The Adventures of Accordion Guy in the 21st Century

12 years ago, I drove with all the stuff I could fit into “Rhonda the Honda CR-V,” from Toronto to Tampa to be closer to Anitra, and one year later, we got married!

Our wedding took place on the beach in the town of St. Pete Beach at what was then called the Grand Plaza Hotel, which now goes by the name The Bellwether:

Here’s an overhead view of their ceremony areas. There are two sets of palm tree “aisles” down which happy couples can march:

Here’s a closer look at ours, the southwest-facing aisle:

Here’s a scene from the wedding rehearsal, with Anitra’s uncle and our officiant, Rabbi John Fischer giving best man Eldon some instructions:

Fast-forward a day to the next morning, and we’ve got Eldon giving me the traditional best man gift of booze, which in this case was a hard-to-find and very delicious Canadian whisky, served in the most appropriate vessels we could find:

And here I am with my father-in-law, who was greatly amused by the whole thing:

Male bonding:

We don’t buy into this “you can’t see the bride before the ceremony” nonsense. With a bride like this, I want to see her as often as possible!

A quick gathering of Team Groom, featuring my mom, Yours Truly, and my groomsmen Eldon and Richard (who’s also my brother-in-law):

I was ready to get the party started:

Here’s the last photo I snapped as a free man! It’s of my view of the “aisle” before I made my way to the front:

And here’s my last walk as a free man:

I was raised Catholic, she was raised Protestant, the officiant’s a rabbi, and the ceremony combined Jewish and Filipino wedding traditions. Here’s a Jewish tradition, where the bride walks around the groom three times, in a process I call “circling your prey”:

Post-ceremony parasol pix with the bridesmaids:

And now the bridesmaids and groomsmen:

Here’s the mandatory “Ocean’s Eleven” pic:

…and here are more wedding party pics…

The “Elvis Movie Poster Pic” is my favorite:

Here’s where we had the reception: the Presidential Ballroom, located on the Grand Plaza’s penthouse level:

As my friend George put it, it’s a classic James Bond villain’s lair waiting to happen, and it’s also reminiscent of the reclusive billionaire’s hotel from Diamonds are Forever:

Here’s a closer look at the “sweetheart table”:

A quick welcome to the guests before we all descended on brunch:

Here we are at our Star Trek-like table, with me sitting at Mr. Sulu’s post, and Anitra as Chekov:

Of course there was some accordion playing:

Anitra looked amazing, but in my opinion, she always does:

I love this photo:

Here’s the wedding “cake”:

At the end of the reception, a couple of hours before sunset…

…we made our way to Bongo’s Beach Bar, where we had the less formal, unofficial part of the day that stretched well into the night:

Here’s a view from the bridal suite the next day:

Before we left, we went for the first of many walks on the beach as husband and wife:

…and when we got to our car, we saw that one of the guests left us a geekily appropriate gift: a pair of twenty-sided fuzzy dice: