Best Man
Paige and I bought our books from Barnes and Noble and walked to the car. Once the car was on, I pulled up detections to Ryan’s apartment. As I began to drive, I thought back to last November. On Saturday, November 22, 2025, Paige and I got up and got ready for a pretty big day. First, we were going to meet with the priest, who is going to marry us, Father David, and then we were going to go down to Cincinnati for a Friendsgiving with my “sisters” (False Safety or Right Where We Left Off (Refresher)).
This was the first meeting we had with Fr. David, so it was mostly just him getting to know us as a couple and getting some preliminary information about the wedding. “Who are the Best Man and Maid of Honor going to be?” he asked during the meeting.
Now, there have been many different iterations of what we thought our wedding would/should look like. In every single alternate, the only constant was that Ryan was going to be my best man, and her best friend Nicole would be Maid of Honor. We were planning on not telling either of them until we had a solidified date, which didn’t happen until this meeting. On the drive to Cincinnati, Paige and I decided that we would talk to Ryan after my Florida family went home after the holiday.
The next day, Sunday, November 23, at around 4:40 p.m., Paige and I drove to my parents' house, because Pop-pop, Sara, Eva, and Zach were already in town. When we walked into the living room, Ryan was sitting on a couch talking to Pop-pop, who was on another couch.
“Fancy seeing you here!” Pop-pop said to us. We laughed at Pop-pop‘s reference to him and Sara saving Paige and I when we got stuck in Orlando a month prior, and we hugged him. We ended up both sitting down on the couch with Ryan, and he was between us. As Paige and I had been engaged since May, the topic of the wedding came up. Once all the details that we knew about the wedding at the time were discussed, there was about a 15-second break in the conversation. At about second 11, Paige sent me a text, and it pinged my Apple Watch around second 14. It read: Maybe ask him today? At second 15, as I was still trying to process what Paige was saying, Pop-pop asked, “So who’s the best man and the maid of honor?”
I immediately got awkward, I’m pretty sure Paige started laughing, and Ryan started side-eyeing both of us. And that’s how Ryan found out that he was going to be my best man!
Paige and I parked outside of Ryan’s apartment. We walked in, played Blokus, and talked about plans for the wedding and my bachelor party, and I couldn’t help my smile. Ryan is someone who I have always looked up to, despite some weird Cousin Simple insecurities I used to have. I am happy that on Paige and my big day, Ryan will be standing next to me.
Have a Greattastic day and be safe!
J. Mitchie Ulibarri, SBT
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