Most of you know that on Sunday, August 10th, I married the love of my Julie. Before all that could begin however, we had to have a “bachelor party.” I wasn’t in the mood for a traditional party, so the boys and I just headed to the lake in Arkansas and had some fun on the water. Offbeat came all the way down from the great white north and watching him drive a jet ski for the first time was pretty rewarding. It took him a while to get use to it, but once he did, he couldn’t get enough. The other men in attendance were Chris Lemley of Pandemic fame, Adam Messner a former CS player of the Core and Julie’s dad.

The bride and groom

After a few days on the lake, we headed back to Tulsa to get ready for the big day. All of my family arrived from Montana and other places on Friday night. I even got to meet my newest nephew for the first time, so life was good. Saturday night was a great rehearsal dinner that culminated with a slide show that Julie created that had a lot of embarrassing pictures of me in it. People got a kick out of seeing me as a kid for some reason; I’m not sure why.

The wedding finally arrived on Sunday and I wasn’t even nervous. I knew what Julie and I were doing was the right thing and CGS matches are more nerve racking than that ceremony was. The only tough part of the day was the four hours of photos with every combination of family member and friend available to be taken. That was almost as much as a grief as a CGS match rehearsal, but those will always take the cake. Julie looked absolutely gorgeous and I was proud of my catch as she walked down the aisle. She is beautiful and can deal with me, a lucky match. After we said our “I do’s”, we had a fantastic reception dinner. Julie picked most of the menu out, but I did get to insert some Mac and Cheese. Coincidentally, my only choice was the big hit. I wonder how that happened. I had so much fun at the reception afterwards that I even danced more than the required amount for a groom. I’m sure it didn’t classify as dancing, but it was a lot of fun nonetheless.

Mark's groom's cake