wedding catch up, part Talbot-Martin-Cone

Wow, sorry guys! I guess I lost the blogging bug for a little while there. I’m sure all you fifteen readers missed me terribly. Anyway, it’s been a really busy couple of weeks, starting with a trip to Maine to celebrate with Morgan and Ariel at a pre-wedding party, a rehearsal dinner, and their wedding. Gilbert’s Publick House didn’t know what hit it. Every time I go to Gilbert’s (the favorite dive of Camden locals), I think of the first time I ever went in, which was to hunt down our family friend, Carter, to let him know that his mother was under the false impression that he had been arrested for possession and use of heroin and that my father was making the rounds at local police stations looking for him and that he ought to call and inform them otherwise. But that’s a long story for another time, and this post is supposed to be about weddings.

We rushed up to Maine on the Thursday night before the wedding to meet up with Morgan, Ariel, Jim, and Kerry at the Lord Camden Inn, where we started off with some wine. Glasses were limited though, and Morgan put his health on the line by drinking his wine out of the mini coffeemaker pot. (Didn’t you know?? You should never use hotel coffeemakers – crazy people use them to cook up meth.) We moved on to the Quarterdeck so that the boys could have a rematch at Buck Hunter, but they had gotten rid of the game since last time we were there, so off we went to Gilbert’s.

The next day was the rehearsal at the Beaver Lodge in Hope, and a fun lobster dinner at Morgan’s uncle’s house.

The Talbots tried to drown us in lobster and lemon butter, and Jim tried to poison himself by consuming the tomalley of a mound of lobsters.





Ariel and Morgan seemed a LITTLE too fond of their niece, Mikayla.




One, just ONE, tequila shot at--where else?--Gilbert's the night before the wedding!



The wedding was beautiful. It was officiated by Morgan's dad, Alan, and involved the guests, who were asked to pledge to support the couple throughout their married life. Jim Ham played the music, accompanied by his lovely page-turning wife, Yami.

One of my favorite touches was that after the ceremony, instead of a receiving line, Morgan and Ariel strapped on aprons and served all their guests classes of champagne to toast with.

In addition to Morgan’s brother Matt, Dan and Jim W both gave touching toasts in honor of the bride and groom, and Jim Ham sung a beautiful rendition of the Ben Folds song “The Luckiest” for the first dance.

The end of the night found just the eight of us—Morgan and Ariel, Jim and Yami, Jim W and Kerry, and Dan and I—sitting around the lodge and reminiscing. That is, until Dan and Jim found a deer carved out of something like floral foam up on the balcony, and the head came off and crashing down, missing me by a foot or so. After my near death-by-foam-deer experience, we decided to call it a wonderful wonderful night.

Next up on the wedding catch up: Part Healey-Hoehne.