Family Days
There were about 3 iterations of Paige and my wedding before the one that actually happened. The only important version, for the sake of this installment, besides the actual wedding, is the previous one. Paige’s dad’s side of the family has a yearly pig roast on Memorial Day weekend. The original plan was to have a small ceremony on the Friday, May 15th, have a small “friend reception,” on the 16th, and then take over the pig roast for a “family reception,” the following weekend. Of course we ended up just doing a more traditional set up on the 15th.
Paige’s friend, Miranda dropped Paige and I off at home at 2:00 am, on the morning of the 16th and after we woke up at 9:00, we went to her parents house for a gathering for her mom’s side of the family. After that we went to my parents to see my family that was in town (basically the whole Florida family except for Martin and Pam who left early that morning, and my cousin Paige who stayed at home with her kids). I took Monday and Tuesday off. Initially, we had a couples massage scheduled for that Sunday but Alexander and Alexa ended up staying an extra day, so we pushed it to that Tuesday. I don’t think I have ever been that relaxed in my entire life. Also, something that isn’t super important but I still thought was cool was that Tuesday night there was a minor flood at school, so everyone was off on Wednesday so for my wedding I got a six day weekend!
On Friday May 22, 2026, the pig roast festivities started. One of Paige’s cousins, Marcus, arrived with his kids, and they set up the pig roasting pit. The next day at around 2:00, Paige and I returned to her parents house to spend the day with everyone! Spending the day with them was really fun especially when we had just seen everyone the week before.
That night, one of Paige’s cousins, who we will call Payton, hosted a game of “Midnight Werewolf.” I’ve played a few versions of this game before (Mafia, and the live version Murderer In The Dark) and I had played Midnight Werewolf specifically, but Payton had set it up super cool. She had brought in some battery operated candles and set them around the table for ambience and she did an amazing job narrating the game.
That next day was the actual pig roast. We arrived at about noon and my family (my parents, Ryan, Luke, Josh, and Pop-pop and Sara who were still in town from the wedding), arrived at 12:45, shortly before the pig was taken off and we began to eat. As we were eating Paige and I sat down with Payton and debriefed about our wedding.
During that conversation I heard a story that I hadn’t heard before. I met a good portion of Paige’s family about a month after our first date at a bar after she and her cousins had celebrated their grandma's 100th birthday. Apparently before I arrived, Paige told Payton that she was “seeing someone,” and she immediately followed it up with “I think he might be the one.”
This is something that I did not know! I am not surprised Paige is my wife, and we talked about marriage relatively early on, but hearing that she said that to a family member almost immediately made me smile.
New Story has a summer school program. For the purposes of time at work, other than my six day weekend, my school schedule would not change until July. I did not want to get married, and immediately go on the honeymoon, with summer school hanging over my head. As of the pig roast, Paige and I had been married for a week. But the reality; the everyday-ness of that fact didn’t really hit us since our extended families were still predominantly around. As Paige I left the pig roast, I was thankful for the week of family days that we had had, but I was excited for the first normal week of forever.
To Be Continued…
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