The Fontana-Kim Wedding

We had the pleasure of being a part of the wedding of two of our best friends recently- JJ Fontana and Shannon Kim. They lived in Seattle until about a year ago when they moved to the sunny beaches of Charleston, SC. I went to college with JJ back in NC.

Being a groomsman, I was with JJ for most of the time. He arrived on Tuesday evening of last week and the party commenced the hour he arrived and didn't stop, for the most part, until late Saturday night.

To start the wedding week off on the right foot we went to Fado's - an Irish pub on 1st ave. in Seattle. They have pub trivia each Wednesday and we rolled in and took the prize- $50 off our bill. Our team's name was Fontana 5000 and we were un-freaking-stoppable. I think we won by one point. That night we came back to my house with TD, Streaker and Dustin and saw sun come up before we went to bed.

That night pretty much ruined us for the next day. On Thursday night, JJ was out with family and we couldn't get much going, so we played a mean game of Cranium and Apples-to-Apples (which is a surprisingly fun game). Big Face Tom arrived that day too- but he slept early and hard like the rest of us.

You can see the excitement on TD and JJ's faces Thursday night...

Another highlight of the night was playing with the lazer pointer on Tom's face...

The next day we moved the party to Olympia, where the wedding would be on Saturday. We had a rehearsal and rehearsal dinner that Friday. The rehearsal dinner was awesome. A beautiful day with country cookin' and a bluegrass band. Collard greens, pulled pork, cornbread- some of which had never been seen by some guests. Mt. Rainier was visible from the back porch of the Jacob Smith House. So nice.

TD, Jenny and Dustin at dinner...

The bar was open and full, like most of our mouths.

Dustin sang a rendition of Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues to everyone's delight.

The first part of the next day was a day of sado-masochism. A group of 8 of us played paintball without the correct gear. A few of us had shorts and short sleeves. If you haven't felt a paintball on bare skin, it is not fun- I don't recommend it. However, the paintball playing was awesome. I want to do it again, but with more clothes.

Here's JJ ducking and covering...

And here's Tom looking hard after taking a shot to the face...

We all survived and made it to the wedding that night, albeit bruised and battered. I still have about 5-6 welts on various parts of my body.

The wedding was at the Schmidt Mansion in Olympia and everything fell into place perfectly. Shannon looked beautiful and JJ was his studly self. Luckily for those of us in tuxedos, clouds appeared in perfect order.

A nice short ceremony commenced followed by, you guessed it, a full, open bar for the reception. The food was excellent and included bulgogi , which is a Korean barbecue- so yummy. Here is the lucky couple for their first dance as Mr. and Mrs. JJ Fontana...

We danced and partied until dark or so and then went back to the hotel. The party continued with the lucky couple for another night. Everyone welcomed Sunday morning with a little relief and and a ton of good times to remember.

JJ and Shannon did it right- everyone had a great time that we'll remember for a long, long time. I hope my own upcoming wedding will transpire in similar fashion. Thanks JJ and Shannon!