Sometimes I attend a wedding as a guest and occasionally even as a groomsmen. Gary and I have been friends since college and I was honored when he asked me to be a groomsmen. Over the past few years I’ve been fortunate to get to know Angela and distinctly remember when Gary first told me about her. I never saw him more excited over a girl.

The groomsmen were more or less well-behaved during the wedding. However, we couldn’t resist playing a few pranks on Gary. Cory, a fellow photographer, hacked into Gary’s phone to override the silencer and I may have made it go off during the ceremony. He handled it more gracefully than expected and only a few guests caught on that it was Gary’s phone ringing. The guys also choreographed a few carefully timed “spins” during the ceremony that got a quick chuckle from the guests. For most groomsmen that would have been enough, but every self-respecting best man has at least one big trick up his sleeve- Cory was no exception. I can’t take credit for his idea but was all too eager to participate.

On the wedding day Gary needed help shuttling his car around and that’s when Cory “borrowed” his keys to have Cherie (Cory’s wife) and Sara (my wife) duplicate. While Gary and Angela were on their honeymoon Cory took the liberty of inviting Cherie, Sara, Duncan, Matt and me over to their apartment for a “balloon party.” It took us a total of 23 man hours to fill 1200 some balloons in their bedroom. We also spent some time entertaining Murphy the cat. Murph was a little confused about the whole situation but seemed grateful for the company.

It’s hard to convey the shear volume of balloons required to fill a room from wall to wall and floor to ceiling. The photos barely show how epic the room looked when we were finished. Best of all, the sliding door allowed us to jam pack the entire space and guarantee a wall of balloons would cascade to the floor on the unsuspecting victims.

I wish we could have seen the look on Angela’s face when she opened the door- it must have been priceless. I wonder if she screamed or just stared in disbelief. It’s easy to visualize Gary throwing his hands up in the air and sighing “come on.” I guarantee they will be finding balloon bits in every nook and cranny of their bedroom until the day they move.

Congrats to Gary and Angela– may your life be filled with as much joy as there were balloons in your bedroom!

Love,
Cory and Cherie, Bryan and Sara, Duncan, Matt