Greg Baugues and Rachel Lazelle Got Married

My friend Andy says that planning a wedding serves as a crucible to test the strength of a couple’s relationship. That is: if your relationship can survive planning a wedding, then your relationship is strong enough to get married.

Due to the type of wedding Rachel and I are having, we haven’t faced the typical pains of that process.  I would revise the statement to  “if your relationship can survive a six-hour trip to Ikea and the ensuing weekend of furniture assembly, then your relationship is strong enough to get married.”

Things I learned last weekend:

• Zipcar rents pickup trucks for $11 /hr or ~$100 /day including all gas, insurance and tolls.
• When driving on the expressway with a truck full Ikea boxes, it’s best to have the cargo gate closed.
• Rachel is way better at reading and following instructions than I am.
• Our relationship is strong enough to get married.

My parents threw Rachel and I a wedding shower this weekend. The party was super low key, which was good because Rachel and I could barely walk after running the half.

The guests were mostly made up of four groups of people:

People from my dad’s current church, Good Shepherd UMC.

I was in college when my dad started pastoring Good Shepherd and I have never attended regularly. I was appreciative of everyone coming out as they don’t know me that well, and I don’t know them, but they still came to celebrate with us anyway. I have always been impressed by the thoughtfulness of the Good Shepherd congregation, as they have always gone out of there way to make me feel welcome, even though I can never remember anyone’s name.

People from my dad’s old church, Union Chapel UMC

We moved to Union Chapel the summer before I started fourth grade and stayed there for eleven years.  The people of this church were “the village” that helped raise me – the ones who were always supporting me and rooting me on.  It was a great pleasure to see so many again and to show off Rachel to people who knew me before I had all of my permanent teeth.

My Dad’s Family

From my Dad’s side of the family we had:

• Grandpa
• Dad’s brother Howard (who took most of the pictures below) and his wife Ginny
• Howard’s daughter Amy, her husband Aaron, and their daughter Aubrey
• Dad’s brother Keith and his wife Debbie
• Dad’s Aunt Nila, her husband Ken and their daughter Tonya

As a fun side note, Aunt Nila had gastric bypass surgery a year ago and has since lost 140 pounds.  Nila is 69 years old and prior to the surgery was confined to a wheel chair. On Saturday she walked the Mini’s 5k event and was the last person to cross the finish line, earning her an interview and some air time on the local news.  To me, her participation in that race was far more impressive than ours… I am very, very proud of her.

Old Friends from Highschool

I don’t keep in touch with many high school friends back in Indy, but the ones I do showed up.  Many thanks to Andy, Casey, Kelly, Ryan and Kevin for making the trek to the East side.

Pete Gall

Pete earns special mention in his own category.  I keep apologizing because I didn’t get a chance to talk to Pete, though pretty much everyone else there did. Pete has been an incredible mentor over the last 6 years. I can say without question that I would not have moved to Chicago five years ago, nor would I have the relationship with Rachel that I have today had it not been for his friendship and guidance over the last seven years. Pete’s a ridiculously talented author and you should buy one of his books.

Greg and Rachel: Love in Action

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Pro-tip: If you need a notary, check your local bank (thanks to my Uncle Howard for the tip).

This morning Rachel and I killed two birds with one stone at Bank of America: notarize our wedding certificate and to add me to her checking and savings account.

It’s getting real now.  28 days to go.

On Monday I sent this email to everyone who will be joining us in Washington for our wedding:

Rene bought his airplane ticket two days ago and will be joining us in Washington. Rene and I talked about food this weekend. Rene wants to cook A LOT. He wants to cook breakfast, lunch and dinner the three full days we are there. He wants to do four or five courses for dinner the night of our wedding. He wants to make a wedding cake.

I’ve known Rene for five years. With the utmost confidence I can say that there is nothing he enjoys more than cooking and serving other people with his culinary talents. Nothing else even comes close. I say this because he wants to be sure that no one feels bad or guilty when he spends the bulk of his time in the kitchen over those four days. There’s nothing else he’d rather be doing.

If anyone has any dietary restrictions or special requests, let him know. He loves to accomodate.

Also, its worth mentioning that a couple hours ago San Pellegrino’s 2010 Top 50 Restaurants in the World list was released.

Alinea, where he has worked for the last 3 years, is #7 in the world and #1 in America.

Celar Can Roca in Spain, where Rene will be going to work one week after our wedding, is #4.

-Greg

Rene Deleon cooking Thanksgiving dinner at Lincoln Park Community Shelter