My brother and Mary (M-nuggz) have been dating for awhile and decided to finally tie the knot with a destination wedding in Troncones, Mexico. There was a danger, do not travel alert by the US State Department, which caused a few people to not come, but overall I think they had about 50 people. And as is often the case, the most dangerous thing there was not what one would expect, but seasickness on the boat ride.
10/16-17
Trying to pack for 2 trips (Asia and Mexico) and finish up last minute things for the Oceanic Society. Oh, and work on some edits for some publications I'm working on. Drove to Estes on the 17th I believe.
10/18
Very early flight to Houston from Denver, then on to Mexico City. We had a long layover,so we took the subway into the city. We got tacos (Elisha's favorite) and ice cream and explored a few areas like Zocalo (the main square), Mariachi Square, and the palace. Because the airport has weird terminals that are very far apart and we were storing our luggage in the opposite terminal, we nearly missed our flight going to Zihuatanejo. We got off at one subway stop too early for the terminal where our luggage was stored, but since we still had tons of time, we decided to walk. But then the path we were taking dead-ended. The rest is a bit confusing in my brain as to what exactly happened. But we finally got to a terminal, but it wasn't the one with our luggage. So we took a bus to the other terminal and collected our luggage. Since we had flown in to that terminal, we figured it was the international terminal, so we took the sky train back to the other terminal, which we assumed was domestic. It mostly was, but apparently most the AeroMexico flights leave from the terminal we were just at. So we rushed to take the train back. When we got there, check-in was closed, but we split up to look for a manager, and I managed to convince someone to give us a late check-in bording pass. But she said we'd have to run. We rushed through security and then sprinted through the airport to arrive in time to catch the flight. And in fact, we had to wait a bit as the flight was a bit delayed. We met up with some wedding goers at the gate, and then once we arrived to Zihuatanejo, we took a shuttle together to the small coastal village of Troncones where all the wedding folks were staying and the ceremony was to be held.
10/19
We were sharing a villa with my parents. It was a beautiful beachside resort with a nice pool. You could hear the waves and catch a glimpse of them from our villa's seating area. The villa was an open air style where the kitchen, dining room, and sitting area were all open air, while the bedrooms were enclosed with air conditioning (thank goodness!).
We lounged around the villas in the morning, and I worked on my best man speech. We then went out to lunch with Stu and explored the town a bit. In the evening was a cocktail party, then a costume dance party. The catch was that someone else chose the costume you'd be wearing and you had to parade down in your costume, runway style. Mom had the costume of a Swifty (which I think Allison selected). Elisha was an attractive Arabian woman (my mom selected it), and I was a blue M&M with cool light up glasses that Scott K selected. I dressed up Alex Banas as a funny cowboy with apron chaps. Not surprisingly, given the heat, the party ended up in the pool
10/20
We did a catamaran sail booze cruise out of Zihuatanejo. We did some snorkeling (really bad---murky and no corals, but a few fish) and swimming in the incredibly warm water. The highlight would have been the open bar and food, but both Elisha and I got seasick, so we could not enjoy it. Several others were also seasick, including Mary, who was very sick and actually got boated off the main boat later.
Afternoon cocktails, and then it was the rehearsal dinner where Kelsey (best friend of Mary's), Gerry (Mary's Dad), Emma (Mary's best friend in CB and interestingly my second cousin twice removed or something like that), Steve Dole (Zach's best bud from college), Dave Pfeifer (Colorado friend of bro's), and myself (brother! ha) gave speeches. Supposedly mine brought a lot of tears to the crowd. I'll paste in the outline of my speech at the end of this. After dinner there was a Mariachi band and dancing
10/21 Wedding Day
We (mom, dad, Elisha, myself, and Dave Yogg) hosted cocktail hour. It was a nice ceremony on the beach, presided over by Gaelen, one of Mary's Whitefish friends. Mom read a poem at the ceremony that I had found for her. Dinner and then a good dance party, that of course ended up in the pool
10/22
Relax day. We hug out at the pool and did some walking around. We hiked up to a nice viewpoint above the resort with good views of the coast and town. We went as a family (bro, mom, dad, Elisha, and me) out to dinner outside of town at a seaside place with a nice sunset. Had a delicious red snapper!
10/23
Drove out to Saludito for some longboard surfing with several people. It was fun, but tiring, but I caught some waves. Back in Troncones, I led mom and Elisha to a place where they were going to be releasing a bunch of sea turtle hatchlings. They were so cute, and it was really picturesque as the sun was setting as we released them. The guy drew a line in the sand, and then we dropped our hatchlings behind the line to make it a sort of race. But it was really cool to watch, and a really cool experience! Afterwards we threw the frisbee around a bit.
Some people had gone out deep-sea fishing that day and caught quite a lot, so we had a group dinner of fresh fish, steak, and fish tacos
10/24
Lazy morning. Then got a seaside massage for ~$30/hr. Took a taxi to Zihuatanejo. Flight to LAX, then a flight to Denver. Arrived to Estes about 3am.
Here's the speech and an intro about it:
It's sort of 3 parts. The part in pink, I memorized and is from one of my favorite Jerry Seinfeld skits. The part in yellow is derived from Chat GPT, which I read directly off of a phone. I actually asked ChatGPT 4 or 5 times to write a best man speech and then I combined the best parts. I can't quite remember, but I think the prompt I gave chatGPT was something akin to this "Dear ChatGPT, please write a best man speech for my brother, Zach and his fiancee Mary in the style of Vince Vaughan's character from Wedding Crashers. They live in the ski town of Crested Butte, Colorado now and Mary is from Montana" Wedding Crashers is one of Zach's favorite movies and is of course wedding themed. The part in blue was just some notes for what I wanted to speak of more off the cuff, in a real manner. I think I probably followed fairly close to the prompt, but I did vary some. I know because Emma had mentioned in her speech something about how friends are so important b/c they are the people you really choose, and I referenced her and said something about how we don't get to choose family but I was lucky with who I ended up with. But other than that, I'm not entirely sure what I said. It's hard for me to remember though b/c when I am public speaking, I'm so nervous that it's really a blur to me. But Elisha might remember better.
I heard about, a study, that speaking in front of a crowd is the number 1 fear of the average person. Number two is…death. Death is #2. As Jerry Seinfeld commented, this means that for the average person, if you have to be at a funeral, you’d rather be in the casket than doing the eulogy.
So to take some pressure off me, I decided to ask my good friend chatgpt out…
[Imagine a confident and charming delivery, Deliver with comedic timing and a touch of sarcasm]
Ladies and gentlemen, grab your champagne flutes and your laughter hats because we're about to get this shindig rolling! I stand before you today, honored to give a toast for my little brother, Zach, and the stunning Mary. And, boy, let me tell you, being Zach's big bro is like having a front-row seat to the world's craziest rollercoaster.
Now, these two lovebirds met in good ol' Montana, and let me tell you, their love story is like a trip through the terrain park. They found each other in the wild, and now they're living it up in the ski and party paradise of Crested Butte. You know, Montana…. Colorado - that's like Love at First Powder!
Now, before I dive into this, let me just say, Mary, you look absolutely stunning today. Zach, you clean up pretty well too, buddy. I guess someone had to finally convince him that cargo shorts and flip-flops aren't suitable for a wedding.
Now, I've got to say, when Zach told me he was getting hitched, I thought he was pulling one of his classic pranks. You know, like the time he convinced us he could breakdance (and trust me, folks, he can't). But then I met Mary, and I realized he wasn't joking. And thank goodness for that!
You see, Mary is the real deal. She's got this way of taming Zach, and believe me, that's no small feat. I mean, he's like a wild stallion, and Mary, you've managed to saddle him up and ride off into the sunset together
I've known Zach my whole life, and I gotta say, he's a character. Remember when he thought the microwave was just for popcorn and he nearly blew up the kitchen? Classic Zach. But when he introduced me to Mary, I knew something was different. He looked at her the way a kid looks at candy.
Zach, my little bro, you've always known how to make life one epic adventure. You've found your partner in crime in Mary, someone who's equally ready to tackle the slopes and hit the dance floor like there's no tomorrow.
Mary, you're an absolute saint! You've managed to snag my wild child of a brother, and for that, you deserve a medal or at least a lifetime supply of patience. Jokes aside, Mary, you're the peanut butter to Zach's jelly, the cheese to his macaroni, and the yin to his yang. You've added a spark to Zach's life like no one else could. You've got the same zest for life, and together, you're a force to be reckoned with. Your love is like a double black diamond run - thrilling, exhilarating, and sometimes a bit of a wild ride, but you always come out on top.
Now, I've had the pleasure (and sometimes, the pain) of knowing Zach for a while. He's a unique character, let me tell you. He's got a charm that can melt glaciers, humor that can make a grizzly bear chuckle, and loyalty that would put a bloodhound to shame. And Mary, you must be quite the catch to snare this elusive bachelor!
And speaking of Zach, well, he's always been a bit of an oddball. You could say he's like a fine wine – he gets weirder with age. But he's also got a heart the size of Texas. He's the kind of guy who would give you the shirt off his back, even if it's covered in pizza
So let's raise our glasses to these two lovebirds who are about to embark on the adventure of a lifetime. May your marriage be filled with more laughter than rom-coms, more love than Disney, and a love that’s as wild and untamed as the Rockies themselves!
Here’s the deal, I have to hide behind this cover of comedy and technology b/c there aren’t really words, at least none that I’ve mastered, that can come close to conveying how much you mean to me as a brother and to describe all the life adventures we’ve been on. Just know that the feeling is there bro. I’m so proud of you. Mary, obviously he’s a great catch, but I know that he’s a very lucky guy to have found you. I’m lucky and honored to call you a sister and i’ve loved our heart to heart hikes we’ve had. I’m definitely looking forward to hanging out more, and of course looking forward to sharing laughs as we watch zach shake it on the dance floor.
Cheers you guys!
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