Editor’s Note: Before Dave’s passing from the show, he left us one last post to remember him by. Enjoy, for the final time:

Ahhhhh It’s finally over. The stress, the planning, the family coming in from out of town, the anticipation, the vows…all of it has finally come to an end. But what a great ride it was. Why don’t you come with me to relive those final days?

Thursday: My first day off of work and man did I ever sleep in. The previous night my dad had taken me out to a father-son dinner at a fancy restaurant so that we could have that one last meal before I go off to wedding land. Of course I got the meal that every fan of this show would expect. I blended in the farce that I’m rich and my (very real) love of steak and got a Filet Mignon with a red wine. Let me tell you, that’s probably the best thing I’ve ever eaten…Ever. But the rest of the day Thursday was the blur of getting family in town, going to the rehearsal and then having our rehearsal dinner.
I’ve never been in a situation before where everyone in attendance is specifically there for you. They’re there to support you, talk to you, congratulate you and overall be friendly towards you as you take a massive step forward in your life. The rehearsal went off without a hitch, and I don’t even think my co-host Chris made a “Wedding’s Off!” joke once throughout the night (Though he did make a very funny, yet non-PC Boston Marathon joke…you had to be there). Everyone had a wonderful dinner, a few drinks and some fun. The rest of the work was still to come.

Friday: Best man Andy and I got up extremely early to play some golf. As loyal listeners of our first episodes know, we really like going out to play some golf and my last day as a single man was no different. Andy and I played a short course and a full course in the span from about 730 AM to 230 PM, and I somehow did not even get a sunburn in the scorching Arizona sun. A lot of laughs were shared, a lot of golf balls were lost, and an overall great day was had, but it wasn’t over yet.
That evening, the remaining groomsmen came over to the hotel just outside of the wedding venue to join for a night of fun and games…literally. Usually when people think of a group of guys hanging out together the night before one of them gets married, it’s to go out drinking and being loud and rowdy. They usually imagine something breaking, and the single groomsmen hitting on everything that moves. That may be fine for some people, but not for us. Our night consisted of pizza, lots of video games, making fun of people on TV and playing our own 4 person poker tournament that led to Andy and Chris nearly battling all night to the death for our $1 poker tournament championship. All in all…I can’t think of a much better way to spend my last unmarried day than with my best friends doing the things we love.

Saturday: The big day…eek. The day leading up to the ceremony was a blur, as we didn’t get up til 10 or 11, had lunch at around 12 and started taking pictures at 330. Sadly we had to take pictures outside in that aforementioned Phoenix heat, leading to us looking extremely well dressed and sweaty. Though…we did look extremely well dressed. There’s something to be said about a well fitting suit. It makes you look and feel better than you really are. It accentuates the best parts of you and hides the bad parts. Though that is worthless compared to how my bride looked.
There’s no way that you can describe the emotions flowing through you that moment before the bride walks out. All the guests are standing, the entire wedding party has walked out and is waiting for the one last person, the most important person, to be revealed. Courtney and I decided not to see each other before the wedding, as we felt the anticipation would lead to a more exciting and memorable wedding, and boy was she right.  I’ll never forget that first moment when she walked out, and I saw the woman I would spend forever with. Her goal was to make me cry, but I didn’t…it only got a little dusty in there for a bit, making it look like my eyes were watering…I swear.
The rest of the night was a blur, more pictures with all of us, dinner, Sparky the Sun Devil coming to join us, and then the requisite wedding traditions (bouquet toss, garter toss, cake shoving, mom dance, and such) The dinner was amazing, and I can say that nothing went wrong the entire night. So many times at weddings there is some sort of disaster that occurs, some memorable mistake that you’ll laugh about years later but nearly ruins the night at the time. Fortunately mine had none of that. We partied til they kicked us out, went to the hotel bar til they kicked us out of that, and then Shaun drove us, with Courtney still in her wedding dress, to McDonald’s at 2 AM.

Now I sit here writing this on Sunday morning. We opened our wedding gifts with family at a huge brunch this morning, and tomorrow my new bride and I leave for our honeymoon. I will have plenty memories and pictures from this past weekend, as it’s a weekend that literally changes my life. I no longer have a girlfriend, I have a wife, who I will have an hold, as long as we both shall live.

Crazy, isn’t it?