Congrats, Alex & Kasia!

Adam and I spent last weekend in Des Moines, Iowa, for Alex and Kasia's wedding. It was gorgeous! We also got to reconnect with lots of friends we hadn't seen in a while, so that was great as well. All of Adam's friends from high school (aka "the Posse") were there, along with their wives/girlfriends, several of whom I had not yet met. It was so great to see everyone, and surprisingly wonderful that all of the significant others are such cool people.

We got into town on Friday afternoon, checked into the hotel and headed over to the wedding rehearsal at the church. Adam was an usher, and at first was a little worried about his role, but everything went very smoothly. Adam was raised in a Lutheran church, and I was raised United Methodist, so it was interesting, to say the least, for us to see all of the details of a big Catholic wedding!

Here, the Posse (minus Austin, whose plane was delayed) waits for instructions before the rehearsal:

After the rehearsal dinner Friday night, the whole Posse, plus significant others, headed out to the downtown Des Moines bars. They were several blocks from the hotel we were staying at, but when we got there -- wow! Quite a happening nightlife for Iowa ;) We found an English pub and hung out for a few hours to catch up with everyone.

On Saturday, we got to experience the wedding, of course. We've both known Alex so well and for such a long time that we were thrilled to see him marry someone as awesome as Kasia!

The wedding reception was also eventful, especially since it included the Polish tradition of stealing the bride and groom's shoes. Adam nearly had one of Alex's, but lost it to a bigger, drunker Polish guy. He did get a consolation prize, though; one of our friends who had successfully stolen a shoe gave him the prize she won for it (a bottle of Grey Goose).

All in all, a fantastic weekend :)