Saturday, April 13, 2013.
Married. Hitched. Wedded bliss. Entered into holy matrimony. Casados (spanish).
Yes, Valerie and Kevin got married at the home of our very good friends, Steve and Wende. It was at around 5:30pm in the presence of about 25 family members and friends. My long time friend Tim performed the ceremony. He started out by telling the story of how we met and came to go on our first date.
Following the ceremony, Valerie and Kevin performed a waltz since we first met through participating in a beginning group ballroom dance class. We had not kept up with our dancing lately but we began practicing again 3 or 4 weeks prior to the wedding. We certainly won’t win any awards for the performance but we enjoyed preparing for it and sharing it with our friends.
Many of our friends and family volunteered to bring food and drinks so we made it a pot luck event. They went above and beyond and brought lots of terrific food. We had grilled shrimp, smoked chicken, many different awesome salads, sushi, a massive deli platter, mushroom lasagna, tamales, fruit platter and many other great choices. It was great fun sampling all of the different foods.
We really appreciate Steve and Wende opening their home to us for this special event. We had a great time and hope everyone else did, too.
On April 16th, we’ll be leaving for an extended trip to South America so I guess you could say that we’re honeymooning there. We plan to return around the end of August. Initially, we’ll be making a return visit to Ecuador. When we were in Ecuador in 2011, we really enjoyed the Pacific Coast around the town of Canoa and want to go back there for about one month. Beyond that we have three main objectives: Machu Pichu then, in Argentina, Iguazu Falls and Buenos Aires. So, from Ecuador, we’ll make our way through Peru, Chile, Argentina and Uruguay. We’ll send updates through our blog as we go along.
Second Act 
Congrats to the beautiful bride and handsome brother-groom! I wish you two the very best life can possibly offer. Have a wonderful trip to South America. Aw, Buenos Aires & Ecuador, how I wish to return to both those two places! Buenos Aires is very high on my list of just right places!
Thanks, Hew. You still have time to make plans to meet us in Buenos Aires. We should be there in early August. > Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:34:01 +0000 > To: KevinLCooper@live.com >
Beautiful couple, wonderful friends and family, and delicious food – a lovely wedding day!! I’m so thrilled for you two. That trip sounds awesome to me too, but I’ve never been there!
Thank you. It was a super nice day. > Date: Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:05:27 +0000 > To: KevinLCooper@live.com >
awesome, congrats!
Thanks, Mark.
You both look so happy and rightly so–we knew the first we saw you together that this day would probably come or at least Valerie would become a permanent member of the Cooper Clan! The trip sounds beyond amazing–and like Cynthia, I’ve never been to any of those places. Seems the brothers got to travel with jobs and leisure and not so with the sistas! Oh, well, happy for you! Enjoy your travels and take care of each other! btw–the food at the wedding looked delicious, colorful, and healthy–food I definitely appreciate!
Thank you. The wedding was terrific fun and Steve and Wende made it very special. > Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2013 17:39:24 +0000 > To: KevinLCooper@live.com >
Oh, yes, I forgot to say–it was wonderful to talk to you on the day of the wedding–you sounded happy and so excited about the wedding and the trip!
One more thing–you two looked very professional in the pic of your waltz…very impressive!
Hey, looks is everything…style over substance. > Date: Wed, 17 Apr 2013 19:03:35 +0000 > To: KevinLCooper@live.com >