Kelly & Ethan are now married!

Hooray! Last night my friend Ethan tied the knot with his girlfriend Kelly and I’m rehydrated from all the drinking to finally write about it on Picyaune. What a great time it was. A very Austin wedding in my opinion which means it would be the type of celebration that would make my parents roll their eyes and mutter “hippies” under their breath.

My former Austin roommate and still my friend, the ever pensive Garrett with his girlfriend Monica.

A quick background story. Ethan (Lowry) has been one of my Austin-period friends ever since I returned in 1998. We used to be on the phones together supporting Apple’s service providers and field techs. Ethan’s cube was near mine so we would talk about music, ladies (we were single then), movies, games, in addition to work-related matters. But after work, we would also hang out at restaurants, take in a movie or play video games. Ethan’s brother Michael, Garrett Kline, JoAnna Slimmer and Darren Doyle were others who would join us in our little Apple clique. We remained friends even when he was away in San Francisco for a couple years. He even got me to try fried pickles at Katz’s one evening, course it helped that we’d been drinking. I can think of a dozen stories about Ethan’s devil-may-care attitude which is probably why I’ve always enjoyed his company. Of course I was sad when he left for California to work a different job with Apple but he is more adventurous than me and it is always good to have allies at HQ. When he returned to Austin in 2003, I was excited along with his parents. I remember asking him sometime after his return, outside of CA’s ridiculous cost of living, why did he come back since Apple has a California uber alles attitude (there’s little opportunity outside CA). He said he actually missed it being hot during the summer (San Francisco is chilly and wet in July which is freaky) and it was difficult to meet women there. I found the second answer rather odd. When we went out in Austin, Ethan could outdo Trent Walker on the smooth talking. Then I remembered a joke from SF-comedian Robert Wuhl. If you’re walking down the street in SF with a male buddy on each side of you and you know neither are not gay, that leaves you! Thus, most straight women in SF probably passed on Ethan mistaking him for being gay. I don’t think he was too amused by my gag theory. Oh well, I still did enlist his fashion sense when picking out a new suit for my wedding in Las Vegas (Ethan, Michael and their dad really know their clothes). However, coming back was a good move in my opinion.

Tom, Ethan and Alaire Lowry

Now a quick bio on Kelly (Vuris). I actually met her too in 1998 but I was behind the concession stand (working) at the Gateway 16 theater. Probably tried to upsize her drink too. How did I know who she was? I knew the other people she was going to the movie with. Later on, Kelly joined Apple taking phone calls like me. She even gained some international fame via the Internet having her picture on an Apple-based rumor site regarding the opening of the Apple Store in Dallas (she’s at the Genius Bar).

Mildred, Kelly and John Vuris

How did they get together exactly? I don’t really know. I’ll have to ask one of them soon (they’re moving away to CA in a month). But I do admit I was adverse to Ethan dating Kelly in the beginning after he told me about it. Why? Only because Kelly was a coworker, everything else about her was great. I am just a firm believer in not fishing off the company pier (to be succinct). Then she quit Apple to return to school at an early point of their relationship so my pesky concern melted away and I’ve been giving ’em the thumbs-up gesture ever since. Tom, Ethan’s dad, revealed an even more amazing fact at the rehearsal dinner. Long, long ago, Tom used to work with Mildred, Kelly’s mom, back at the state hospital and he attended the Vuris wedding. This was mentioned during the ceremony by the gentleman who married the couple, it’s paraphrased, “…little did the parents know that some 30 years later, they’d be attending another wedding together!” Laughter filled the air with that factoid.

Yours truly with the new Mrs. Kelly Lowry. Watch that hand buddy, she's married now!

Last Summer was when Ethan dropped the bombshell on us all: he proposed to Kelly and she said yes. I was like, Ethan? Getting married? Course, I was thinking of the 22-year-old libertine version I first met. The one who gave Somara and me Splinter Cell for our PS2 as a wedding present? [Which was an awesome gift, that’s how I knew being married to Somara would work out, she digs video games too while all my other ex-girlfriends would have given that passive-aggressive answer of “oh, you shouldn’t have!”] My disbelief was destroyed quickly anyway because Ethan has really grown, changed and evolved over the years I’ve known him. I should talk based upon my life story. 
 
Okay, the wedding. It was really awesome. Ethan and Kelly were born and raised in Austin, thus they wanted the ceremony here. (I couldn’t talk them into Vegas, there’s always hope with José, Garrett and David.) They had it in the huge backyard of Kelly’s parents’ home. As I mentioned earlier, it was a non-traditional wedding but I felt it reflected them and Austin’s character. Ethan’s friend Neal brought his bandmates to play Coldplay’s “Green Eyes” when the wedding party strolled down the aisle, nice touch. There were groomsmen, bridesmaids and bridesmen. Michael was Best Man and he escorted the maternal grandparents to their seats. Then came Ethan with his parents. Finally, Kelly flanked with her folks. I thought it was really cool. Very fitting because Ethan and I have always believed in our spouses/girlfriends to be partners, not some gift you have to get ceremonial permission to marry like most Christian weddings. [Don’t get me wrong though, “traditional” weddings are fine, I don’t read too much into its symbolism anyway.] Tom and Alaire, his parents, are my friends also so I know they were supportive. So supportive that we caught the Bob Branson on-air spot while listening to KUT on our drive to the wedding (the Lowrys are big supporters of Public Radio and Television).

Married for a couple of hours and making it look easy.

What’s next for the newlyweds? As I mentioned earlier, they’re moving to the SF/SJ area in a month, Ethan recently started a new position with the iTunes Store. His new department was gracious enough to let him do it in Austin until the wedding. We are all going to miss them but on the upside, there’s another reason to make a trip to CA.