John and Troy's Wedding

I hope you don't have anything to do for the next little while, because this is going to be a doozy of a post. So, let's get started! As I think everybody knows, John and Troy's wedding festivities were a gigantic success and a whole lot of fun. It was very much a multi-day affair. Things got rolling on Wednesday with "craft night" at our Airbnb. Here are John and Troy, Mary, Troy's sister Alit, her brother Aaron, Aaron's wife Rachel, and the maid of honor Emily, gamely cutting and gluing the wedding programs and making them into fans. (Which, as you will learn later, was a work of genius planning given the scorching temperatures and high humidity on Saturday.)

On Thursday morning, the ladies did what ladies do before a wedding: we went to get our nails done! There were so many of us that there weren't enough chairs for everybody. Here, Troy's sister Alit, Mary, and Peter's girlfriend Jessa enjoy their time in the pedicure chairs.

On Thursday afternoon we continued the airport pickups that had begun the day before. We didn't pick up each and every group that flew in, but I counted five groups we picked up in the days before the wedding and five groups that we took to the airport in the days after the wedding, not counting ourselves. Mary went with me when we picked up my mom on Thursday afternoon.

On Thursday night we went to the Airbnb of Troy's parents, Lloyd and Esther. This gathering was originally supposed to be a picnic to celebrate Lloyd and Esther's 41st wedding anniversary that day, but Mother Nature decided to deploy severe thunderstorms mixed in with a tornado warning, so once the tornado danger subsided and it was safe to travel we decamped indoors for a fun evening. Here John is looking very relaxed next to his Aunt Amy (Steve's wife), his grandma, and sister.

On Friday morning we had the rehearsal. The wedding party was rather large, with seven attendants on each side. But the latest they could schedule the rehearsal was at eleven in the morning, which meant that few of the attendants were there as they all live out of town (the ones who were able to attend were siblings and the maid of honor who is from St. Louis). In this picture are the maid of honor Emily, Troy, the officiant Meredith, the best man Peter and best woman Mary. I'm pleased to report that the ceremony went so perfectly that you would never have guessed that those not in attendance had missed the rehearsal.

I'm trying not to overdo it with the pictures, but this is one of my favorites from the weekend. I love these three.

So now it's Friday night and time for the rehearsal dinner, which was held at a barbecue restaurant called Salt + Smoke. They did an outstanding job of hosting our large group. The food was amazing and the service spectacular. We had 82 people consisting of the wedding party, family from both sides, and lots of out-of-town friends. Here are the happy couple with Brad and my mom and my sister Kelle.

We had all of the Poss cousins there, as well as all of their boyfriends and girlfriends. This is Troy with (counterclockwise from bottom right) Kathy's son Brian, Kathy's daughter Lauren, Steve's daughter Annie, Kelle's daughters Erin and Sarah, and Erin's boyfriend Hunter.

We designed the seating arrangement so that Harrisons and Bediks could get to know each other. If this picture is any indication, I think it worked! This is Brad's dad with Troy's brother Aaron, who became fast friends after meeting for the first time on Thursday night.

And then there are Harrisons and Bediks who have known each other for years, like me and Troy's mom Esther.

John and Troy both went to Tufts and there were a whole lot of Tufts friends in attendance. Many of them didn't arrive in St. Louis until after the rehearsal dinner was over so this was less than half of the Tufts contingent. 

On the morning of the wedding, the women went to the hair salon. Then those of us on "team John"  returned to our Airbnb as this was "team John" headquarters. Here is John helping his groomsman Judah with his tie.

Time to get these two married! Their wedding was held in the Piper Palm House, which is an orangery in Tower Grove Park in St. Louis. It was gorgeous setting. There were about 150 people at the wedding.

 

Their ceremony was extremely personal. Troy and John, along with their officiant, designed it and made it perfectly suited to them. Highlights included messages delivered by both sets of parents, a Hebrew reading by Troy's brother and sister, and an Old Testament reading by Mary, as well as a sonnet recited by one of Troy's bridesmaids. Their officiant Meredith is both a friend and a minister and she gave a beautiful homily. And of course there were the vows! There was a lot of levity and laughter throughout but I don't think there was a dry eye in the house by the time it was over.

This is the entire wedding party. The men and women on Troy's side were dressed in green (green ties for the men, green dresses for the women), and the men and women on John's side were dressed in blue. Their attendants consisted entirely of siblings and Tufts friends. The flower girls are Troy's nieces.

With some of my favorite people in the entire world.

Okay, we're traveling back in time, but only by a few minutes. Before the wedding, this special group gathered for a picture: Mary with her boyfriend Andy, Jessa, Peter, and John.

The Piper Palm House was a great place for family pictures. This is my sister Kathy and her kids Brian and Lauren. (Kathy's husband Don had to stay home as his mother is ill.)

This is my sister Kelle's family: Erin, Sarah, Bob, Kelle, Emily, and Jack. Missing but somewhere in the building are boyfriends Hunter and Spencer.

My brother Steve had a big group too: son Nick, Nick's wife Kelly, Steve, Amy, their granddaughter Windsor, daughter Annie, son Connor, and Connor's girlfriend MaryKate.

Time for the reception! It was held at a brewery called 2nd Shift. Dinner and toasts were outdoors (under a tent with fans but no air conditioning) and cocktails before dinner as well as dancing after dinner were held indoors (key takeaway: air conditioning!). Sirius wasn't allowed to come to the wedding venue, but you know he was welcome at a brewery!

This is outside at the reception, waiting for dinner to begin. John and Troy had a french fry truck parked outside for appetizers, then dinner was a buffet from their favorite Mexican restaurant. Everything was delicious. In this picture are Brad's brother Barry with his wife Wendy, and another brother Brian with his wife Candace.

Did I mention how hot and humid it was? It was a weekend of heat and humidity for the ages. This is our southern California niece Sarah, who's clearly not used to the weather, shown at the reception in a favorite Instagram post embellished by her sister.

And then there was dancing! Brad's parents are great dancers and both of them got to dance one of the first dances with Troy and John.

Troy's parents brought fans from Vietnam and they really came in handy. This is me with my sisters Kelle and Kathy and our sister-in-law Amy.

 Brad's dad was quite popular with our nieces Lauren, Sarah, and Erin.

Brad's brother Boyd and his wife Karen danced up a storm at the reception.

John and Troy are going on their honeymoon in December, so they got to see everybody before AND after the wedding. The next day it was time for more celebrating, but also some goodbyes. Before she left town, my mom gave John and Troy a beautiful quilt that she's spent months making.

Then those who remained spent a remarkably hot and humid afternoon at the Cardinals game, thanks to the generosity of Troy's parents, who are pictured with their daughter Alit and her partner Brian, as well as Troy's high school friend Kelly.

Mary and Andy are showcasing the spectacular view that is available to most of the seats in the stadium. And did I mention it was bucket hat giveaway day? Those bucket hats really came in handy as we needed all the cover we could get in the sun.

We left the game early due to the weather and went over to Civil Life, which is the brewery where Troy works. Brad's brother Boyd and his wife Karen were there with us.

They say there's no rest for the weary, nor apparently for the newly married. The day after she got married Troy gave us all a quick tour of where she works.

On Monday morning we went out to our favorite breakfast place, Southwest Diner, along with Brad's parents. That day our core group started to head home. First Andy flew out, then Brad's parents. The next day Mary left, and on Wednesday Brad and I, as well as Peter and Jessa, headed home.

On Monday afternoon we played a game of Taboo and drank some beers at iTap. Mary was there too but I guess she was camera shy.

We learned that Jessa is very good at the game of Taboo, so I'm glad there wasn't money involved. (There never is with us, I just thought I'd say that because she beat us so badly.)

That night (it's still only Monday) we had a dinner with everyone remaining in town from the Harrisons and the Bediks. Although we didn't fly out until Wednesday afternoon, by Tuesday and Wednesday I was about done with taking pictures and we mostly just enjoyed the time spent with the remaining family and with some local friends. It was a fantastic week, filled with far far far more photos than seen here (I've collected about 500 from various family and friends and they're still coming in, and the wedding photographer's haven't even arrived yet). Hopefully this sampling has given you an idea of what our celebration was like, or if you were there with us, a remembrance of what it was. It was truly special and we are truly blessed to have such a fantastic family, one that is now larger than it was before thanks to the addition of the Bediks and most importantly our new daughter-in-law Troy.