Thursday, August 11, 2011

Our Wedding and Honeymoon

For anyone who reads my blogs regularly, you might have caught wind that I was getting married. The wedding took place on Ohio State's campus at Browning Amphitheater. It was crazy rainy for the rehearsal on Friday and we ran through the rehearsal as best as we could, soaked, and remembered where we needed to be. (To be honest, it was not much of a rehearsal as much of a 'let's huddle under a canopy and talk about what is going to happen') Despite of how the rehearsal went, the wedding turned out perfect. The rain moved out of the area and even though it was a little warm, the weather was fantastic and the entire ceremony turned out perfect.
My beautiful bride looked stunning and Dawn said "I do," Before we knew it, we were walking down the isle together with bubbles flying and my former college classmates yelling "O-H" "I-O".
We had our reception at La Scala in Dublin, OH and the perfection continued to roll. The toasts from her father, my brother, and then her cousin were deep and very thoughtful. One of my groomsmen also stole the mic to give his own toast as well. After all the planning, the wedding and reception turned out amazing and to those who spent the day with us, we thank you with all our hearts.

We took Sunday to have breakfast at the hotel with all the guests and then went back to Cleveland for a relaxing afternoon at her parents' complete with steaks on the grill and an early bedtime to wake up at 3:45AM to catch our flight to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico for the honeymoon.
We had an amazing time in Mexico. We got to spend some quality time together and just enjoy being together, but not without having a LOT of fun.

We stayed at Dreams All Inclusive Resort and had a lot of fun doing the activities that they offered...such as kayaking in the Pacific Ocean.

We also did a few tequila tastings (the one pictured was after our ATV excursion when we rode up the mountains and jumped off cliffs into a pool under a waterfall)
Of course we quickly made a lot of friends at the resort. In the picture are two guys from Sonoma, CA singing karaoke to Hotel California and below are two of the guys we met from Staten Island, NY. None of their wives would come dance with us because we were just having too much fun, I guess.
The two couples from California insisted that we visit them soon in Sonoma... which may end up happening... if I can build up enough vacation time.We also met another couple on our second day that are from Ohio and got married the same day as us. It turns out that Dawn and Rachelle had more similarities than Brian and I would have liked... the talks about Investigation Discovery overtook many dinners, thanks to the two ladies. We are already planning to get together this fall for a Browns game or two, it is amazing how small the world really is.
We had an absolute blast doing excursions around the city, hanging out by the adult pool all day, and taking evening walks along the ocean.
And to finish off the day, who can forget the fun nights we had. Some of the places at the resort never really got "poppin" until our group showed up and got everyone up and dancing.
It was a fantastic trip and we got to really just relax with each other, which hasn't happened a lot recently because of the wedding preparations. Regardless of how quickly the wedding day went by or how short the honeymoon felt...I know I married the woman of my dreams and this was only the first page in a novel yet to be put into words.

Best,
Andrew Buck Michael

P.S. Also, if anyone has any questions about getting married at Browning or reception at La Scala, feel free to let me know. I can send more photos/details to you. I noticed a lot of people are finding this entry when searching the internet. Just shoot me a comment.

10 comments:

  1. Love the OSU wedding! Scarlet and Gray for wedding colors rocks! La Scala is great, too. When being in Dublin many, many times for Ohio Society of CPAs meetings, we ate at La Scala.

    All the very best to you both.

    Lois in Cincinnati

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  2. oh so happy for you
    may your skies always be blue

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  3. Love the wedding photo of the two of you dancing. And the couple from Ohio that married the same day and etc. Looks almost like the girls had matching tops. Again, good luck to the both of you.

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  4. Oh my. These are remarkable photographs that you will cherish a long time. I hope you save the images on more than one kind of storage system.

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  5. Thanks everyone. It was such a blast...the wedding and honeymoon. I am truly the luckiest guy in the world...Dawn is amazing.

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  6. Hi Andrew,

    I know this is random, but I came across your blog when researching La Scala for a wedding reception. I love the site for ours, but I'm concerned about the number of guests we have fitting in the space. I met with Cathy and she attempted to reassure me, but she seemed a little hesitant at the same time. Our invite list sits at 340. Do you remember how many guests attended your reception and/or do you remember having any feelings of being cramped? I was all ready to pull the trigger and now I'm having doubts. Any insight you could provide is much appreciated!
    Thanks!
    Amy

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    1. Hopefully you get an email with this response. We had close to 275 for our invite list and with people on vacation, etc. there were about 226 that came. The room still had room to fit some more people. Cathy at La Scala is amazing and I think if you invite 340 then you can expect 290ish. They may be able to fit them all in there, but it will be a little cramped, no way around that.

      We loved La Scala and are moving back up there next weekend to Columbus. I say if you love the place and Cathy is willing, then I am sure Cathy will find a way to make it work. Hope this helps.

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    2. Thanks for the information! I've been having trouble finding someone who has experience with a larger wedding at La Scala, so I'm glad I was able to get some feedback!

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  7. I do have a question for you!
    Im also getting married at the browning , and i am wondering - Where did your guests park?
    When the wedding party was coming in, how did they do it , Did a bridesmaid come down one isle, groomsmen down another, or the same, alternating ?

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    1. Thanks for asking! We had our guests park at the Union parking garage. It was during the summer so there were very few cars/students on campus. We had envelopes with $4 in each to hand out to the guests, but the person who was supposed to hand them out forgot... (Honeymoon tips)

      As for the entrances... I am saying all of this as if you are sitting down looking at the stage. I came in from the back right corner with my best man and the pastor. The wedding party came in from Neil Ave. It worked out great because the limo bus just parked on Neil. They came down in pairs. My wife thought about coming down the steps but was afraid that the wedding party would be looking down at the steps and then the wedding album would be the tops of their heads...(Happy we didn't come down the stairs)

      Hope this helps... let me know if you have any other questions!

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