This weekend one of my best buddies, Jeff DeBruin, was getting hitched in Minnesota. Friday I took my first ever paid vacation day and used that day to drive up to St. Paul. The weather was crappy the whole drive but it didn’t affect my superior driving skills one bit. We arrived somewhere around one in the afternoon. I dropped J off at the hotel and hooked up with my boys to go get our dapper tuxes. We went to the tux joint and everyone’s tuxes fit except for mine, of course. I came out of the dressing room and the pants were a good three inches over my ankle. So of course I had to come back the next day and pick the thing up. After that we headed back to the hotel and went through the ceremony rehearsal. It was a great rehearsal because it was short. Then it was time for a little fun to start. We had the rehearsal dinner at Buca’s in St. Paul. We all hopped into a bus and went off to have some family style fun. Copious amounts of food and wine flowed and I proceeded to have too much of both. After that was over we waddled out the door and the bus took us back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel a group of us, including the groom, headed off to a little bar down the street. We had some cocktails and discussed DeBruin’s last hours of freedom on earth. We had a good time but J and I split from the group around midnight to head to another friend’s house to catch some shut eye. Saturday I woke up and went and got my tux, stupid Pee-Wee Herman pants. Then J and I checked into the hotel and I got ready for the wedding pictures. I had pictures from eleven to twoish but it was nice to get them out of the way before the wedding. We were going to take some outside pics by the Mississippi but the weather was pretty nasty so we only got to snap a couple outside. Then the big moment, the Badger v. Purdue game Jeff’s wedding. The wedding was very nice, and it wasn’t only because I was in it. The wedding was simple but very well done. It was also nice and short compared to many of the weddings I’ve been to. Another nice thing about this wedding was everything was centrally located. The wedding was in one room, the cocktail hour was the room next to it that was a little bigger, the dinner was in a large ballroom next to all that, and we were all staying in the hotel that these rooms were in. Once the ceremony was over instead of going to the cocktail room all the groomsmen headed up to Luedke’s room to watch the Badgers take on Purdue. There were a good twenty people up in the room having some cocktails and waiting for the call that we had to leave the game and go downstairs for the wedding dinner. So the wedding party got to watch up to the first part of the fourth quarter but then we got called downstairs for the first dance. So I ran downstairs did my little dance and then ran to the hotel bar to join the rest of the Badgers fans (there were a lot of Badger fans at this Minnesota wedding) and celebrated the Badgers huge victory over Purdue. Another little snippet was that Jeff met Kelly’s parents at another Badger game where Wisconsin beat of all teams Purdue. From there I went downstairs, had a great dinner with good friends, and danced the night away with everyone else. We danced and toasted until the lights came on and we were forced to leave. The wedding was fabulous. Congratulations to Jeff and Kelly and a fruitful future to the both of you. Thanks to Jeff for letting me be a part of your day. After the lights came on we were instantly worn out and headed up to the hotel room and called it a night. Sunday we woke up and gathered the tux pieces and put them back in the bag. Kelly’s dad was nice enough to take them back for us. We bid adieu to the bride and groom and started the long drive back. We had it planned beforehand that we would stop in Eau Claire and watch the Packers game to break up the drive a little. We called J’s aunt and uncle to meet us at a sports bar called Boston’s. They were a little rough around the edges as well because they had a wine tasting party at their house the night before. After a little hair of the dog, some food, and a rare Packer’s win I was ready to sleep the whole ride back, and I did. We headed back to Milwaukee to wrap up an exhausting but fun filled weekend.