Brian and Melissa.

This past weekend Amanda and traveled to New Jersey for Brian and Melissa's wedding.  Brian was my roommate senior year of college and is most certainly one of the greatest guys I know. Him and Melissa are so perfect together and the whole weekend was incredible.  Here are the highlights...

After picking up Brian's life long friend Steve in Baltimore on the way up to NJ, we crashed at Nick and Paul's place Friday night.  We caught up for a while and heard the story of Nick and Paul's car crash earlier in the day.  Luckily everyone is okay, however Nick's Sentra was totaled. Everyone turned in pretty early but I just couldn't help staying up until 2am to watch Manny's first game as a Dodger.

Saturday was the rehearsal dinner up in Hackensack, NJ where Brian and Melissa live.  We got to check out the location and meet all the bridesmaids, most of whom I had met at least a couple times in the past.  Bri's Aunt Nancy walked us through the ceremony and we all had it down in no time.  We were off to the dinner part of the evening next.  We went to a nice italian place and had our own private room upstairs.  The 4 1/2 hour dinner was incredible.  They just kept brining us more food.  Every time we thought they were done they'd bring something else!  Hors d'oeuvres, pasta, chicken marsala, fresh fruit, ice cream, and of course... open bar dude! 

Me, Brian, Kohler, Nick, Hugo

Amanda and I at Dinner

Brian and Melissa receiving their wedding gift from THE Chris Berman

No one circles the wagons like... Melissa and Brian!!  Congrats!!

After an incredible dinner we headed back to the hotel and hung out late.  We just shot the shit, drank some brews, and reminisced about the good ol' days.  We also tried to make Bri as nervous as we could about what was going to happen in a few short hours but he didn't waiver.  He may have been the most excited dude I've ever known when it came to getting married.

The wedding on Sunday wasn't until 5pm so we had plenty of time to recover from the night before.  At around 3pm we traveled in style to the wedding and the fun began.

Chrysler 300 limo - sick

The groomsmen and the wedding singer before the festivities

Amanda arrived shortly after me, looking beautiful of course

Here we are just moments before Bri takes the plunge

A little explanation is going to be needed before this next photo.  So it was beautiful the whole weekend.  Well, except for 5 minutes at the beginning of the ceremony (of course).  Although the sun was shining, the rain decided to make an appearance.  It rained lightly for about 5 minutes and although everyone kept their cool you could see Melissa and the mothers of the bride and groom shooting looks every which way praying for the rain to stop.  Someone decided to shield Melissa and Brian with an umbrella (hence the photo), it worked wonderfully.  Brian asked me several weeks ago to do a reading from The Old Testament during the ceremony.  I was happy to do it and it ended up being much more appropriate than anyone could have imagined.  Literally SECONDS before the following line was read the rain cleared... "For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone."  It elicited quite a bit of laughter and many sighs of relief.  They say rain on your wedding day is good luck and I have no doubt that someone was sending Brian and Melissa their wishes for lifetime of happiness.   

After a beautiful ceremony by the Rabbi and Priest we headed inside for one of the greatest parties ever.

Ice luge at the martini station - damn cool

I can't even say enough about the food.  No amount of racking my brain could begin to get me to remember everything that was served during the cocktail hour.  Check out Amanda's blog for a list of SOME of the cuisine.

A very, very, very small part of the spread

One of several ice sculptures

Damn good looking groomsmen ready to get their party on

Mr. and Mrs. Herzbrun being introduced for the first time

Cutting the cake

Okay, so I said I couldn't really write about all the wonderful food, but I HAVE to mention the desserts.  We headed back to the room where the cocktail hour took place and it was transformed into dessert heaven.  There were millions of tiny delicious treats everywhere.  Eclairs, fruit, pastries, chocolate mousse, an ice cream scooper man, a chocolate fountain, and of course wedding cake.  If you know me at all you know I made the best of it. 

Nick, Paul, and I housing our chocolate drenched treats

Uncle Steve at the fountain

All the groomsmen ready to take shots with the groom after dessert

The crazy Elmira College crew, Paul going commando in more than one way

At this point the open bar is making everyone as fun as possible

Nick and Amanda cuttin' a rug

Amanda fell in love with Hugo and all his "Latin beauty"

These Long Island ice teas did us very well after the wedding back at the hotel bar

The photos end there but the fun certainly did not.  A huge group of us, including Brian for a short time, headed down to the hotel pool and had a blast.  Hotel security wasn't wild about us finding a way into the pool at 1am, but Brian's mom sweet talked them into giving us a solid 45 minutes to enjoy ourselves.  It was a damn fun way to end the greatest wedding ever.  Congrats Brian and Melissa, you guys are the best!