced Em to me) and we went out for a few more drinks to Gaffney’s next door while the rest of the wedding party went home. Apparently, after several more car bombs I was obliterated and wandered home, forgetting that I even saw Nick Poleto! At the wedding he reminded me with a laugh. When I got back to the apartment I found that Emily and I were staying in

Cassie’s bed and shortly after falling asleep Emily had to help guide me to the bathroom to pee while I was muttering some nonsense

about President Obama (who I adore).

As I said, the next morning was rough getting up and Emily and Kim almost killed me when it was discovered I had the car keys all along... The girls all took off to get their hair done while us boys met up with the other guys at Bailey’s for lunch and then watched the U.S. unfortunately lose the World Cup of Soccer (although it was an exciting game!). We got geared up and wandered over to Congress Park around 3:45 for the wedding at 4pm. It was hot but everything went off without a hitch. It was a bit hard to hear the pastor way out with the wedding party on the gazebo but thankfully it was quick and everyone headed off to the

old Casino for food while the wedding party got their photos taken.

The rest of the night was wonderful as it was an open bar and people began to get really hammered. Emily’s father was a riot and even demanded a wedding each year from each of the girl’s boyfriends... ha! I got a few dances in, but stayed out of the main dancing crowd as I suck at dancing. They had a great live band at the reception and the dinner was delicious. I of course had the steak. All the girls gave toasts (all were also very nervous), but I think Gomer had one of the best, and funniest.. but I’m not going to repeat it here as I may want to use it someday too. Emily even got some

dances in with a young kid who had a crush on her from the past

wedding in Anguila... The reception ended at 11pm and when I went to get my coat it had vanished. I’m pretty sure Cassie’s drunk little brother took it but I’ll never know. I needed a new one anyway! Emily and her parents joined us at Gaffney’s for a few more drinks before calling it a night. Emily’s mom got into it with a random kid about the Yankee’s and Red Sox while her father seemed to be obsessing over buying copious amounts of drinks for anybody he saw in a uniform (John Dibble graduated top of his class from West Point so had a lot of friends from there at the wedding).

The next morning was pretty rough for everyone. Robin had puked so hard when he woke up that he had busted blood

vessels in his eyelids! We all gradually made it down to Country Cafe off Main Street around 11am. We were eating before Emily’s parents even woke up! ha! It had been a great wedding. Cass and John met up with us in the morning (with HUGE smiles on their faces as they had waited till their wedding night). They opened up a few presents and really liked the recipe book Em and I gave them with all their family and friends’ recipes. It was the perfect wedding from what I could tell and I can’t wait until John and Cass are transferred out to Seattle after a year in Alabama. It will be great to have them in the Pacific Northwest with us. I can’t wait to take John up a volcano!