The happy couple: The Morales - Garcia wedding, April 21, 2007

Alfredo Garcia and Nicole Garcia née Morales.

This weekend Lauren and I attended the wedding of this lovely couple. Alfredo and I had lost contact of one another when I moved to CA, but, upon returning to Austin, he found me via a comment I left at another blog.

Through this past 10 months (!?!), we’ve had occasion to see each other with some regularity and were blessed to be invited to this beautiful wedding. The wedding took place at the lovely San Jose Catholic Church hidden in the heart of beautiful South Austin. I had only been to one other Catholic wedding ( being of Anglo - Germanic stock myself ) so the ceremony and ritual was again a bit of a foreign, although beautiful, experience for me. The mass was very interesting and the couple had included some of the best, and most mystical, parts about man / woman / creation of woman / miracles at the wedding in Canna / etc. It was very rich and very much crafted so as to provide magic into the fabric of existence.

But what more could I say? I think this picture says it a thousand times over. The bride was beautiful, the groom was elated, the parents were proud.

After the ceremony there was a short intermission and several of us repaired to the Enotecca at Vespaio with some new friends and some recently-relocated friend and had an inter-activity glass of wine and some light repast before heading to the hotel.

The reception facilities were of the highest grandeur and the food was great as well. A real bonus was to see all of those folks with whom I croquet-ed a lot in my senior year again. Most are married, moved elsewhere, having fantastic lives doing interesting things and adjusting, in many cases, to that mantle called parenthood.

Towards the end of the evening Alfredo insisted that maximally funky dancitude be seen and was simply not denied. As the evening closed, the Alfredo produced soundtrack ended and we headed out. Upon seeing the bride I casually remarked to her “Ah! Mrs. Garcia” and I saw a strange expression of realization pass over her face and she said, dare I say proudly, that she realized that was her name now. I guess when the priest says it you must be thinking “What is this guy saying, what am I doing up here” - when some guest says it to you, the “Oh, wow this is real” might just hit you anew.

She has a wonderful heart and the good Mr. Garcia has found a wonderful partner in her.

Another pair of guests, the Cortese family of Colorado and their family, invited us to a Sunday brunch-party at a house they had rented for the week in the heart of Travis Heights. I thought this was a great idea - to rent a house and enjoy it for a week versus cramming into a hotel.

It was the usual South austin shotgun-style house that had been tastefully outfitted with the modern effects ( hardwood floor, stainless steel, etc. ). It made a very cozy and wonderful spot for wedding guests to talk to one another on a more causal plane. The weather threatened once or twice to turn rainy, thankfully it were but mostly sprinkles that fell.

After a pretty consistent cycle of sleep and matrimonially-induced excitement, we headed back up to North Austin, indulged in a cold stone, and then took a nice-long nap!

The weeks of light commitment to househould duties as I undertook the site redesign had mounted up, so we exited our cloud and returned to quotidian reality courtesy of thrilling items like doing laundry and cleaning the kitchen.

In all, we felt exceedingly thankful to have been part of this beautiful wedding experience. The beautiful couple are headed off to Italy to enjoy of the Italian springtime ( good timing! ). I can’t wait ’til they get back so that we can host them chez nous and they can regale us of their adventures and first blissful steps into the great unknown of the mystical union between