Five Years Ago Today, pt. 3

          Friday, June 8, 2007 was a day of rehearsal. And not just of the wedding ceremony. But in the morning, we had to run more errands and make sure some more new arrivals had a ride home from the airport, including two more groomsmen, their girlfriends, and a co-officiant: my grandfather.
          But I spent the entire afternoon in my fiancee's large church facility, wandering between rehearsals. My best man went off to a large classroom to practice his toast, and I watched a rehearsal of an original song I wrote for my bride. I waited for one violinist (who had yet to purchase a cell phone) to arrive a bit late from upstate New York. All the while, my bride was scrambling on last minute errands.
          Finally, the wedding rehearsal started. And it went really well. Then we had our rehearsal dinner in another state (which isn't as far away on the East Coast as my Midwest friends feared). My wife and I spent parts of the dinner at various tables before we had a present-giving ceremony for the bridal party, wedding volunteer friends, and close family members. I remember I got each of my groomsmen one moderately expensive creative gift and a bunch of even more creative gifts from the dollar store (e.g. rubber chickens).
          And then, again, it was time for bed. I haven't mentioned yet that my lodging was the vacant bedroom of Christina's friend's sister. So, I spent my last night of bachelorhood sleeping in a pink room with pink sheets.
          But I did sleep, though. I wasn't going to be able to sleep if I thought I could process the magnitude of what was going to happen tomorrow.