Lee and JZ’s Wedding

Scroll Down for Pictures and a Short Video below

The next 6 days will be busy. We have a wedding In Washington DC then Margarite is running in the Boston marathon then we stay in Boston for a few days before heading back to Botswana.

First the wedding my youngest brother finally at 40, decided to tie the knot. He has met a wonderful woman about half his age JZ. JZ is a 10th grade English / Litterateur Professor and I am sure if she is reading this, she will realize English is my second language.

I had been visiting friends and family in the Eastern Pennsylvania area for the last few weeks so I was getting a ride to DC with my adopted sister. She recently turned 48 just 2 weeks before I turned 50. I told her 48 sucked but turning 50 was like being born again. Life had a whole new meaning. There were new pleasures, like making it through the night without having to go to the bathroom.

We picked up Margarite at BWI Airport on our drive to Washington D.C. Somehow this poor girl working at the Botswana orphanage was able to use her father’s private jet to fly over to the United States.

We checked in to our hotel in D.C., the Morison and Clark, a quant historic hotel on 11th and L North West.

We got a nice surprise Margarite’s parents were in from Holland (that is why Margarite was able to use the jet). Margarite’s mother is a descendant of some Dutch Royalty and for some reason was invited to some grand ball at the U.S. Dutch Embassy in Washington D.C. So we all met up for lunch at the Brasserie Beck. They are well known for their unique Belgian Beer.

After lunch we took a nap the beer knocked me out and Margarite was beat from the long flight. We have a family dinner at 6 to meet JZ's family for the first time. My parents and my other brother’s family would be in shortly, "Z’s" family.

Dinner was great, food was great, service was great, and it was clear neither JZ nor Lee wanted the two families to meet. I guess with fewer then 24 hours before the wedding they wanted to make sure nothing went wrong. Each family was seated at their own table Lee's family at one table about 12 people. JZ's at the other table about 14 people. The two tables were about 40 feet apart and it was clear we were not to mingle. I guess Lee knew one of us might open our mouths and kill the deal. Everything ended find and off to after party party we all went.

It was good to catch up with some of Lee's buddies I had not seen for a while. Lee is one of those few people that has a ton of close friends all the way back from high school and whom reside all over the world.

Saturday, got up and went for an 8 mile run, Washington D.C. is a great town to run in with great parks and sights to see so the run goes by real fast.

My brother had rented a bus to get all the guest from the hotel to the church. Phil a friend of my brother's and I were in charge of the wedding programs. JZ had hand made each program and we had to instruct each guest that they must save the program forever and if JZ was ever to visit it was important they put the program out on their coffee table for JZ to see.

The ceremony was very nice and well done. There was 3 hours between the ceremony and the reception so JZ and Lee had reserved 60 tickets for a Capital Building tour. I was put in charge of making sure the tour went off without a hitch. It was like herding cats. The Capital was 3 blocks from the church.

The tour starts out with a movie of the Capital and then there is a guided tour of the building. Since it was Saturday the Capital was not that active. It was a feat to gather everybody to get them back to the bus so we would be back at the hotel in time for the reception. What Stress!

My brother used unique pictures of each guest as seating place cards so you had to identify your picture and on the back was your table number. At our table was KAT. KAT is running for New Jersey State Senate, Congress, or maybe even President.

The reception was well done and just the right size so you had a chance to talk to everybody.

Margarite and I are heading to Boston early Sunday morning for the Boston Marathon, more on that later.

Watch the Video (below) for the condensed version.





Cheers,

DUG