Meet My Wedding Party Part 3: Thomas (Tommy) Keschl, Best Man

And now, for my last member of my side of the wedding party, we turn to my best friend from college, and my best man at this crazy wedding business, Thomas Keschl.

Meet My Wedding Party Part 2: Nicholas (Nick) Parker, Groomsman

Now that you all have met Jake, it's time to introduce you to my other groomsman and the next-closest person to me in the wedding ceremony setup.  This groomsman is very near and dear to me, for he is my younger brother Nicholas Parker.

Meet My Wedding Party Part 1: Jacob (Jake) Hayes, Groomsman

As part of a new series of post here at The Groom's Take, I would like to take some time to introduce my wedding party (the best man and groomsmen) so that there is a bit of a light shined upon the three men who will be standing next to me as I get married to the love of my life.  Those of you who know me and have been around me in Maine for the last seven years or so are probably well-acquainted with these men, but there's a whole other side of this wedding (namely, Katelyn's relatives) who will be meeting my side of the wedding party for the first time on the day of the ceremony.

With all of that said, we're working from the outside-in in terms of geography of how we'll be standing for the ceremony.  It's time to meet one of my groomsmen and a very dear friend, Jacob Hayes!

The Bachelor Party Brainstorm -- Idea #1: New England Patriots Game

One of the more controversial aspects of wedding planning, in terms of the actual lead-up to the wedding itself, is probably the bachelor/bachelorette party.  As pop culture and Hollywood movies have shown us over the years, a bachelor or bachelorette party is not a success until the groom-to-be has nearly cheated on his bride-to-be with a stripper as a result of drinking more alcohol than he would even dare to consume on any other given day.  The setting, more often than not, is that desert oasis of Las Vegas, and sometimes the groomsmen just leave the groom-to-be somewhere and go off to have their own party (thanks for the nightmare, The Hangover).

This past weekend, my best man and one of my groomsmen (identities will be revealed in profile posts coming soon) visited Katelyn and me and the conversation turned to football, as it was the weekend and I pick the winners of NFL games in an ESPN.com group with my best man.  In an insant, I had a brainstorm about how my own bachelor party could avoid the clichés of every other bachelor party that has happened in history.  Yes, I know, I am denying my best man and two groomsmen the pleasure of surprising me with a bachelor party idea; but I am pretty sure that everyone will be on board with this one.

Click below to read about my first bachelor party idea: a New England Patriots game!

The Guest List Boogie

Call me crazy, but just a matter of days (maybe only one day, my memory is fuzzy) after getting engaged to Katelyn, I had already begun thinking about my list of people to invite.  Now, this might be a little out of sequence according to most wedding planning suggestions, as in essence I was making a guest plan well before I knew what sort of number we would be able to accomodate at our venue.  Now that we're close to having that venue in place, it seems particularly important to talk about it here; even though I know many of you are waiting with baited breath for that venue announcement.

The issue of a guest list began to really hit home when I found that, upon first thoughts, I was already at around 80 potential guests; on my side of the family alone.  Katelyn's mother had begun a list as well, with a number coming out in the 60-70 guest range, even before Katelyn considered college friends and non-family-members to invite.  The guest list; it is an important and complicated dance.