Way back in 2000, my best friend Scott got married and ended up having two kids with his first wife. A few years into their marriage, they separated, and a few months after their separation, she was killed in a car accident...horrible, horrible stuff). Years later, Scott's son Liam started going to pre-school and Scott ended up hitting it off with, and eventually dating Liam's pre-school teacher; a woman who we all came to call Miss Erika for the next several years (Hahaha). After a few years of dating, Scott proposed to Miss Erika and she and her son Michael (who is a few months older than Liam) moved in with Scott and his two kids, Liam and Abby. Two families coming together Brady Bunch Style!
In late June, Meredith and I headed out to my hometown in New Jersey to celebrate Scott and Erika getting married!
Friday, June 29th
Here's Mer (looking haunted) as our train prepares to leave Penn Station.
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meredith
train
Turns out she just needed a nap.
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meredith
asleep
train
After arriving in town, we headed up to Our Lady of the Lakes church on Lake Hopatcong to do a practice run of the ceremony.
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church
Meredith contemplates the future of her food-baby outside of the church. Hahaha.
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meredith
preggo
After the church-rehearsal we went to a nearby Italian restaurant for the rehearsal dinner. Here's Scott and his bride-to-be, Erika, thanking everyone for attending!
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erika
scott
Meredith and I were seated with John and his fiance and...
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john c
...Matthew, Liam, Michael, Kent, Stephanie, Abby and Cassidy.
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kent
liam
matthew
Yep, that's right. We got sat at The Kids' Table. Here's Abbey and Cassidy getting their spaghetti on!
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abbey
cassidy
food
We actually didn't mind at all. We had a way funner time than anyone else because we got to do coloring and no one else did. Here's Mer and Abbey tag-teaming a page out of one of Abbey's coloring books.
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abbey
meredith
coloring
Dah-dah!
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abbey
coloring
Matthew shows off "Blue Snake No. 7: Sleeping on a Rock."
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matthew
coloring
Here's Lori with Russ, Jeff and Tim. This woman was hands-down one of the most influential people in my life and she's pretty much one of the reasons that I didn't end up in jail (or worse, still living in New Jersey! I keeeed, I keeeed!). I'm sure the same pretty much goes for the three guys in this photo as well. We were all kind of rowdy delinquents that somehow all ended up in choir - and Ms. Lynch totally took no bullshit and whipped our asses into shape. Thanks, Lori! We all owe you a huge debt! Was so great to see she's still being recognized as a great teacher!
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jeff m
lori lynch
russ
tim f
In a totally random cosmic coincidence, Lori Lynch, our high school choir teacher was being honored by the Rotary Club as one of the Teachers of the Year at the very same restaurant! Here's Lori (wearing her Teacher of the Year medal!) with Scott.
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lori lynch
scott
Saturday, June 30th
Saturday was weddin' day! Meredith and I stopped off to get some coffee and doughnuts on the way up to Scott's house.
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meredith
Fancy shoes on the D&D carpet!
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shoes
After stocking up on coffee and doughnuts, we headed up to Scott's parent's house to get changed into our tuxes. Here's a first look at the groom on his wedding day!
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scott
Michael gives a big smile while Liam applies some final touches to his mascara. In a couple of hours, these two dudes will legally be brothers!
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liam
michael
After all the best men finished getting their tuxes on, we piled into Kent's van and headed over to the church.
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van
John showing off the baskets filled with vials of bubble-making solution. These were given to the guests so they could make bubbles after the wedding instead of throwing rice.
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john c
Jeff and Mer outside the church.
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jeff m
meredith
The church: T-minus 50 minutes until weddin' time!
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church
Check out some of the stained glass windows inside the church: a dove spiraling to the ground with a branch in its mouth...
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church
stained glass
...then later, the same dove rising up out of the flames like a phoenix!
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church
stained glass
And finally, here's a flaming heart with seven daggers in it and the church's name: Our Lady of Sorrows? Jesus! (Ha!). Makes you realize that the Catholic church basically originated the Hot Topic Emo T-shirt movement like 1700 years ago.
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church
stained glass
After all the men proved themselves to be unable to pin a flower to a lapel...
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jeff m
john c
...Meredith was called upon to help out all the fumbly-fingered men with their buttoneers! Here she is giving Kent a hand...
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kent
meredith
flower
...then she shored up Jeff!
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jeff m
meredith
flower
Then me! Thanks for lending your slender lady-fingers, gorgeous! We would've been flowerless without you!
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me
meredith
flower
us
Jeff doing a little pre-game practicing of his passage of scripture.
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jeff m
church
The band warming up! T-minus 30 minutes!
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russ
church
OMG, WEDDING!
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meredith
Scott and Tim doing a "walk down the aisle" run through. This was the first time I ever got to see all the "behind the scenes" action that goes into making a wedding run smoothly. I felt like such a VIP insider!
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church
wedding
Liam and Michael getting ready to practice their ringbearer responsibilities!
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liam
lil michael
wedding
T-minus: 5 minutes! Here's Jeff, Kent, John and me taking a break from seating guests for a quick photo.
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jeff m
john c
kent
me
church
wedding
Scott actually decided that the best way for Tim to be his best man would be to get his head surgically grafted to Scott's left shoulder. Now that's a friend!
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scott
tim f
church
wedding
T-minus 0 minutes! It's weddin' time! I only took a few photos of the actual ceremony. Here's the three kids helping their parents light a candle.
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wedding
After, I put my camera away, but I took it back out to sneak this clutch shot of Michael totally falling asleep on his grandparents after his candle lightin' duties were finished. I love how both his grandparents are totally laughing about me taking a photo of him sleeping. Fast forward twenty minutes later and...
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wedding
...I now pronounce you husband and wife! You may kiss the bride! Woooooooo!
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erika
scott
kiss
wedding
Awwww.
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erika
scott
wedding
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erika
scott
wedding
Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. and Mrs. Scott Jentzen! Congrats you two!
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erika
scott
best
laugh
wedding
The crowd waiting outside for the appearance of the brand new bride and groom!
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crowd
wedding
Erika and Scott getting ready to walk down the church steps.
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erika
scott
wedding
Amidst all the hullabaloo, I totally managed to nab this clutch shot of Kent daintily blowing "procession bubbles" with the little bubble kit he got out of the "bubble basket." The only thing funnier than Kent's expression in this photo is Russ in the background looking at him like "Really?" Hahahahaha.
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kent
russ
bubble
Greeting guests.
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erika
scott
wedding
Remane and Stephanie smiling on the newlyweds from the stairs.
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reminay
stephie
Abbey!
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abbey
After the procession, everyone in the wedding party had to go back inside for more photos. Here's Cassidy, Steph, Kent and Matthew.
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cassidy
kent
mathew
stephie
Erika doing some kid wranglin' up at the alter.
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abbey
erika
lil michael
Cassidy and Matthew!
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cassidy
matthew
While Erika and Scott took photos with all sorts of combinations of family members (seen here with Parents of the Bride and Maid of Honor)...
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erika
scott
wedding
...Jeff hustled us all to the back of the church and busted out a flask of what he explained was "Grandad's Medicine."
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jeff m
best
Hahahaha.
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jeff m
tim f
I love their two faces in this photo! They're both totally like "My mouth tastes like burning!" After we finally finished with all the photos in the church, we all piled into limos and...
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jeff m
tim f
...drove two blocks away to a park for MORE PHOTOS!
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gazebo
Here's the beautiful bride!
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erika
wedding
Scott big pimping with the bridal party.
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scott
wedding
Stop! Gazebo time!
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gazebo
Reminay and Erika.
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erika
reminay
gazebo
wedding
Erika with a bridesmaid whose name I forgot. (Sorry!)
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erika
wedding
Tim and Reminay.
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reminay
tim f
Hahaha. I love this photo. You can totally tell he's about to do something funny...
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reminay
scott
flower
...like pretend the bouquet is a giant ice cream! (Big ups to Scott for keeping even the impromptu shots PG!).
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reminay
scott
flower
lick
Milling around. Waiting for all the photos to be finished.
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jeff m
stephie
Abbey peed in the woods! Abbey peed in the woods!
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abbey
After the photos were all finished...
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erika
wedding
...everyone got in their limos and we headed to the reception!
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limo
Scott, Erika, the bridal party...
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erika
limo
...and the kids got into one limo...
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abbey
liam
lil michael
limo
...and me, Steph, Kent, John got in another. Steph broke out the champagne and booze before that mutha even left the curb.
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john c
kent
stephie
limo
See you at the reception in 45 minutes! Hope we're sober enough to get out of the car!
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john c
kent
stephie
limo
Our limo driver was THE MAN and we somehow managed to beat the bride and groom to the reception hall!
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limo
wedding
Abbey the flower girl!
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abbey
bubble
limo
Right at 5pm we headed into the reception hall to start getting our celebration on... [Continue on to Part Two!]
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erika
scott
wedding
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