The Wedding Circuit has ended... at least for now

We started our wedding circuit in March, as I wrote about previously. All the weddings were great, each having their own special touch. Currently we don't have anything on the schedule for the rest of the year. It's almost a little sad to think I won't have wedding cake again this year.

We ended the wedding circuit this past weekend with the only wedding either of us was actually in, Ryan was a groomsman. Two of Ryan's closest friends, Ben and Katie, got married in Ashtabula, Ohio. Katie and Ryan grew up across the street from each other and Ben and Ryan have been best friends since middle school. It was a fantastic wedding weekend in a place neither of us had ever been, surrounded by friends Ryan has known much of his life.

The hotel we stayed at and all wedding events were right on Lake Erie. I have never seen a great lake and I will say they are appropriately named "Great". That lake is huge. I thought I was standing on the shore of the ocean.

While the guys played golf, the girls had a great lunch at Gale's Coffee Corner in Geneva, Ohio. It was a cute little coffee shop/bakery with a great soup and sandwich lunch. They only had chili but it was great. They had fantastic looking desserts that we almost resisted, but finally got a fresh chocolate chip cookie (the big kind) and devoured it in about 2.5 seconds. The neatest part of lunch was that the lady who waited on us used to live in The Woodlands! She sat and chatted with us some, it was just such a little small town lunch. We really enjoyed it.

The rehearsal dinner was a "Clam Bake" at a local winery. I had never had clams before so I tried one or two. It wasn't my thing but Ryan loved them. I think he had three bags.
The highlight of dinner was the clam chowder, I think our table was in agreement that we could have had at least three bowls each. Following close behind the chowder on the highlight reel was the discussion about who did the best job eating their corn on the cob. Brandon and Brandon seemed to disagree on who did best.
Friday night was a long one that included a stop at Sundae's Ice Cream stand...

...and ended in a stop at Mike's Gyro's, open till 3:00am! It was no Keifer's but he made a pretty darn good gyro with cucumber dressing. Between the wedding party, I think Mike's sales probably tripled that night... well, it was up by at least 10 gyros. I think everyone would agree that Mike's Gyro's were "skinny" (sorry, I just really can't explain in this blog, "skinny" is worth it's own post).

Saturday we had fantastic burgers at Eddie's Grill, made a quick trip to Carlisle's gift shop and then hit the pool until the wedding. We even took a quick dip in Lake Erie which is I guess one of the warmer great lakes... a nice 70 degrees.

The wedding was held on the property of the Carlisle Family, right on the lake. It was just a beautiful day and a beautiful setting. The bride and groom did a fantastic job with all the arrangements and the food was fantastic. I did not take pictures of all the food, which I regret now. The passed appetizers were not only yummy but presented beautifully, I hate I don't have pictures of them but I always feel like a wierdo taking pictures of food. Dinner was amazing and we danced all night long.
I did get a picture of the drink of the night... the "skinny" that could only be ordered by that name. Not a Redbull Vodka, only a "skinny". I don't know why people like Redbull (other than the hope it really will give you wings) but apparently its pretty popular. Blech.

The hot dog cart arrived late in the evening for those who were still hungry. It was a big hit!
We rounded the weekend out with Texas BBQ at Katie's parent's house on Sunday and then headed back to Texas.

Thanks to Katie, Ben and their families for a fantastic weekend! A larger album of pictures can be found here.