The full-on reception was at the Point Vincente Lighthouse and Interpretive Center, just down the road, also on the water’s edge overlooking the Pacific Ocean. After introducing the party, Jeff danced with his new bride to a song I was not familiar with, then Katie danced with her dads to another song I didn’t know called Daughter in the Water. I think having kids has made me sentimental and I tried to have a moment holding Kaylee watching a father-daughter dance, but it didn’t happen cause she squirmed and wandered off (did I mention she’s walking now) and I had to get my cousins to go chase after her cause all the wedding party was holding positions through the dances. My cousin then upon collecting Kaylee subsequently dropped her. Only a little, and still Selena and I held composure and didn’t move out of our spots watching the dances. But it made us punchy, so by the time the Mother-Son dance came on and another groomsman Jim started to sway and sing along we were on board. Kaylee was fine by the way.

The dinner was is a delicious blur to me, cause I was focused on what comes after, the speeches, including the maid-of-honor Gretchen’s, the matron-of-honor’s, Selena’s, and my own the Best Man Speech. I’ve had to give one Best Man Speech before and maybe it was cause it was one of a series of speeches from 3 best men, and maybe it was cause we were told keep it real short, and I don’t think I gave it my all, and years later I still regret that. I couldn’t let that happen this time around, especially after the incredible Best Man Speech that Jeff gave at my wedding (which I am still seeking a video or transcribed copy if anyone has one).  I set Jeff’s speech as the high bar to reach and spent a few weeks working out what I hoped would be a good balance of storytelling and advise, both sweet and funny, and addressing both Jeff and Katie. I felt confident going in and really was happy with the delivery. Here is the transcript that I ad-libbed from:

And here is the latter half on a somewhat shaky but still discernable Flip-cam video captured by our friend, Erin. Thank you for sharing this, Erin.

Following the orating, we three speech-givers congratulated ourselves with a shot from the bar of something nasty, and that set the tone for a lot of booze and merriment and plenty of dancing, notably with my wife, my Mom and my daughter There was a great energy full of laughter and good times.

At the very end of the night, after my baby and my cousin’s baby were both tuckered out in our baby tent, I was giving tips on Jeff’s behalf to the DJ and caterers and in doing so saw the barkeep packing up the booze. “Where is that going?” I asked.  “I don’t know” he stated “it belongs to the bride and groom, who should it go to?”  “You can give that to me” I confidently replied, and with that I was immediately dubbed the host of the after-party, the after-after-party, and the following night’s party, the final night in LA party and a week later mini-party up in San Francisco.

Oh, did I mention as a gift for being a groomsman, Jeff gave us all custom bobble-heads of ourselves?  Here’s mine and a few more pictures:

Greg and Bobble-Greg with Greg's Dad

Friends at the Cocktail Hour

Chicken-ChIcKeN with the Bride

Glasses were clinking

Jill giving her new sister a bit of advice

Guests at the Cocktail Hour watching the through-the-years slideshow

Jeff at the Cocktail Hour

The movie themed table settings at the reception.

Sunset over the Pacific Ocean

Jeff and Katie cutting the cake.

Two tired babies falling asleep in one baby tent.

We first saw the chapel during the rehearsal for the wedding. It was a fairly straightforward process, which left myself and the other groomsmen a bit lax in our focus, high-fiving and beat-boxing “Here Comes the Bride” as Katie practiced walking down the aisle. Kaylee was adorable walking in as the flower girl, holding hands with Selena. Kaylee had just learned to walk, but was not comfortable enough to come down on her own, still she nailed it in rehearsal.

The actual performance went a little differently. I don’t think it was so bad that Kaylee had her hand in her mouth the whole walk down, that’s still adorable and in the cute little dress we had her wearing she melted everyone in attendance. Then she melted down herself. She didn’t really want to let go of Selena, who as the matron-of-honor had a special place to stand. All the grandparents and the toys in the front row were not enough to keep Kaylee from crying out the whole remainder of the entrances, including Katie’s walk down the aisle. Hopefully that is not what will be remembered from her wedding day, neither that nor that right before the ceremony began the bridesmaids had to send a desperate text “Code Brown in the Bridal Suite, bring Kaylee’s diaper bag ASAP”.

Instead what should be remembered was the gorgeous day. Every day previous had been cloud-covered, but it was clear and sunny and from the chapel you could see all the way to Catalina Island.  Also, the great music they chose performed by Katie’s brother Ben, and the sweet ceremony that began with the honoring of the parents and fun, interesting and poignant readings.

I had one role left in the ceremony to hand over the rings. No problem, except that they got momentarily stuck on my finger where I was holding them, as the Best Man does. But that quickly resolved and did not hold up the ceremony.

Then Katie and Jeff exchanged the rings, repeating their vows, lighting the unity candle and with a kiss were suddenly Mr. and Mrs. Robleto.

Wayfarer's Chapel

Greg and Jim adding humor to the rehearsal

Kaylee clapping

The bridal party at the rehearsal

Our typical everyone ducking out from behind Jill picture

The bride, bridesmaids and flower girl

Tin Roof, site of the delicious rehearsal dinner

The bride and groom

Another of the bride and groom

One more still of the bride and groom

And one of the best man and matron of honor

Jeff had found a disc golf course on his last trip to the West Coast but didn’t have a chance to play. It was all over the hillside overlooking Dodgers stadium, and that is a very unforgiving terrain, one bad shot and your disc can roll and roll halfway down the hill. This happened to Jeff multiple times. I played more conservatively and didn’t have to chase my discs nearly as often, but my unaggressive play combined with bad putting cost me and I lost by five shots. It’s okay though, cause 1) I never beat Jeff and 2) the day before his wedding is not a good time to start.

While Selena and I had wanted to see Warner Bros. studio tour or Universal Studios, we didn’t plan well for either, so the only trip we had to Burbank was to the Bob Hope airport, which is not much bigger than a shopping center, to pick up Katie’s dad and drive him with us to the Griffith Observatory where everyone was meeting.

I liked the idea of a rendezvous point for all the people coming in at different times to meet at before the actual wedding. The Observatory proved a bit of a tough destination because it was so dark and crowded and hard to get up to. It didn’t help that the kitchen closed early, but getting past all that, it was a great time. I toured around the Observatory with Kaylee looking at the fun exhibits or just the views of LA or the stars, and would just run into friends that I haven’t seen in years. It was a treasured experience.

Another moment I enjoyed was sneaking onto the grounds of Torrance high school, wearing our tuxes, to have a photo shoot of the groomsmen at the location that was used for West Beverly High on the 90s version of 90210. Selena tells me that 90210 was a chic show, but that was never my experience. I recall everyone watching it. It was just part of growing up, and so carving out a little piece of that and weaving it into the LA wedding experience was a lot of fun, and I know that the groom very much enjoying doing so.

Once we’d thoroughly exhausted all the classic 90210 poses we could come up with, we headed down to Rancho Pales Verdes for the wedding.

Jeff playing disc golf

Jeff with an easy putt in disc golf

Jeff at the end of the course, overlooking Dodgers stadium

Greg at the end of the course, overlooking Dodgers stadium

The Griffith Observatory

• We travelled to Saint Lucia
• We bought a new home
• Greg got promoted
• Selena left her job at the Shakespeare Theatre
• We became landlords
• Selena studied karate in Egypt
• Sookie joined the family
• Selena started her own design studio – Red Velvet Creative
• We travelled all over Western Europe
• Greg won the Fool’s Errand (two weeks mandatory remarkable vacation)
• We found out Selena was pregnant
• Selena joined the Art Directors Club board of directors
• We went to Disney World
• We both taught part-time at Boston University’s CDIA campus in Georgetown
• Selena learned how to letter press
• Greg masterminded a puzzle hunt
• Kaylee joined the family

Here’s looking forward to many more great years to come. Happy Anniversary, Selena.

• Six player Settlers of Catan is very difficult and quite awesome
• You can take a stylish outfit up another notch with argyle socks
• Northern Exposure had some pretty interesting monologues, I should pick up a season of that show.

• Golf courses start to look like Slip-n-Slides after 20 inches of rain

• OAR’s “Hey Girl” is a not a slow song, but still a great First Dance song, why is it not already on my iPod?
• The birthday record dude, Captain Zoom, is still making records, who knew?
• You can start a successful conga line to “Come on Eileen”
• When someone inadvertently makes a noise like the Penguin in Batman 2, it can spawn a whole series of replications and embellishments, including rigid flipper-like hand gestures and lots of people going “Waaaaannhh”, as it captured in this photo:
  

And finally, not a learning (because we already knew it), but a re-emphasizing that Lauren and Duke are a great couple and will surely have a long and happy life together. Congrats Ducks!