I'm Sam. I'm the guy travelling in this blog, and I rarely travel. I wanted to tell everyone about my trip!
I went to Wisconsin, best known for cheese. But I wasn't going for the cheese. I was invited to a wedding. So I packed my bags and went on my way!
Showing up in my best outfit!
My Travel Buddy
Luckily, the person that invited me offered to go with me. Traveling with another person's a good idea, especially when you don't know much about flying, car renting, or Wisconsin. This is Amanda, my travel buddy.
Thanks for letting me tag along! And all the travel advice! And driving. Definitely driving.
THE PATH TO EAGLE RIVER
Eagle River is a small town of 1,419 people. Our flight went from Sanford, Florida to Appleton, Wisconsin. It took us 45 minutes to get to the Sanford aiport, two and a half hours to fly to Appleton, and three hours to drive to Eagle River. It took about nine hours to get there, including rest stops and getting food, and building in a two-hour buffer to get to the airport.
Wisconsin is a lot of farm land. And it unfortunately smells bad. Poop. Everywhere. And since it rained before we arrived, it smelled like wet fur too.
There are hundreds of these farms in Wisconsin.
Before we even left Appleton, our first stop was Simon's Specialty Cheese Retail Store, where Amanda promptly bought $100 worth of cheese. It was for the wedding, not us. Honest.
I had never seen a three-pound cheese log until I went to Wisconsin. People have cheese drawers instead of meat drawers in their fridges here.
Just outside of Appleton are lots of cheese plants.
Don't ask me why this one is called Freedom Plant. I don't know.
Travelling deep into the sticks of Wisconsin is rough. The roads get damaged by frost, they tend to be two lanes, and have a lot of roadkill. Amanda and I ran across a dead porcupine, three dead deer, some dead four-legged creature on the way up, and a dead golden retriever. Animals here must be fearless, compared to my Florida homeland.
In the worst places, the roads don't even have dividing lines painted.
We passed quite a few abandoned farms like these. Scenic! Apparently the buildings are left standing for insurance purposes?
ARRIVAL AT EAGLE RIVER
After the draining three-hour drive, we arrived at Amanda's old home.
The Bogeman Residence. Also, where the wedding would be taking place.
I had a chance to look around the day before the wedding, so I scoped out the big tent on the front lawn. Somehow I thought it was a fumigation tent at first glance, but realized that A) Fumigation tents are not white, and B) This tent wasn't covering any buildings.
The tent could hold about 80 people inside.
The ceremony was to take place in the backyard, at the bottom of the hill. The path down was surprisingly treacherous, but it was a rather pretty spot.
Those white umbrellas with the white tassel things are jellyfish. It's what the bride wanted.
The next day, I was asked to help out with a lot of the preparation. Since I got to freeload on airfare and car-rental, I figured it was fair. It started with doing grocery runs for food prep, which then turned into moving the booze and soda into the reception tent, chopping salad, grating cheese, cutting onions, and stretched into the ceremony proper where I became the Unofficial Official Wedding Photographer. Gonna add that last one to my resume!
THE CEREMONY
Before the ceremony began, I managed to meet some people.
This is James, but he was cool with me calling him Jim, or Jimmy. Jim's great. Awesome guy!
Aaron is the groom. I didn't get much of a chance to chat, since he was getting married and all.
This is Kim. Amanda's sister, and one of the primary people responsible for getting the wedding rolling.
This is Carolyn, Kim's friend. She was pretty cool, didn't get to talk to her much though.
I had never served as an Unofficial Official Wedding Photographer before, and this was my first serious usage of my DSLR camera. It's a different experience attending a wedding as a photographer. You end up running around the audience and people, trying to get good shots. I stuck out in my all-red outfit as I zipped around, looking for good angles.
Pastor Josh walking down the aisle with the groom, Aaron.
Stephanie walking down the aisle with her father, Ted.
Pastor Josh talked about Tangled during the ceremony. Specifically, how Rapunzel smacked Flynn in the face with a frying pan. It makes sense in context.
As the Unofficial Official Photographer, of all the shots I wanted to capture the most, I wanted to get the kiss. I almost didn't get it, since my camera refocused twice before snapping. But I got it. One single picture.
And it turned out pretty good!
The newlyweds, Stephanie and Aaron Conley.
After the ceremony, I was asked to take a picture of the family, the groomsmen, and the bridesmaids.
From left to right: Kim, Terry, Stephanie, Ted, Amanda.
I don't remember the bridesmaids' names. I'm not that good at this.
I don't know the groomsmen (and woman) either. Whoops.
THE RECEPTION
The first thing I encountered walking into the reception tent was the photobooth.
Hit the green button and stand in front of the pallet.
Jim and I took a photo. You know, for posterity.
Got It!
There was plenty of food and drink. Since Aaron was from Georgia, most of the food was Southern-inspired.
So. Many. Rolls.
Beans are good for your heart.
Beer and soda were in plentiful supply. Not shown - the six crates of beer under the table.
We had to wait until the Disney song indicated on our table was playing to get anything. This one is from Tarzan.
Cheesecake was the cake of choice. Because Wisconsin.
Star Trek because... reason. I didn't ask.
Most everyone was served cupcakes.
As a way to raise funds for their honeymoon, Aaron and Stephanie would kiss for every dollar someone donated.
The kissing spot.
Grandma donated twenty dollars.
The appropriate reaction.
There was a lot of kissing that ensued.
Grandma got her money's worth.
Aaron and Stephanie made some cash from it all.
THE DANCE
What sort of reception wouldn't have dancing?
It took some time before the bride and groom did a slow dance.
I laid down quite the dance moves, but could not record myself doing them. I did an impromptu enactment of "The Devil Went Down To Georgia" with this guy:
I don't know your name, but your mustache is magnificent. Thanks for being Johnny!
Though my moves are amazing they have nothing on Jim. Behold, the Jimmy Shimmy.
Did I mention Jim is the best?
Ted even joined in on the dance floor too!
He's having a good time.
AND SO IT ENDED
And that was the wedding! My knees hurt something fierce from tearing up the dance floor, and the return trip was more boring than the trip up, but I had a lot of fun! It was nice to get out of Florida for a while.
