Tim & Lindsay's Wedding
This weekend Emily and I had a terrific time at Tim & Lindsay's wedding in the Columbia Gorge. The wedding was on Friday afternoon at the private Bridal Veil Park in the Columbia Gorge. Lindsay arrived at the ceremony via a canoe paddled by her father. All of their Oregon friends and a few of their closest friends and family were in attendance from the East Coast. It was a beautiful ceremony with a really great reception and dance party with DJ Grey Matter before returning to the incredible McMenamin's Edgefield for the rest of the weekend to soak in the spa and drink at many of the 12 bars on site. To read more click the link.
Creatively, Tim and Lindsay had decided to have their wedding ceremony on a Friday afternoon. The purpose of this was to provide a weekend escape for them and all their friends to hang out someplace other than Corvallis. Their choice of the historic McMenamin's Edgefield was perfect! All of us left work early on Friday to make it up to McMenamin's. Despite some slow traffic we were all able to make the last bus from the hotel to the ceremony at Bridal Veil Park.
When we first checked into our room I was surprised to find it so roomy and also surprised to find it lacking a tv, microwave.. and bathroom! Apparently the hotel, as is tradition with the McMenamin's sites, had been converted from an old Poor Farm and hospice site to it's current state as literally an adult resort for good beer and relaxation. There were shared bathrooms and showers on each floor and the walls and pipes were covered with paintings of the history of the place. Each room had writing on the walls telling about the various historic residents of the building and rumor is that many of the rooms may be haunted! It didn't take long for the beautiful, unique and historic place to grow on us! Check out the history of the site here.
Bridal Veil Park was beautiful and it was a cool idea to have Lindsay and her bridesmaide (her sister Cynthia) rowed across the small pond to the ceremony. Lindsay's boat made a whole bunch of sharp turns on the way to Tim (later found out it wasn't on purpose), almost running into some cattails on the way. The ceremony which was presided over by Tim's buddy Wes who had gotten his wedding certification online. Except for a little stumble from both on their vows everything went off without a hitch and we all moved to a nice grassy area for drinks and ordeurves.
After the photos Tim and Lindsay showed up to hang out with us for the rest of the night. Standing on the steep grassy hill was the only time I was the same height as my friends and co-workers so I took advantage of that fact in a bunch of photos... :) There were several toasts from Tim's brother and Lindsay's sister for the newly married couple before everyone moved onto the main reception dining and dancing area of the park.
The dinner of pork, various salads and sides was amazing. We all sat together at long picnic tables catching up with some friends like Nick Hatch who had moved back to Alaska and had some amazing bear encounter stories to tell from his field work. After dinner the dance party with the amazing DJ Grey Matter started. As usual, me dancing was not a pretty sight but I felt better about myself when Mischa walked by with a horrified look on his face after being told he was dancing like Elaine from Seinfield...
It had gotten pretty cold out after the sun had set but everyone seemed to be keeping warm by dancing and Tim also had the foresight to bring wood for a big bonfire nearby. Many of Tim & Lindsay's friends had also made skillet cakes for desert which were amazing! Everyone had a great time dancing and I even got a bit more into near the end when I was pretty drunk (thanks to Colin's whiskey and the good beer at the reception). The drunk bus back to McMenamin's with Tim and Lindsay was a fun time with drunk singing and thankfully no one was forgotten!
Back at the hotel we all got changed and headed to the distillery bar to end the night near a bonfire there. Surprisingly everyone seemed to make it out, even the really drunk ones of us. Near 1am or so thankfully someone had the foresight to call it a night and a bunch of us turned in. Later the next day I heard that the after party turned into an after-after party back at Wes' room....
On Saturday we woke up to cloudy, drizzly weather but that didn't stop us from enjoying the soaking pool for several hours over drinks after a huge (but slow) breakfast in the main dining hall. We asked the front desk about playing 9 hole golf for the afternoon but they said it was full. Thankfully, we risked the chance and walked over to find that we easily got on the course as it had started to rain. It took some convincing for Danielle but she also joined Mischa, Scott, Colin, Erin, Emily and I for a round of 9 holes. I had the camera for photos so didn't play, instead carrying Danielle's purse and long sleeve shirt for the whole time. Danielle had the funniest golf swing I have ever seen and Mischa had the worst put I had ever seen. I have no idea who ended up winning but at least the weather cleared up a bit and we all had a great time (minus Colin spilling a full $7.50 22oz bottle he had just bought).
After golf Emily and I grabbed some cash from friends and headed to the liquor store in town to save us some cash from the pricey beer at the "adult retreat". We came back with vodka, Corner Creek and a bottle of Sweet Tea Vodka (I drank the whole 5th!). When we got back we mixed up a few drinks and hung out with Kev, Lex and the newlyweds before meeting up with the others at the Little Red Shed. It was a very cool small little bar in a wooded area with a fire place and a few tables. We then went to the Black Rabbit House (where they used to keep the bodies when it was an infirmary), by Jerry's Bar, the Power Station Pub, the Loading Dock, the winery, and finally to Lucky Staehley's Pool hall where Emily and I challenged each other to several games of darts while others played pool. Kev and Lex showed up briefly but she had left her ID at home so was eventually asked to leave.
We had put in reservations at the Black Rabbit Restaurant and it took us nearly 3 hours before we were seated. Dinner was pretty good but I ordered the Cioppino specifically for the Dungenous Crab legs and it came with skinny little snow crab legs with barely any meat. Our waitress didn't really seem like she knew what she was doing and obviously forgot to mention that... oh well. We finished the evening watching Wes and Tim's other East Coast friends playing charades at Jerry's Ice House.
We had hit many of the 12 bars on the site before day's end and after killing the bottle of Sweat Tea Vodka I was pretty lit and don't really remember making it to bed. Amazingly I had enough thought to drink several pints of water before bed so I felt pretty good Sunday morning. We walked downstairs to say goodbye to everyone before leaving as they were eating breakfast. Em and I had bought some food at Safeway on Saturday to avoid another expensive breakfast. It was a rainy drive home and we spent the rest of the day on Sunday relaxing and watching movies away from the bad weather. It had been a fantastic weekend and with Matt and Sarah arriving for a visit on Wednesday night I had booked us a room to surprise them with a spa soak after their long flight so I was excited to go back to Edgefield so soon! Congratulations Tim and Lindsay!
Creatively, Tim and Lindsay had decided to have their wedding ceremony on a Friday afternoon. The purpose of this was to provide a weekend escape for them and all their friends to hang out someplace other than Corvallis. Their choice of the historic McMenamin's Edgefield was perfect! All of us left work early on Friday to make it up to McMenamin's. Despite some slow traffic we were all able to make the last bus from the hotel to the ceremony at Bridal Veil Park. 
When we first checked into our room I was surprised to find it so roomy and also surprised to find it lacking a tv, microwave.. and bathroom! Apparently the hotel, as is tradition with the McMenamin's sites, had been converted from an old Poor Farm and hospice site to it's current state as literally an adult resort for good beer and relaxation. There were shared bathrooms and showers on each floor and the walls and pipes were covered with paintings of the history of the place. Each room had writing on the walls telling about the various historic residents of the building and rumor is that many of the rooms may be haunted! It didn't take long for the beautiful, unique and historic place to grow on us! Check out the history of the site here.
Bridal Veil Park was beautiful and it was a cool idea to have Lindsay and her bridesmaide (her sister Cynthia) rowed across the small pond to the ceremony. Lindsay's boat made a whole bunch of sharp turns on the way to Tim (later found out it wasn't on purpose), almost running into some cattails on the way. The ceremony which was presided over by Tim's buddy Wes who had gotten his wedding certification online. Except for a little stumble from both on their vows everything went off without a hitch and we all moved to a nice grassy area for drinks and ordeurves. 
After the photos Tim and Lindsay showed up to hang out with us for the rest of the night. Standing on the steep grassy hill was the only time I was the same height as my friends and co-workers so I took advantage of that fact in a bunch of photos... :) There were several toasts from Tim's brother and Lindsay's sister for the newly married couple before everyone moved onto the main reception dining and dancing area of the park.
The dinner of pork, various salads and sides was amazing. We all sat together at long picnic tables catching up with some friends like Nick Hatch who had moved back to Alaska and had some amazing bear encounter stories to tell from his field work. After dinner the dance party with the amazing DJ Grey Matter started. As usual, me dancing was not a pretty sight but I felt better about myself when Mischa walked by with a horrified look on his face after being told he was dancing like Elaine from Seinfield... 
It had gotten pretty cold out after the sun had set but everyone seemed to be keeping warm by dancing and Tim also had the foresight to bring wood for a big bonfire nearby. Many of Tim & Lindsay's friends had also made skillet cakes for desert which were amazing! Everyone had a great time dancing and I even got a bit more into near the end when I was pretty drunk (thanks to Colin's whiskey and the good beer at the reception). The drunk bus back to McMenamin's with Tim and Lindsay was a fun time with drunk singing and thankfully no one was forgotten!
Back at the hotel we all got changed and headed to the distillery bar to end the night near a bonfire there. Surprisingly everyone seemed to make it out, even the really drunk ones of us. Near 1am or so thankfully someone had the foresight to call it a night and a bunch of us turned in. Later the next day I heard that the after party turned into an after-after party back at Wes' room....
On Saturday we woke up to cloudy, drizzly weather but that didn't stop us from enjoying the soaking pool for several hours over drinks after a huge (but slow) breakfast in the main dining hall. We asked the front desk about playing 9 hole golf for the afternoon but they said it was full. Thankfully, we risked the chance and walked over to find that we easily got on the course as it had started to rain. It took some convincing for Danielle but she also joined Mischa, Scott, Colin, Erin, Emily and I for a round of 9 holes. I had the camera for photos so didn't play, instead carrying Danielle's purse and long sleeve shirt for the whole time. Danielle had the funniest golf swing I have ever seen and Mischa had the worst put I had ever seen. I have no idea who ended up winning but at least the weather cleared up a bit and we all had a great time (minus Colin spilling a full $7.50 22oz bottle he had just bought). 
After golf Emily and I grabbed some cash from friends and headed to the liquor store in town to save us some cash from the pricey beer at the "adult retreat". We came back with vodka, Corner Creek and a bottle of Sweet Tea Vodka (I drank the whole 5th!). When we got back we mixed up a few drinks and hung out with Kev, Lex and the newlyweds before meeting up with the others at the Little Red Shed. It was a very cool small little bar in a wooded area with a fire place and a few tables. We then went to the Black Rabbit House (where they used to keep the bodies when it was an infirmary), by Jerry's Bar, the Power Station Pub, the Loading Dock, the winery, and finally to Lucky Staehley's Pool hall where Emily and I challenged each other to several games of darts while others played pool. Kev and Lex showed up briefly but she had left her ID at home so was eventually asked to leave. 
We had put in reservations at the Black Rabbit Restaurant and it took us nearly 3 hours before we were seated. Dinner was pretty good but I ordered the Cioppino specifically for the Dungenous Crab legs and it came with skinny little snow crab legs with barely any meat. Our waitress didn't really seem like she knew what she was doing and obviously forgot to mention that... oh well. We finished the evening watching Wes and Tim's other East Coast friends playing charades at Jerry's Ice House. 
We had hit many of the 12 bars on the site before day's end and after killing the bottle of Sweat Tea Vodka I was pretty lit and don't really remember making it to bed. Amazingly I had enough thought to drink several pints of water before bed so I felt pretty good Sunday morning. We walked downstairs to say goodbye to everyone before leaving as they were eating breakfast. Em and I had bought some food at Safeway on Saturday to avoid another expensive breakfast. It was a rainy drive home and we spent the rest of the day on Sunday relaxing and watching movies away from the bad weather. It had been a fantastic weekend and with Matt and Sarah arriving for a visit on Wednesday night I had booked us a room to surprise them with a spa soak after their long flight so I was excited to go back to Edgefield so soon! Congratulations Tim and Lindsay!
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