Picture-perfect

We're freshly returned from Seattle, where we attended the fabulous wedding of our good friends Ryan and Sara. I can't imagine a better couple - they're alike in all the important ways and different enough to keep some fire in the relationship for a long, long time. Hmm, sounds familiar...

Sara's parents live on a wonderful patch of west-facing water frontage on Lake Washington, so you can imagine how the bride looked as she and the bridesmaids arrived by boat at sunset. Sara and her father walking down the red-carpeted dock toward the altar with the setting sun shining behind them was as perfect an image as I've seen in a long time. Even I could've taken an award-winning photo or two, had I not been stuck up next to the groom in a double-knit wool sweat suit.

The ceremony went off without a hitch, though Mel started to feel a bit faint in the middle and had to sit down for a few moments. Eat, dear, eat! And don't lock your knees! Being a bridesmaid is hard work! The reception was a blast - The mothers looked radiant, the fathers glowed contentedly, and there was steak for dinner. Perfect. Both Ryan and Sara's parents are incredibly fun, so I expect there are years of familial events ahead of the lucky couple. The departure was also by boat, with all of the guests lining the now-darkened dock with sparklers in hand to wish the couple on their way. Wow.

This was my first stint as a best man (thanks again, Ryan, for giving me the opportunity to be more nervous than the frickin' groom) and I think the speech went well. I'm terrible with a microphone, but seeing as how I was neither thrown into the lake nor surreptitiously burned with a sparkler later in evening I'll assume no one was too offended. The lucky couple are now spending a few days relaxing at an undisclosed location in Laguna Beach before they depart for the Cook Islands. Rough. Me? I'm back at work, trying to decipher the intricacies of Netegrity's custom agent api sans documentation. Whee!