Mike & Michele's Wedding Page

Now I had to worry about presentation... I wanted to be dressed up for the event but Michele would be seriously suspicious if I spent a relaxed Saturday in a shirt and tie. Then I had the proverbial light bulb go off above my head. What if she thought I screwed up and the only thing I brought with me was shirts that I needed to wear a tie with? The plan would work because that would be something that I would do, but there was one small hole, and that was what I would be wearing on Friday when I picked them up at the airport. Shirt and ties two days in a row would be conspicuous, and since I wear t-shirts under my regular shirts I could easily wear Friday's button down again on the proposal day. The only solution for that little problem would be to make the shirt unwearable by spilling something on it. Since I've got tons of practice with the art of spilling things on myself, it would work. We wound up eating at Cracker Barrel on Friday night, and I had my usual of spicy grilled catfish and eggs, I unceremoniously pretended that I didn't see the tartar sauce, and laid my arm right in it. I kept waiting for Michele to tell me I had soiled my shirt (she's very good at pointing that out when I do it), but she didn't notice and the dang tartar sauce started getting cold. Finally I had to ask her if I had gotten anything on me. She looked, saw the big glob on my arm, and told me that I can't wear that shirt anymore until I get it cleaned. That's another thing about Michele, she won't let me wear clothing if it has the littlest stain on it. Personally I think that if it doesn't stink then who cares, but that's all of my years of being a bachelor coming out. So ultimately the plan was successful.

The next morning was a perfect winter morning for a proposal. Because we had seen the majority of the estate the previous evening, we didn't have much scheduled. Everyone knew I had scheduled a 'roof top tour' so I checked in with the management and was told that a nice man by the name of Doyle Wilcox will be the 'tour guide'. He told me that he'd take us up the grand staircase, and give us a little bit of a tour and then offer to take my video camera and give us a video postcard. That was the cue for me to give the camera to someone who wasn't a part of our party and do the deed. It all went according to plan and then when on the largest and most scenic part of the roof, he took the camera, I whipped out the ring and the proposal and read it to Michele. She started crying, her mother started crying, her grandmother started crying� I can only assume that meant I was successful. You can see some photos of us on the roof and of us with Doyle HERE.

Michele: A few months prior to my Mom, grandmother, and myself going up to North Carolina for a girls weekend, Michael kept insisting that it be that particular weekend. For the life of me I could not figure out why it had to be that weekend. He kept pushing them to get the time off so they would be able to take the trip up there the weekend of March 9-12, 2001. Well, everything seemed to be falling into place. One morning while I was walking to class I received a phone call from Michael asking me all this information about my grandmother. He wanted to know her full name, phone number, address, etc. I figured he was arranging the flight for us so I thought nothing of it. When I came home that afternoon our flights had been reserved and the only thing we had to do was purchase them. At this point, I was very excited, not for myself, but for my grandmother. To me it was just another trip up to North Carolina. Michael kept stressing that this weekend was mainly for my grandmother because this was the first time she had been up to see the Biltmore Estate and Michael's home. He wanted this trip to be very enjoyable, yet very memorable for my grandmother because he wasn't sure when she would be able to make it back up there. He went out of his way to make her happy. Seeing his generosity pleased me because it showed me he truly cared that she would have an exciting weekend.

We finally arrived in Asheville, North Carolina around 5:00 Friday afternoon. Michael was there waiting for us and the first thing that came out of my mouth after our hello's was, "Why are you wearing a yellow shirt?" I couldn't help myself. He never wears yellow. I thought it was odd that he was wearing that particular shirt, but he gave me a legitimate reason: "It was clean, so I just grabbed it out of the closet and put it on." (Sounds like a remark Michael would make, doesn't it?) After hearing that, I didn't think any more about it. Just knowing Michael, that reason was good enough for me.

That evening we went to Biltmore Estate and gave my Mom and grandmother the tour inside the estate. They were absolutely in awe at the beauty of this estate. Their facial expressions indicated that they were truly enjoying themselves. Since they were happy, I was happy. After all, it was their weekend, especially grandma's. The only thing that mattered was that they would be full of delight this entire weekend. After the tour we had a very relaxing evening. We went out to dinner and just enjoyed each others company.