Jason Walks the Aisle

Last Saturday I ventured out to Strongsville, making my way past the newer area built up in the last few years around the area's newest mega-mall (which of course looks like every other area around a mega-mall), and ended up at a pleasant little church in the older part of town, where the four-lane road turns into one lane each way. And there I witnessed the marriage of my friend Jason Therrien to his new bride, Holly. The weather was crisply brilliant, with big, fluffy clouds lazily drifting by overhead. Inside the church I saw what just might have been the biggest wedding party I've ever seen. Eight beefy, serious guys with chiseled features stood on one side like a security detachment or an defensive line for a goal line stand, with eight pretty women standing on the other side tending to Holly.

Jason, who co-founded one of the region's leading web development shops, has a way of tending to small but important details, adding an appealing human element where many might just gloss over the chance to make a connection. And his wedding day was no exception. On the back of the obligatory wedding program guides that couples prepare for guests who come for the wedding mass, was a brief but heartfelt write-up on each of the 16 members of the wedding party. In it, Jason touchingly recounted how his brother and best man Adam once waited for the bus and played midnight football together and how he shared chocolate chip pancakes with Lex. He uses words like "comrade" and "steadfast friend" throughout.

In the receiving line afterward, I teased his mom about how he'll be running up his cell bills on the 15-day Hawaiian honeymoon the happy couple is now enjoying. "Oh, he's taking the laptop, too," she responded. "I hope he finds free internet access." Congratulations, Holly and J. May you enjoy many years of happiness together.