Bachelorlympics

Dave came prepared with all sorts
of appropriate attire

For those of you who don’t know, I love sports.  I love pretty much everything that has to do with sports.  And lucky for me, both Felipe and Scott know this about me.  Everyone got to experience the London Olympics, but just a select few athletes were able to enjoy the Ophelia Bachelorlympics.  That’s right – my guys pulled off an incredible 3 day set of festivities – complete with opening ceremony and multiple “sports” – to make me an Olympian.

The schedule of events for the weekend included a touch football game (not for a medal), individual and team cornhole, individual and team ladderball, individual and team kubb, individual beer pong, and BeerioKart.  Scott and Felipe coordinated the logistics of the weekend, as Scott was able to secure his family’s riverhouse as our Olympic Village for the weekend.  Scott (and eventually me because I love it) created brackets in advance of the weekend, and when all 10 guys arrived on Friday evening, we were ready to dive right the opening ceremony and BeerioKart.

Torch lighting

Felipe, in his incredible attention to the small things that make things much cooler, had everybody select an anthem to play as their song.  The songs ranged from Disney ballads to rock anthems, to clips from musicals to a moment of silence.  In a nod to Ando, we played the Australian national anthem as well as the US national anthem and the Olympics anthem.  And we even had our own lighting of the torch.  Everything about the first night was wonderful, particularly because we kicked off the festivities with an event that I love: BeerioKart.  It’s the only drinking and driving that any of us endorses.  As expected, Felipe (gold), Brian Allen (bronze) and I (silver) excelled (carryover from  our nerdy high school days or playing far too much MarioKart), and were the first to partake in a medal ceremony.

official brackets

On Saturday morning, we all had a wonderful breakfast treat: Bodo’s bagels from Charlottesville!  Scott had arranged the pickup of Charlottesville goodies the week prior, and to all of our delight, our days were off to a good start.  It was then time for our football game, and Dave Hartmann set the tone for the rest of the Olympics.  As I mentioned in my post about our ushers, Dave is one of my buddies from high school (but not a BeerioKart medalist).  Dave ran track in high school, and for some reason seemed to think he’d like to prove that he could still fit into his track suit.  For Dave’s sake – and for yours – I’ll forgo the picture, but his shameless style made everyone know that we were in for a good time, regardless of outcomes.

After the football game, we all took a quick break (we’re not as athletically gifted in our mid-to-late-twenties as we thought . . .) and then got the lawn games and medal events going.  Cornhole and ladderball took forever (I want to forget about ladderball . . . Felipe skunked me 12-0), but eventually we worked through the group stages and into the finals.  Classick frustrated BMar in both championships taking two gold medals, while Scott took a bronze in ladderball and I brought home a bronze medal in cornhole.

Just like the Bodo’s goodies for breakfast, Scott had orchestrated Take It Away for lunch, and we all wolfed down house dressing with pleasure.

The highlight of the Bachelorlympics might have been the newly-discovered lawn game kubb.  I won’t attempt to explain it, but an alternate name for it is “Viking chess” and you can find out how to play here.  It looks super lame in the video, but it was awesome to play.  It, along with a couple of other lawn games, will make an appearance in 26 short days at Ash Lawn!

On Saturday night, after a full day of lawn games and day drinking, we all retired to the living room at the river house to enjoy some AC and relaxation.  Scott had spent some time compiling a SWEET trivia game (I love trivia just about as much as I love sports), and we all had fun ensuring we had a sound mind to go with our sound bodies.

The Olympics themed bachelor party complete with trivia, great food from Charlottesville, and some of my best buds in the world was the best one I could have asked for.  I know some people love painting the town red, but getting to relax in a gorgeous river house and play lawn games was exactly what I wanted to do, and I’m so thankful to Felipe, Scott and the rest of the guys for having organized it all.  It was an awesome weekend with the guys, and one that I hope indicates just how fun a time we’ll have when we’re all back together – this time with our dates – in Charlottesville.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, here are the full medal results:

BMar                1 gold, 2 silver, 3 bronze

Classick            3 gold, 2 bronze

Javier               1 gold, 2 silver, 1 bronze

Scott                1 gold, 2 silver

Dave                2 silver, 1 bronze

Felipe               2 gold

Vinh                  1 gold, 1 bronze

Brian                 1 silver, 1 bronze

Andy                Medal-less

Rhett                Medal-less

May I show you to your seat?

Confession: this is Javier's post, but I (Audrey) picked the pictures which is why they are the most ridiculous that I could find :)  See our wedding website for more adorable (and recent) pictures of these fellas!

As Audrey noted the other day, I have neglected to introduce you to the strapping young gents who will help us keep the day in order and help you find your seats at the wedding: our ushers.  Three friends of ours will be on hand to help that day:  David Hartmann, James Anderson, and Matthew Classick.

Hartmann:

As Hartmann so brilliantly describes in a bio he wrote himself, we met on our first day of high school.  Both equally shy about jumping in on a “spit race” we decided that we’d hang out instead of joining the other group, and we became fast friends.  Dave remained a great friend to me through high school and college, even visiting me at UVA when I was in the hospital. (Okay, I was voluntarily doing a medical study to make some cash, and his a capella group happened to be performing at UVA that week, but it sounds way better when I embellish it).  We both moved back home after we graduated from college – Dave from Haverford and I from UVA – and I had mentioned a wonderful girl named Audrey to him, saying that maybe I should set them up.   Instead, I decided that I should date Audrey, but that I’d love to have her meet my good friend Dave – and I think everyone is glad with the way that’s turned out!  Dave recently graduated from George Mason’s law school and will be moving out to Chicago this summer.  He’s a great friend to both me and to Audrey, and we’re very excited to have him join us in Charlottesville this fall!

Ando (James)

I first met Ando at the final audition for the Whethermen, an improve group down at UVA.  Neither of us made the group, but we remembered each other (no doubt for the perceived humor) and would say hello around Grounds.  We both joined Resident Staff during my third year (Ando’s second year), and would see each other a bit more frequently around Grounds through various organizational meetings.  I still didn’t know much about this mysterious, funny Australian, but I knew that he and I got along in our brief 5-minute encounters with one another.  So when I was able to choose my staff for my dorm fourth year, I used my #1 draft pick to ensure that Ando was the other male RA in my building (and yes, RA’s at UVA do pick their staffers with a snake-style draft, just like in fantasy football).  It was that next year that Ando and I really got to be good friends.  He and I had many walks from Old Dorms to the Corner and back; many nights where we stayed up late for no good reason, sometimes working on papers, sometimes distracting the other from papers, and Ando even spent that Thanksgiving with my family in Bethesda, MD.  Gradually Ando became my confidant on Grounds who I would approach for some outside perspective and advice.  And I think I served that role in return.  After graduating from UVA, I knew that Ando would stay a lifelong friend of mine.  He has visited me in DC, and both Audrey and I have had the INCREDIBLE chance to visit him in Australia.  He’s a great guy, and I’m excited for everyone to meet my friend from Down Under.

Classick

Matthew Thomas Classick and I didn’t meet until Audrey introduced me to him in 2009.  Classick and I became fast friends, despite my transgression of repeatedly calling the Phanatic the dumbest mascot in all of sports the first time we spent a significant amount of time together.  I think this calculated obnoxiousness won over his heart, and we quickly discovered that we enjoyed many of the same things: sports (playing or spectating), various brews, words and wordplay, and foosball (still undefeated at Whitlow’s lifetime, baby!).  Our friendship has grown into one of mutual respect, fun banter, and a go-to for each other for someone to talk to when things go awry.  Classick has come to be one of my best friends over the last few years, and I am very excited that he will be there to support me and Audrey on our wedding day and beyond.

Lights, camera, action!

Hello, lovely readers.  Audrey has been steadily blogging away, letting you know about some of her our accomplishments, so I figured I'd give you a little update.  Audrey and I had talked about things that we'd ideally want at our wedding, and one of them was a videographer.  At least I was hoping to possibly have one to at least record the ceremony and maybe some of the reception.  You know, cuz we won't be able to see it the way one of our guests might.  But we also knew that it would potentially cost a lot of money, and we definitely wanted the timelessness of clean photography.  So we cast videography aside and decided that photographs would be more than fine.

But through some blog reading, both Audrey and I discovered the company StoryMix.  We both had learned about this crowdsource-leveraging company that basically lets you film the footage but then edits it for you.  We had thought it was a cool idea, but even still, it would cost about $500 to get, and it just seemed like too much for a fancy extra addition.  But when I stumbled upon a Giveaway Contest I felt like I had to enter.  There were only 75 entries with a day to go, and you could enter 31 times!  So stuffing the ballot is exactly what I did, and I got my name in there 31 times.  So with approximately 125 entries (across 83 entrants), I felt like the odds were ever in my favor.  And they were!  My name got drawn to win one of the videography packages!

And that is where you all come in!  If you download the WeddingMix app for your smartphone, you can be our videographer!  Audrey and I will get to see the wedding from all the various perspectives of our friends and relatives who are at the wedding.  Or at least the ones who download the app and share clips with us.  So stay tuned for more information about downloading the app so that you can take some fun videos.  Now we'll get to peruse our pictures and watch some fun memories on video, too!

Practice makes perfect!

And practice we shall!  Or, rehearse, at least.
Rehearsing your wedding ceremony prior to your wedding day is somewhat of a norm so that all those wonderful people you've asked to participate have a chance to get to town and settle in, learn where they stand, when they walk, etc.  In addition, it gives me and Audrey a chance to walk through everything once since chances are we'll be somewhat nervous on the big day with everyone watching!  After our wedding rehearsal, we will, as many couples do, be inviting the folks in the wedding to join us for dinner.  My mom has very kindly and generously offered to host said dinner and has been helping search for a location for the rehearsal dinner nearly since our first trip to Charlottesville almost 7 months ago.

Mom has been incredibly patient with me and Audrey as we've danced around Charlottesville on a number of visits, scoping out possible rehearsal dinner locales.  She and Isabel even travelled to Cville on their own time to try a few of the potential restaurants we were looking at for dinner.  It's definitely been a process in its own right!  And I'm not sure we could even put our finger on exactly what we had so much trouble with: some of the restaurants ended up being too small for our group; others were so unresponsive to our inquiries that we felt uncomfortable with their service level; a few offered less than optimal set ups/privacy; and one or two fell below expectations as far as food quality.  Very troublesome indeed.

And then we got creative.  Instead of looking at restaurants for our rehearsal dinner, we turned to good ol' UVA.  No, not the Rotunda.  Unfortunately, because it's being renovated, you can't rent out the Dome Room until 2014.  But we did get to another iconic UVA building: Pavilion VII - the original building of The Lawn!  For those who don't know, Thomas Jefferson was brilliant.  In order to be able to build all 10 pavilions and the Rotunda, as he had originally intended, he decided to build them in sporadic order so that government officials would continue to provide him funding.  So he started with Pavilion VII and hopped around the Lawn, eventually constructing the Rotunda later on.  Pretty cool!

UVA has a special place in both mine and Audrey's heart, and we are SUPER excited to be able to have our rehearsal dinner right on Grounds!  It may have taken a while to find the venue, but we are so excited about that my mom was willing to keep looking around and that we were able to reserve Pavilion VII!  So on October 12, we'll rehearse the ceremony itself and then head on back to Pavilion VII for some delicious eats with some of our favorite people in the whole world at one of our favorite places in the whole world!

An Event Every Man Should Experience

Just over a month ago, I was able to attend something that I never really thought in my life I’d say I’d gone to: a bridal expo.

Now, off the bat, let me tell you that I don’t think that I ever would have paid for a ticket to a bridal show. And I’m not really sure that Audrey would have either. She was fortunate enough to have a coworker whose mother was exhibiting at the show, so they gave us 4 free tickets. Well, with two bridesmaids in town (whoop whoop, Isabel and Kelsey), the natural 4th person was me. Let’s be frank from the get-go: it’s fairly embarrassing as a man to say that you’re attending a bridal expo. There’s no hiding that, because as Aud has peppered in her posts, the wedding world is just geared toward the bride.
But I’m a guy who’s open to most experiences in life – I think I’d equally look forward to a ballet performance or a classical opera as much as a monster truck show (reader interaction: I’ve been to 2 of the above 3: leave a comment with your guess about which one I haven’t been to!) - so I was up for the no-dollar-cost experience of the bridal expo at the GMU Patriot Center.

The four of us all decided to ride together (how eco-friendly are we!), and as we were getting there decided to take guesses as to how many men we would see other than me. The first number thrown out was 10. We saw 10 before we left the parking lot. There were actually TONS of guys there. In fact, I ran into a guy I used to work with at the expo while the ladies didn’t run into anybody they knew. There was definitely the sense of insecurity at check-in, but most guys give a knowing nod and then wander through the maze of tables and exhibits to see if you can find any vendor that you might be interested in. And this is where we got totally overwhelmed.

For me personally, I felt bad for some vendors. A lot of vendors had throngs of people at their booth (note: these were largely caterers who were giving away tastes of food, or bakers with trays of cake samples), and some had none (mostly photographers and suit rental places, as far as I could tell). So I got suckered into going to talk to the lonely vendors. This is a mistake. You see, at every table, there is some kind of “10% off” or a little giveaway or add-on if you fill out a form and buy within a month, or something like that. I just wanted to talk to a poor soul and make time pass a bit. Plus I figured I’d learn about suit rental options, if that’s what we end up doing for the guys in the wedding party. So by the end of the expo I must have filled out roughly 10 forms for places like Men’s Warehouse and Jos. A Banks (but don’t worry, I think I have only gotten one call from each, so very respectable of space).

In addition to these more boring options, there were many fun exhibitors, like vacation planners for honeymoons, smoothie stations for tropics-themed weddings, and a few stationery vendors too. But best of all, Audrey, Kelsey, Isabel and I all got to try out a few photobooths! They were equipped with lots of fun accessories, as you can see here, and we were able to get a strip printed real-time. It’s certainly something that Audrey and I have on the “want” list, but might not make it through to the final cut. It’d be a lot of fun for guests, and equally fun for us to see who took photos after, but like everything else, there’s a price tag attached to it. And unfortunately we didn’t win a raffle from somebody for a free one.

All in all we didn’t end up getting anything (not even a vendor) from the expo, but the four of us did have fun getting to see all the different options and all of the excitement of engaged couples trying to wade through planning their own celebrations as well. And for all other guys who might one day be asked if they want to go along to the expo: do it! If nothing else, enjoy the free food and cake.

Band of Brothers

I know you all are entertained (as am I) by Audrey's posts, but it's time to enter the ring again with a groom's post! I've been along for the decision-making up to this point, as Audrey has mentioned, and now I'll tell you about my biggest decision to date: picking my groomsmen.

As eloquent as I may or may not be, I somehow managed to ask both of my groomsmen in a slightly more impressive way than "Dude, will you be my groomsman?" Slightly.

The Best Man
Family is very important to both me and Audrey, and I've asked my brother Felipe to be my best man. Our biggest similarity is likely our sense of humor, and that can be summed up with this segment from Dave Barry's Complete Guide to Guys (quick side note - you should read this entire book if you want to understand guys better ... or particularly if you want to know if the guy in your life is a guy or a man (you'll know by the end of chapter one)). I know that he is often seen as gruff and sometimes stubborn (let's be honest, so am I), but inside he has a soft heart, particularly for his little siblings. He's obviously the first kid I ever met, has known me longer than anyone except my parents, and continues to be someone that I can turn to in difficult times. I know that he'll be looking out for the best for both me and Audrey, and I'm thrilled that he has agreed to be best man!

The Groomsman
You've read that correctly. Groomsman singular. Whereas Audrey has 2 bridesmaids and a Matron of Honor, I'll have just me and my two guys. And the other guy that I'll have up by the altar with me is none other than Mr. Scott Bottoms! I was not quite so eloquent asking Scott to be my groomsman (in fact, I think I did say something like "hey, so, uh, I've got a question for you"). As many of you well know, I like Scott. He's fun to hang out with, and good for any conversation, whether intellectual or inane. And to have Audrey's brother-in-law, and my future brother-in-law (Scott and I are pretty sure that's what we'd be) standing up there with me and my own brother - well, I think that's pretty awesome.

So there you have it. Our little band of three brothers: Javier, Felipe, and Scott.

No updates on any ushers or the like yet, but look for that in the coming days (and a few more groom posts!).

The Bermuda Triangle

Everyone who has planned a wedding has said that it is super fun. But what they forget to tell you is that at the beginning things are a bit frustrating. You feel slightly lost: there's a lot to be done, and so many directions to start in, so focusing your energy on one can be quite difficult. I'm calling it the Bermuda Triangle effect, and it really hinges on 3 factors: budget, venue, and date. Of course there are more factors than these three that affect everything else that goes into wedding planning, but those are really the big three. When you have your budget set, you know what size of wedding you could have. When you know the size, you know what venues will be large enough. And when you know what venue you want, then you can set your date. Or you can start with a date - perhaps it's one VERY important to you - then you can only work with venues that have that availability. And then you can pick guests - and set your budget - based on the venue size.

**ADVICE ALERT** Commit to one of those three factors and let it govern the rest of your decisions, having a good understanding of the other two.

Audrey and I aren't quite in the clear of the Bermuda Triangle yet. As you all know, we are close to deciding on a venue (come on, you didn't really think I would tell you now, did you??). We don't have a date exactly finalized, but we are pretty sure of when it will be (again, you really think I'd tell you here?!?). So for us, budget was the anchor of our triangle. Sure, there were some venues that were more expensive, and we may have been willing to go with them, but it would have meant cutting back on other parts of the wedding, likely guest list.

Some really great advice that Audrey and I got from a friend is to focus on vendors that can only do one wedding per day. So venue is a big one (unless you're a Vegas chapel), and so is photographer. After we finalize the when and where, we'll focus on the who (as in, who will take photos of us all day?). Stay tuned for more information on that later!

You'll Want to Elope

When I first told my office that Audrey and I got engaged, my office of course congratulated me and asked for the story and all of that, but my boss in particular had one thing to tell me. She said that throughout our planning process we would just scrap everything and just look at each other and say "let's just elope."

As you all know, Audrey and I started our journey for finding where we will get married this last weekend. We didn't want to be the only ones to see the potential space, though, so we invited along some "hunting companions" - her parents and sister, and my mother. The day started off with 5 venues to go look at, with the hopes of finding that perfect one that we loved.

We made the trek down to C'ville early in the AM, and everything started off very well. We got to Venue #1 and determined that it was gorgeous, but perhaps a little too small of a reception space. It likely didn't help that the events coordinator for the venue wasn't there, so we had to (try to) get answers from the security guard. The venue was certainly in the hunt, but it wasn't a clear winner.

We then made our way to Venue #2 and were actually there a bit early. Ahead of schedule! Who would have thought that with most of the rest of

our lives operating on Latino time?? The venue was nice, but I could tell from the get-go that it wasn't likely going to be the one that we went with. You know how there are just some things in life that you know you won't love, like pickled eggs, the Yankees, or the USSR? This was one of those things for me. Our entire hunting party left for Venue #3 knowing that this place could be A solution, but likely not THE solution.

The five of us then headed over to Venue #3, the pricey venue. Venue #3 knew they were pricey, too. They brought all of us into a side room and started to ask us about what we envisioned as our perfect idea of a wedding. Then they said they'd show us how they could do it and at the end talk about pricing to be up-front. That screams $$$. Show us everything so that we fall in love with it and say "it doesn't matter how much it costs, we want it!"?? Nice try, plan. (Though they totally had me on the hook). We left Venue #3 knowing that it would have made for a GORGEOUS event, but that sometimes things aren't quite worth the price of admission.

The day was half-over at this point, and we had 3 venues down, 2 more to go, and not much more of a clear picture. With our stomachs empty, we all stopped for lunch. It's at about this point that we had our first "let's just elope" feeling. There was little progress, and it seemed like perhaps the day was going to leave us more confused rather than providing clarity. We tabled the feeling and set off for the afternoon.

We went to Venue #4 and within about 5 minutes were able to leave. That "let's elope" feeling started to come back to me as we then headed to our fifth and final venue. We got to Venue #5 after many hours in Charlottesville, and those long hours were not setting us up for success. But then we got to see the view and the reception space and - even without it set up at all - we were able to see just how great this space could be! It really was a "save the best for last" type of feeling! We aren't 100% that Venue #5 will be the one we go with, but after a few days of weighing the options, it does seem to be separating from the pack.

I'm sure that there will be many feelings of wanting to elope in the coming year, but just like this, I know that Audrey and I will always find the silver lining and rise above the temporary stress. Stay tuned for which of our mystery venues ends up being the one that we sign with!