HOUSE OF GUGG

So it begins. We are married, we are one, it is done. Rather, as I said, it begins. May God bless our nascent household and strengthen our union as much as he has already blessed me in my bride. She is more than I have ever deserved.

I will post wedding pictures when I can. This post is primarily intended to prove Stack wrong (though not by much). She estimated 14 days until I returned from the evil alternative universe of No-Blogs-Ville.

The wedding was wonderful. I was wide-eyed and aware throughout it all, but in a sort of self-removed manner. In retrospect I wish very much that I had had just a few minutes to actually sit still in the hours before and contemplate what was about to happen. I kept expecting it to hit me that I was about to get married--it gradually sank in as the service progressed, but never in the bowl-you-over-and-knock-your-socks-off way I was somehow expecting.

Strangely, this has continued--both of us find it a little hard to believe that we're actually married. I find myself referring fairly frequently to the ring on my finger just to confirm that it wasn't a dream. When we returned from the honeymoon, we both found ourselves repeatedly surprised by the thought that, come bedtime, I wasn't going back to my room and she to hers, as before. It still surprises me to wake up next to her. And yet it's the most natural thing in the world.

We were blessed with a very good attendance at the wedding. Much of my family and most of hers attended, the majority of our friends from college, some from here at Holy Cross, etc. Many, of course, were absent--I'd like to pay special mention to a few whose presence I dearly missed. First, my brother Caleb, who spent Christmas on guard duty at the airport in Baghdad and returned to his active combat unit the day after the wedding. You were dearly missed, Caleb. Second, my grandfather Richard and his wife--detained due to the failing health of her father. Third, my housemates from the Beat--variously stuck house-sitting, moving, with family, etc--missed you guys. Drink something in my honour or something. And many others, family and friends who aren't on the top of my head because I'm about to be late to chapel and am preoccupied, but were missed anyway. :)

Notable attendees--His Eminence Nicholas, Metropolitan of Detroit. His last-minute notification that he was coming scared the socks off me and Seraphim (our hair is longer than he likes, and he likes to hit people with longer hair than he likes), but his presence was tremendous, his chanting beautiful, his homily marvelous, and his private advice much appreciated. Also, my old roommate Chad Helmick, with his lovely wife Kristen and newborn child Alyssa. They came a long way, and it was very very good to see them. So too with Konrad la Prade, another old roommate, and his girlfriend Joy Ulrickson. Kons drove from Maryland, Joy from northern Michigan. Thanks for the effort, y'all...it was great to see you. And, of course, my dear family, who got on a train early on the morning of Christmas Day, travelled for two days, cooked, provided the hotel, and actually managed to be at my wedding in Detroit, MI, who-knows-how-many-miles from Flagstaff, Arizona. It was wonderful to see all of you--thanks so much.

And I have to run NOW. More later. Glory to God for all things.