On Thursday November 26, 2015, I married my sweetheart Nicki!

Here are some pics and descriptions of what’s going on:

At the time of the ceremony, it was 37F, and raining.

Above is the Cutler Donahoe Bridge currently residing in Winterset County Park, Winterset IA. Aka, the place where we got married! I got there extra early to deploy the lanterns, and to make sure the location was ready for the ceremony.

Here is one of the lanterns that we painted, intended to show the path from the parking lot to the bridge. You know, to class up the joint a little!

Did I mention that it was 37F and raining? This is a great opportunity to show the scarves and hats that everyone wore for the ceremony itself. You will see more of our outfits in later pictures.

If you have never been to any of the covered bridges of Madison County, there is a bit of a tradition for people to write little messages and graffiti inside the bridge. Someone made this one for Nicki and me. Pretty cool, huh?

Look at the beautiful bride! Wow, I’m a lucky guy. This is while we said our vows. I’m pretty sure I was saying mine during this photo.

Here is me, putting the wedding ring part of the ring set on Nicki’s finger. Slightly out of focus in the background are my mom and dad. At the time of this photo, they have been married 51 years.

Here is Nicki putting her ring on me. Look at those wonderful flowers! (Thanks Dori and Sara!)

This is after we were announced as MISTER and MISSUS KENTON. Pretty awesome! You may notice that the J+N graffiti was been enhanced with the DATE of the wedding (11-26-2015). (ed: I wrote the date in there… shhhh…..)

Now, everyone wanted some photos of the happy couple, so here is a picture of us right after the ceremony.

Here is a picture of us at the entrance to the bridge.

Here we are! A WHOLE new family! Kat, Sara, Dori, and Matthew joined Nicki and me!

AS they say in Iowa, the WHOLE FAMN DAMILY! No joke.

And now a couple of meaningful artifacts:

This bottle of wine was given to me when I left Ames in 2002, with instructions to open once I had settled down. I opened it with Nicki in early November 2015. There was no oversight or error made there, as I know very clearly now.

This is a shiny pebble. A symbol of our shared or common nerdery. A penguin groom gives his penguin bride a shiny pebble when he wants to court her. I gave this shiny pebble to Nicki in the Spring of 2015 a couple months before I asked her to marry me.