(Otherwise known as our wedding reception)

Me and Steph at our wedding reception

A wild title for a wild night. What else can I say?! It was an eclectic blend of personalities that had the possibility to either make the night or completely derail it. We went ahead and chose the former, and had a grand ol’ time in Hokieland!

Mix in a couple of live performances from my extremely talented new family. Add a boat load of rum-guzzling capt’ns. Thrown in a dash of straight-up pimp cousin. Top it off with the Hoban family matriarch, aunts and my reverend uncle (who married us). Even then, we are only scratching the surface. There were even a few incidents involving myself, a microphone, some down-home country music, good friends…and a good bit of liquid courage.

The result was a perfect ending to wedding day. We even managed, due to a wonderful suggestion from Steph, to bookend the night with Van Morrison. That still makes me smile when I think about it.

Don’t get me wrong. Our marriage has and will always be the most important part of this story. Not the wedding. Not the reception. Not even the amazing trip to Cozumel (yes, more on that later). Even so, I wanted so badly for the reception to be a great time. Not just for me and Steph, but for everyone. And I don’t mind saying that I think we succeeded.

And, honestly, what else would you expect from a gathering of rockstars, pirates, pimps and saints?