From today forward
Until we are parted by death
No matter if we are
healthy or sick
rich or poor
jubilant or melancholy
I will love you
I will respect you
I will honor you
I will never leave you
and I will seek the Lord
and depend on him for the strength to keep these vows

Rene’s original idea was to make a chocolate cake called The Opera which features five layers of different types of chocolates.  When he heard Rachel wasn’t fond of chocolate cakes, he decided to do the same thing, but with fruit instead.

The result was a cake with layers of cherries, raspberries, apples, blue berries and strawberries covered in butter cream.  Rene said it was the best cake he’s ever made.  It was certainly the best cake I’ve ever eaten.

The market makes for a great place for pictures.  So many colors.  Devin did a great job of capturing the action.

Boy, this is embarrasing. I kind of forgot to tell you guys… Rachel and I got married.

Two months ago.

I’ve been putting off posting because, well… it’s a bit overwhelming to try write a post about the biggest day of your life.  So, I’m just going to post some pictures instead, and maybe I’ll tell y’all the story at another time.

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.

Many thanks to Jeff and Michelle Lazelle for taking and scanning these pics (also, making and raising Rachel).

I present to you some choice pics of The Most Awesomest Photo Gallery of Me Ever Made:

I do this professionally now.

Straight floating on a boat in the deep blue sea

The ladies loved this get up.

Bogus fanny pack dude.

Pretty much the awesomest outfit ever

Small, unnecessarily formal change… right?

If you Googled me prior to the change, the top result would have been a cheesy interview I gave to an entrepreneurial website seven years ago. Our blog was buried half-way down the page.

Why? Because on a site full of information about Rachel and I, only a single page had the phrase 100% of people use when looking for me online — my full name.

By simply changing the name of our wedding blog I created forty pages of content with “Greg Baugues” and “Rachel Lazelle” in the title, establishing our blog as the definitive source for information about us and boosting it to top of search results for our names.

What shows up when people Google you?

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

Me showing Grandpa how to use an iPhone

Howard telling us about Olympic National Park, where we will be visiting during our honeymoon.

Rachel and I talking to my cousin Amy, her husband Aaron and her daughter Aubrey

My uncle Howard and his granddaughter Audrey

Grandpa, his granddaughter and great-granddaughter

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.

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