A hotel and a highway, Western Ohio

Preparing for a wedding day can be a bit of a challenge. We do our best to have everything set up the night before, but having gear ready is only one portion of what we’re going to be doing on any given event day.  That’s why there’s coffee 😉

If you’ve been following us for any period of time, you know we spend a bit of time at Starbucks.  We go there for client meetings, we have it as an option for a backup location in case of rain (only had to do that once!), we go there to meet up with friends and to relax…we go there quite a bit!  It’s a bit of a second home/office to us.  

When we were in Defiance preparing for Nikki and Tyler’s wedding, we wanted to make sure we were on our A game.  We searched for a Starbucks nearby as we were eating breakfast in the hotel and discovered the nearest Starbucks was a short 20 miles/40 minutes away!  We did the math and saw it was close to our first stop of the day, the getting ready location, so we went for it.  

On the way there, we had a few cultural experiences (there’s culture all around you; take a look!).  To start, we were stuck for a considerable time behind what we thought was a tractor, but turns out it was a lumber truck ambling slowly, slowly, slowly.  There were four way stops so numerous I couldn’t count them all, and most welcome signs we passed on the way to Starbucks were for villages, not towns or cities!  

To keep us company on our ride, we turned on the radio.  We had predicted mostly country radio with some Christian stations, but discovered in addition a few classic rock stations, ’80’s hits, and Top 40 stations.  We kept scanning and scanning, trying to find the right song to help set the vibe for the day.  As Matt was scanning through, I heard a voice I recognized and immediately said, “Wait, go back!”  It was Jungle Jam, a radio show my sister and I would listen to every Saturday with my dad as we chomped down donuts from our local bakery, Ann’s Pastry. 

I teared up at the sweet memories, and I was able to say some of the lines before they happened (“and onto the high seas!”).  I was in nostalgia heaven.

We pulled on the interstate and continued our (long) trip to Starbucks.  At this point, it was still worth it.  We were listening to the radio and talking about small towns when Matt asked me, “Hey Amanda–did you look up where the Starbucks actually was?” 

“Yeah, it’s in West Union.”

We speed past a sign that signifies a Starbucks coming up soon. 

“Wait a minute, is it at the rest stop?!  There’s no way.”

“That’s where we’re going, yes!  It’s at the rest stop.”

We pulled off the toll highway and sat in the parking lot of the rest stop for a few minutes, watching other long-trip travelers dressed in their athletic finest meander into the building for a refreshment and quick bathroom break before they trudged on.  There Matt and I were in our wedding clothes, a dress and hair pulled back, nice slacks, a button down, a jacket.  

We looked for another Starbucks, but the other ones listed were in Toledo and Ann Arbor, minimum 40 miles for a guaranteed independently standing Starbucks (does anybody else think Target Starbucks doesn’t taste the same?).

“Are we doing this?”
“Yep,” Matt got out of the car, “we’re doing this.”

We proceeded inside and reminisced about the time we stopped at that same rest stop on Route 80 on our way to the French consulate in Chicago four years ago.  We ordered our coffee from a sweet girl who did a double take when she saw us in our wedding attire.

We sat as we sipped our beverages, planned out our first steps for when we got to the church, and took it all in. 😉