The Big Day

I wasn’t in Florida just for drinking and riding bikes, although it certainly might appear that way.  Mr. Shepherd was getting ready to tie the knot, and with only a few hours to go we had a lot of shit to do.  He showed up to the hotel early Saturday morning, and the Dirty Party Cycle and I were ready.  What do you do when you get up early after a night of fun?

You take a picture of the sun for some reason.

Or, you just take a picture of someone taking a picture of the sun.

We headed over to the reception hall to meet with the caterer and to help get everything ready.  The DPC got the most important job of all…

Stocking the fridge with alcohol.

I helped a little too, but as the best man it’s my job to do whatever the hell the groom tells me to do.  I ended up running back and forth to the bride’s hotel for various things, and I must say that being an errand boy was quite rewarding.  You know, anything to keep the happy couple from freaking out.  Plus, I got to see weird shit on one of my trips.

That’s a lot of hula hoops.  I don’t get it.

Once we were satisfied that the reception hall was ready to go, we gathered up and headed down to Sarasota to pick up our tuxedos.  Since I got fitted for it here in Charlotte (and the girl seemed to be in a big hurry), I was pretty worried that it wouldn’t fit.  We got to Men’s Wearhouse, where the crew there took good care of us.  They had us try them on and after telling us how sexy we looked they packed everything up and sent us on our way.

Next stop, shopping for booze.

More is always better, and the local liquor store was happy to accommodate us.  Satisfied that we finally had enough to drink, we headed back to the hotel for a little down time before shit got really busy.  The ride back was fun.   

The DPC knows how to party.

I thought we would have plenty of time, but Mr. Shepherd called to say that the photographer wanted to get some shots of us before the ceremony.  So after stuffing Lunchbox into a suit, I got cleaned up and dressed a little early.

We spent quite a while out there in the hot sun, posing with each other to make good memories.

And before we knew it, we were at the church.  The ceremony was really nice, and I was so happy to be a part of it.  It was good to see Mr. Shepherd happy.  I’ve known him for most of my life, and it really was an honor that he chose me to be a part of this.

After the wedding we hit the reception.  I gave my “best man speech”, dinner was had, and I finally got to relax a little bit.

Good Florida beer.  I deserved it.

We closed the place down (it was our job, actually), and after going back to the hotel a few of us went down to the pool to continue drinking.  We eventually got kicked out because it was well past closing time, but damn it was a good day.  We still had a few days left on our trip though, and it wouldn’t be like me to let that go to waste.

Or to not drag out a blog post.

We had more fun, including one more ride, more beer, and even a stroll down memory lane in my hometown.

See y’all Monday for the conclusion…