Life Update:
I've just had over 1 month without playing a single hand of poker. Must be the first time in 8 years. Why?
I just got married!!
CLIFFS:
Got married
Was amazing
So so happy
In this post I have tried to describe to you how the day and the day before the wedding unfolded. I think if I have ever had reason to post something in this blog that isn't poker, this is it and I won't be holding back.
TLDR:
So... about 2 weeks before the wedding it became pretty apparent to me that there was still a fair amount of bits and bobs that needing doing for the wedding, so it became an easy decision to not log in after every day was just filled with doing preparation.
Anyway, the time grew closer and it was finally the Friday the day before getting married. My best man and his girlfriend flew in from the UK my other best man also flew in with his girlfriend and the maid of honour drove to our house to help with the last of the preparation. So many things to print, things to plan, it was crazy, then we had to load up two cars with EVERYTING
Clothes, decorations, suits, dresses and quite a lot of alcohol. To be somewhat precise, we loaded up 300 cans of beer, 150 cans of cider, 100 cans of Lonkerro (Gin Long drink) 12 bottles of white wine, 6 bottles of red, 6 bottles of sparkling wine, 2 boxes of white wine and 1 box of red. There was also, 1 litre of Vodka, 1 litre of Gin, 1 litre of Courvoisier, 1 litre of bailey's and a nice bottle of Laphraig Whiskey. We hoped that would be enough for 40 guests. It took some man power getting that all in 2 little cars.
1 Hour drive to venue, order pizzas for 12 people, drive back 20 mins or so to the supermarket and pick up breakfast things and snacks for the party, more people turned up despite delayed flights, random strangers offering to be taxis (not once but twice) - this evening was a little more hectic than I had been imagining! We ate pizza about 8pm and then it was time to set up the venue. This was a bit of a blur due to crazy nerves, essentially me and wifey went a little manic. Out of the two of us it is probably fair to say that one of us had not prepared as well as they could have in terms of arranging the day. However, now was the time to atone!
Everyone worked like crazy to set up the venue for about 40 people and quite a large chunk of the evening was setting up tables (arranging them a certain way in the room took ages too as we played with different configurations of 3 large tables made up of 6 smaller tables. Very late that night, future wifey drove back with the maid of honour back to our house to be close to the hairdressers' etc for the morning. Now it was me, my best men and some good friends. I was still aware tons had to be done and I ended up going to bed at 4am after deciding it was a good idea to make some chocolate covered breakfast cereal snacks at 3am.
Four hours of good quality sleep later I awoke well before my alarm.
That would be all the sleep I got that night. I had the sense to spend 30 minutes doing guided meditations after waking in order help to settle my nerves. I can't exactly remember right now what I did next, I think it might have been checking the best men were doing some last minute jobs (and they were). Soon, to chill out, I went for a row on the lake with my good friend. It turns out, it is a little harder than it looks! After a while some of us went for a swim and I did a little workout wedding (for the wedding pump obv) with one of the few poker players at the wedding which involved burpees, pressups and swimming about 25 metres in the lake, running back round and doing 3 circuits of that, it wasn't my idea but it was pretty fun!
I then had a call saying the bride was 35 minutes away whilst still wearing swimming shorts. I then (correctly for once) managed to prioritise getting ready as quickly as possible. Surprisingly, this was a success and I managed to hide from the bride, and her from me as I ran up from the shower. Best men and BOH crucial here. Thanks guys.
I got dressed,
polished my (brand new) shoes (yes that happened) and some of the nerves lifted somehow. I realised that I wasn't going to be late to my wedding, I was ready! The photographer knocked and came in and so did some friends and we started relaxing.
It was time for breakfast - the Laphraig 10 year old whisky seemed appropriate. Damn, it tasted good.
I was of course nervous about the normal things, but mainly about playing the guitar at the ceremony and then my speech. I don't want to get too cheesy but I was also aware, despite the nervous of how happy I was. I started to think that everything was going to be ok, run smoothly, what a perfect wife was waiting for me a few doors down the hall. Everyone around me, my friends, the photographer were doing, oh my god, a ****ing amazing job of keeping me relaxed. Everyone was on their game and it felt good.
Ten minutes before the ceremony started, we were still drinking and it started raining. Sigh. Five minutes before kickoff, it had finished. That was the last of the rain we would see all day.
Suited up, I walked downstairs to the smiles of people I hadn't seen so far that day. I was nervous again. It was go time.
With all honestly and a clear head I cannot describe to you how magical this moment of time was. Everyone was beaming.
The ceremony was short, maybe 10 minutes. We wrote our own vows. I said mine in Finnish and Terhi said hers in English. Then I played "Love is Easy" by Mcfly which I had been practicing a lot. I had messed up a little part so often while practicing, but this was the best I ever played and sang it. The thing I so desperately wanted to "do" well I managed to. Obviously, I am no Noel Gallagher, but this was as good as I was ever going to perform it!
I felt this feeling wash over me,
"I'm married to Terhi and it feels ****ing good". That's the only way I can describe it.
Then, it was the toast which was outside,
then we moved inside for the wedding breakfast.
If I remember correctly, it was after the main course that I did my speech which was immediately followed by the best mans'. We decided in the moment who was going to go first and just after I asked him to go first I had a stroke of genius. The best man is an entertainer, he honestly is and also a hilarious guy. I knew his speech was going to be amazing so before the bar was set ridiculously high, I chose to go first. I got it done, pretty much without crying too. Courtesy of the best man the day before I also had one pretty good joke.
Gaz performed and give a brilliant speech.
Then it was cutting of the cake. During this time coffee was served I think and also we had a candy buffet that opened too having some traditional Finnish sweets in. One nice example are these Skulls which are made from salmiakki. Yeh... just try them!
Then Gaz performed, and wow - was he good. Luke even helped him out for an amazing version of Careless Whisper. (as an aside, before I was ever Pete, I was named George for 2 weeks when I was born. My middle name is Michael)
Now it seemed everyone was relaxed and the party started. We had some funny technical difficulties getting the sound system working but one of our friends fixed it in 2 minutes after 5 of us spent over 30mins failing to do so. There was a large sauna (it's Finland after all), a Jacuzzi and best of all - A LAKE.
I don't know what to say really except I am the luckiest man in the world trying to recall the details from the best day of my life. Everyone was just brilliant on the day, they were all helpful x 1000 - and thanks to all my friends and of course to my extraordinary wife I had a day that was more beautiful and magical than I could have had in all my wildest dreams. I cannot stop smiling.