the commitment ceremony
we arrived at the church with time to spare. i had planned on directing the arrangement of the furniture in the fireside room for the reception, co-ordinating all the helpers we had lined up, and generally being in charge of the morning’s work. i found, though, that once i got to the church, my brain just shut down and i was unable to do anything constructive! luckily, my buddy stepped in and got everything working. i am afraid the day would have been a disaster without him there. he has saved my butt many times in the past and this was the ultimate saving! once the minister arrived, she was in charge of tony and myself. she has done this many times before, and knew that what we needed was to be told what do and when. bless her!
despite the forecast of a rainy day all week, the sun actually came out in the morning and held for the duration of the reception. and tony was so handsome up there! i managed to keep it together for most of the time, but of course i cried during our song, and when i was reading my poem, it did catch in my throat a bit at the end. it was certainly the most powerful moment of my life when the minister read our vows and i looked into tony’s eyes and said, “I Promise.” he has made me the happiest man i know!!!
after dropping off our stuff at tony’s, we checked in at the intercontinental. then it was off to dinner at the baricelli inn. among the things we ate were a shrimp and gruyere tart, handmade ravioli with parma ham (the italian parma, not the cleveland one), kobe beef shortribs, beef tenderloin, chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake. we also enjoyed a nice glass of hess select syrah, and some ginger tea with dessert to aid in the digestion. then it was back to the hotel. skipping ahead, AHEM…, the next morning we had coffee brought up from room service. i could get used to someone bring coffee in a silver pot to me every morning. unfortunately, tony has made it clear that i shouldn’t count on that on a regular basis. sometimes, he treats me to that, but it’s not gonna be a daily occurrence. later in the morning we checked out and went for brunch at the ritz-carlton. it was easily as good as our brunch last fall, which i reminded tony was precisely six months earlier. (i hinted that perhaps we could make this a twice-yearly event. i may have some more convincing to do on that score.) among the highlights here were the eggs benedict, a luscious slice of prime rib, some intensely flavored oven roasted tomatoes and, of course, the desserts. everything comes in miniature and i think we sampled about a dozen things. a chocolate cake topped with a cloud of whipped cream; some dense, moist banana bread; a triangular tower of hazelnut shortbread, gianduja mousse and chocolate; a layered cake with chocolate and pistachio marzipan; and tony’s favorite, warm apple crisp. for this last part, i managed to secure a dish of vanilla ice cream so he could have it ala mode!
over coffee, we discussed what to do with the rest of our day. shopping was on the agenda, so we got to have the excitement of driving the saturn from the ritz straight to marc’s! it was a little bit of cultural whiplash, but we enjoyed it. a trip to target was not far behind and then home for the evening. we even got some of our thank-you’s taken care of that evening. we had a spectacular weekend, all in all. looking back, there is not one thing about it that i would change. i feel exhausted and elated and utterly, ridiculously HAPPY!
several folks took pictures and once i get them all and edit them down, i’ll post as many as possible. |
despite the forecast of a rainy day all week, the sun actually came out in the morning and held for the duration of the reception. and tony was so handsome up there! i managed to keep it together for most of the time, but of course i cried during our song, and when i was reading my poem, it did catch in my throat a bit at the end. it was certainly the most powerful moment of my life when the minister read our vows and i looked into tony’s eyes and said, “I Promise.” he has made me the happiest man i know!!!
after dropping off our stuff at tony’s, we checked in at the intercontinental. then it was off to dinner at the baricelli inn. among the things we ate were a shrimp and gruyere tart, handmade ravioli with parma ham (the italian parma, not the cleveland one), kobe beef shortribs, beef tenderloin, chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake. we also enjoyed a nice glass of hess select syrah, and some ginger tea with dessert to aid in the digestion. then it was back to the hotel. skipping ahead, AHEM…, the next morning we had coffee brought up from room service. i could get used to someone bring coffee in a silver pot to me every morning. unfortunately, tony has made it clear that i shouldn’t count on that on a regular basis. sometimes, he treats me to that, but it’s not gonna be a daily occurrence. later in the morning we checked out and went for brunch at the ritz-carlton. it was easily as good as our brunch last fall, which i reminded tony was precisely six months earlier. (i hinted that perhaps we could make this a twice-yearly event. i may have some more convincing to do on that score.) among the highlights here were the eggs benedict, a luscious slice of prime rib, some intensely flavored oven roasted tomatoes and, of course, the desserts. everything comes in miniature and i think we sampled about a dozen things. a chocolate cake topped with a cloud of whipped cream; some dense, moist banana bread; a triangular tower of hazelnut shortbread, gianduja mousse and chocolate; a layered cake with chocolate and pistachio marzipan; and tony’s favorite, warm apple crisp. for this last part, i managed to secure a dish of vanilla ice cream so he could have it ala mode!
over coffee, we discussed what to do with the rest of our day. shopping was on the agenda, so we got to have the excitement of driving the saturn from the ritz straight to marc’s! it was a little bit of cultural whiplash, but we enjoyed it. a trip to target was not far behind and then home for the evening. we even got some of our thank-you’s taken care of that evening. we had a spectacular weekend, all in all. looking back, there is not one thing about it that i would change. i feel exhausted and elated and utterly, ridiculously HAPPY!
several folks took pictures and once i get them all and edit them down, i’ll post as many as possible. |
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