Back in early January 2024, Elizabeth and I went to a wedding in Virginia for her high school friend. It was a nice enough wedding on the campus of William and Mary in Williamsburg. There were two major highlights in my eyes – first of all, the fact that Elizabeth let me make a stop the Cold Harbor/Gaines Mill Civil War battlefields on the east side of Richmond, and that the wedding reception had plenty of soju. It turns out that soju is an extremely efficient way to get drunk at a party. I was several (many) drinks deep that night when I received a call from my friend Jason.
Leaving the banquet hall to hear him better, I was surprised to learn that Jason was now engaged to his girlfriend, having taken a page from my book and proposed to her in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. I drunkenly congratulated him and seized upon the advice that Elizabeth’s cousin had given us several years prior when we got engaged – don’t let people bog you down by asking for wedding details for a few weeks. Just enjoy it, you only go through your engagement once in life. Maybe it sounded sage; maybe it sounded stupid. Either way, it worked. When he hung up, Jason told his fiancee Maya that I was going to be his best man.
A few months later, I found out that I was the best man when Elizabeth and I received a package at our brand-new house. The return address was North Dakota, and I only knew one North Dakotan. Elizabeth handed me the package, and I said “Oh, I’m a groomsmen! Neat.” Then I opened it and saw the mug that said “Will you be my best man” and was actually speechless.
Being a best man is a huge honor! Everybody only has one, and not everyone gets married, which means many people out there are lucky if they get to do it once in their life. I took the job as seriously as I could – planning out an early-March bachelor party in Scottsdale, Arizona a few weeks before the wedding that hopefully I have time to blog about sometime soon. The wedding itself was set for March 22, 2025 in Council Bluffs, Iowa to be close to Maya’s extended family. It’s about 8 hours from Norman to Omaha – just close enough that Elizabeth, Sam (also a groomsman) and I could drive up there. Our trip up would be from Wednesday to Sunday.
It was a great trip! I don’t think I can do a super in-depth analysis of each day. The last thing this blog needs is another super-long series that takes months to complete and distracts me from finishing one of those other series that need to be finished. So instead, how about a rapid-fire 750 or so words from each of the 5 days of the trip? (Maybe a few more words for the wedding day at the expense of Sunday).
Wednesday
The three of us set out for Omaha fairly early in the morning. Mid-March 2025 was one of the windiest I could ever remember in Oklahoma. There were multiple firestorms and multiple dust storms right before we left. On Tuesday night, a big storm moved across the Plains. I worked a wildfire shift well into the evening, and while Elizabeth and I slept, there was another wildfire outbreak overnight. The next morning mercifully dawned colder and cloudier, but it also dawned with 50 mph wind gusts from the northwest. Elizabeth was less than amused as she drove up I-35. So was I, when it was my turn.
We took a break from the carsickness in Wichita to get lunch with James. As far as I can remember, this is the first time I’ve seen James in Wichita since he moved there four years ago. Not at his house, though – instead, we rendezvoused at Chicken n Pickle on the east side of town. It was nice to get to chat with him for an hour, though he was going into his last of a string of seven midshifts, so he might have disagreed. The food was okay, I guess. Most importantly, it was a nice break.
The worst and windiest part of the drive was still ahead of us. I drew the Wichita-to-Topeka segment, a stomach-churning jaunt through the barren Flint Hills. By the time we got gas and switched in Topeka, wind-driven sleet was coming down. Elizabeth took over from there and got us safely to the Marriott in Bellevue, Nebraska, though she had to endure a transition to blowing snow and 1/2-mile visibilities over the final hour.
The Marriott was a whirlwind of people and pets who had had their power knocked out by the blizzard and people who looked vaguely like Jason bustling around with garment bags. Among that maelstrom Elizabeth and I got our room and Sam got his. It was around dinnertime. Jason had invited us to get dinner at Maya’s grandparents’ place over in Council Bluffs, Iowa, 20 minutes away. Originally I had said no, not wanting to intrude and not sure if we’d make it on time. But now? A free dinner didn’t sound so bad. I texted Jason, he sent us the address, and the three of us went to meet the principal players in the wedding for the first time.
Funny enough, the neighborhood that Maya’s grandparents lived in was much more snowed in than even Bellevue was a few miles to the southwest. Elizabeth’s car was able to make it just fine. Inside was a whirlwind of motion with both families meeting, greeting, and chatting. Elizabeth, Sam, and I made our introductions, helped ourselves to generous portions of the Louisiana-style gumbo that Maya’s mother had made (you put potato salad directly in it! Weird!), and drank some vodka punch and apple pie moonshine that Maya’s dad brought out for us. It was a very good time and a great way to get to know people. It was also the first time I’d ever met Maya herself, funny enough. The party broke up late enough that we could go pretty much straight to sleep upon arriving back at the hotel.
Thursday
Because of the snowstorm, a lot of Jason’s groomsmen were dealing with flight cancellations. Originally, he had wanted to bring a bunch of guys out to the country where another one of Maya’s relatives lives to shoots some guns. That relative’s home was unfortunately buried in snow, so we spent the entire day improvising. Meanwhile, Maya had invited Elizabeth to her bridal shower that morning and her bachelorette party that evening. My initial thought was that Sam and I would end up meeting Jason somewhere in town, and then we would meet back up with Elizabeth in the afternoon to go to the Omaha Zoo. Instead, we didn’t see Elizabeth again until midnight as she spent all day with the bridesmaids. Meanwhile, Sam and I got to spend all day with the men doing men things. Like the Union Pacific Train Museum!
As the images imply, the museum was a very slick little piece of propaganda for the Union Pacific Railroad, God’s One Chosen Company Who Has Only Provided Good To Mankind. That’s a slight paraphrase, but only slight.
After that, we were treated to lunch and fascinating conversation with Jason and Maya’s older male relatives at Caddy’s Brunch Bar. From there, the menfolk wandered over to the other side of the river back into Nebraska to visit the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail headquarters (yes, that is an NPS site). An NPS ranger gave all 10 or so of us an abbreviated tour of the grounds, including a walk out onto the famous Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge that crosses the Missouri River near downtown.
There was also a (shockingly long) movie at the headquarters center. As someone who has read plenty about the Lewis and Clark expeditions, a video produced for the general public wasn’t going to teach me anything I didn’t already know. But it made for a great place to watch the end of the March Madness upset that was going on (McNeese over Clemson) on my phone.
Somehow the day had already mostly slipped away; it was close to 5:00 by the time Jason, Sam and I drove back to the hotel (detouring through Carter Lake, Iowa on the way back). The next groomsmen had made it into town by then – old OU friend Mark McCoy. The four of us (now without the older relatives) got dinner at Stella’s Bar and Grill upon Jason’s suggestion. I would describe their burgers as being pretty good without anywhere approaching the transcendence Jason advertised them at.
By this point Elizabeth was swept up in the bachelorette party stuff; the four of us had nowhere to be. Sam and I had noticed a mini-golf place in downtown Omaha earlier called The Fat Putter that looked fun – it was 21+ after 6:00 pm. Funny enough, none of us got drinks. But our two rounds of 9 holes apiece were extremely fun and wacky. There was always some minigame you had to play before the hole that rewarded you or punished you with a tougher time making your putt – for example, playing Tetris against an opponent to try to have a better tee shot. The Fat Putter was potentially the most fun part of the entire weekend.
It was legitimately late by the time the four of us got back to the Marriott, where Jack Maney was waiting with custards from Culver’s for us. Jason and I sat in the lobby and watched some March Madness while waiting for the bachelorette party to return from the honky-tonk bar they’d gone to. I think it’s safe to say Elizabeth had a very good time!
Friday
The day of the wedding rehearsal dawned much warmer than the previous mornings had. Elizabeth, Sam, and I went into Bellevue for breakfast at the Light House Cafe. While we were there, I worked on my best man speech. Jason had told me to keep it short, but after talking with the maid of honor, I realized I had made it too short. Modest revisions were in order.
The rehearsal was the venue in Council Bluffs in midafternoon with a rehearsal dinner immediately following. With time to kill, Jason had asked me to find something for all of the groomsmen to do together beforehand. At Maya’s dad’s recommendation, I booked us all tickets TreeRush Adventures in Fontonelle Forest. It’s one of those elevated ropes courses that you can self-guide through with a pair of carabiners.
A couple of Jason’s Air Force buddies arrived just in time to join us – Sam and Adrian. We were all a little late, but not too bad. After a brief safety video and demonstration of the equipment, all seven of us were left to our own devices. There was a pretty clear dichotomy among the climbers: Jason, Adrian, Sam, and Sam were all unbothered and eager to attack the toughest challenges the ropes course had to offer, while Jack and Mark were much more tentative. I was sort of in between the two groups. The “blue” course (the second-toughest difficulty) we all did didn’t seem that hard, but the black diamond course looked wicked. In the end, I decided to stick with Jack and Mark on a blue for the second course while the other four all went on the black diamond.
I’m quite happy with this decision, it turns out. Being behind the other two was kind of annoying, but it let me focus on trying to do the ropes course with as little use of the carabiner cables as possible. And the final challenge for us was actually quite nasty – a set of rope loops that wildly oscillated in orientation and height so that it was very easy to tangle yourself up like you were in Charlotte’s Web (Jack ended up tangled for a long 10 minutes before finally freeing himself). The sense of accomplishment that I felt after getting through that challenge and auto-belaying down was matched by the wry amusement I felt after finding out that Sam Emmerson had not been able to keep up with the Air Force guys, and had actually had to have staff come and bail him out.
Jason had to hustle off to the rehearsal. The rest of us had a little more time to go back to the hotel and put on our suits. I met back up with Elizabeth, who’d had most of the day to herself, and she took us up to the St. Peter’s Catholic Church. The rehearsal was one of the longer ones I’d ever been to, which I guess makes sense when you consider that Catholic weddings aren’t usually known for being short. It also became clear very quickly that the day-of wedding coordinator did not have the It Factor to make things run smoothly. On the plus side, we got to meet Jason’s final groomsman – his childhood friend Alex.
The rehearsal dinner was just down the street in Council Bluffs at Barley’s. Jason’s family (his parents are lovely people, by the way) catered in plenty of pizzas and there was plenty of beer, which made for an excellent start on a good party. From there, the typical wedding speeches (moved up a day at Maya’s explicit request) brought the show home. Jason’s sister and dad gave speeches, as did the maid of honor. I got to share my words, and Elizabeth and Sam said that I did a good job.
Jason told me we weren’t smiling for the following picture, then proceeded to sell me out:
That’s okay, though. You can’t get mad at the groom during a wedding – they’re the most important person there, after all. On the same note, Jason wanted to have plenty of people come down to the suite after the rehearsal dinner to hang out. This included many of his online meteorologist friends, and things rapidly got very nerdy very fast. Elizabeth even left at one point since she’d been the only female there (I’m so sorry, Elizabeth). But the important thing is that everyone, ESPECIALLY Jason, had a good time.
Saturday
Wedding day! Originally Jason had asked all of the groomsmen to meet at an obscenely early time to go out to breakfast, but Sam and I suggested that we could just order some Casey’s breakfast pizzas and everyone might enjoy it more that way (plus get to sleep in). I need to take this moment to acknowledge Casey’s – their breakfast pizza is SO good.
The rest of the morning was a hectic blur of tuxedoing up, loading into the Party Bus, and heading on over to the church in time for pictures. There was plenty of time to kill before the ceremony, but unfortunately the church requested that we bring no alcohol into the event space that they had co-opted into the groomsmens’ getting ready area. We settled for bottles of water and sandwiches that somebody (Jason’s dad?) had thought to bring in for us. Shoutout to whoever did think of it – nobody had made the same consideration for bridesmaids, who went hungry all afternoon.
I was correct in my assessment of the day-of coordinator: there was a heck of a lot of chaos going into the final minutes before the ceremony. For one, nobody had ever provided me with the actual wedding bands, and as the best man my one job is to give the wedding bands. Jason’s mom and I tracked them down just in time. The ceremony itself lasted about an hour, with the rather entertaining Catholic priest presiding over it. We got to stand at the front to start, then sit down, then get called back up for the actual vows. For a horrible moment, I couldn’t find the rings in my jacket pocket, but there they were. Jason and Maya said their “I do’s”, then we were dismissed back to our seats for even more church service. This time, Alex and I got to make our other major contribution to the wedding by bringing out the kneeler for Jason and Maya. We nailed it. Eventually the priest wrapped up the service, everyone got communion, Jason and Maya kissed and walked down the aisle, and we got set up for the grand exit from the church.
For some reason I (along with Maya’s maid of honor) was given the honor of riding over to the reception in the bridal limo as opposed to taking the party bus with everyone else. I’m not complaining; three glasses of good champagne wash away a lot of wedding stress.
Most of the wedding day was a fun kind of hectic, but I’ll admit, the beginning of the reception taxed my patience a little bit. No problem with taking more pictures here – the lighting is different, you get the chance to gather bridesmaids and groomsmen, etc. I loved that they brought down some drinks into the downstairs area while we were waiting to go up for the grand entrance. But man, it was a solid hour after arrival before we were shuttled upstairs. At least I’d had lunch, and Elizabeth snuck me some food from the appetizer station. Others in the wedding party we’re getting even more drunk hangry than me.
Eventually we were released upstairs for the reception. The table arrangement was interesting – I didn’t know anyone at the table Elizabeth, Sam, and I were at. They were all really nice though, and it’s kind of cool that we got to meet some people that we wouldn’t have without that seating arrangement. The food was an Italian buffet. I gotta say, that really hit the spot.
Then it was time to hit the dance floor (as soon as I’d confirmed that Michigan had won their NCAA tournament game against Texas A&M, of course). The first dances were cute. Then it was time for the main show, because getting on the dance floor after having a bunch of margaritas is a quintessential Nolan move. And according to Elizabeth, I brought the house down. One of Jason’s uncles paid me the ultimate compliment by saying he’d want me to be his best man if he ever got remarried. All in all, the wedding reception turned out to be a very, very solid party.
It ended fairly early, and there was some talk among the various 20-somethings of going out and finding a bar to have some fun at. In the end, we stayed in at the hotel and played a drunken game of Cards Against Humanity with Jasons’ meteorology friends. Apparently I won at that, as well. Great wedding day, all in all!
Sunday
Originally we’d talked about heading back later in the afternoon to give ourselves a chance to check out the Omaha Zoo. However, by Sunday morning, Elizabeth, Sam, and myself were just ready to head back. We collected groomsmen tuxes to return to the Men’s Wearhouse in Topeka on the way back. Then we got Elizabeth a Scooter’s coffee and Sam and myself a last slice of breakfast pizza apiece. And then we made the much less windy drive back south to Norman, stopping for Culver’s in Topeka along the way.
Jason and Maya had a really fun, intimate wedding that had its memorable moments in spite of (because of?) the hectic nature of it. What really made it one of my favorite weddings I can remember was the whole weekend surrounding it. Ropes course, mini-golf, potato salad in gumbo, trains – it was basically a whole mini-vacation that we never would have taken otherwise.
I wish Jason and Maya the happiest of lives together!
