John and Maddy’s Wedding: A Top 10 Post

By Matt, Xander, Jacob and Leah

We travelled from Basel to Frankfurt to Newark to Albany, New York for my stepbrother John’s wedding to the beautiful Madeline Tricozzi. Here’s how we looked when we arrived:

And here’s our top 10 list from the event:

1. Maddy and John at the alter. We debated whether the specific moment was the vows or the kiss. After so much planning and preparation and incredible last-minute Covid-related stress, this lovely couple got married. Is there a more hopeful moment in life than a wedding?

2. Seeing Orion and Logan at the rehearsal dinner after almost a year apart. Maybe specifically seeing Logan in this purplish 3-piece suit. There were a number of joyful reunions but these cousins loom large for the Lang boys.

3. The blessing of much-needed sister time.

4. Meeting Maddy and Ren for the first time. We’ve heard so much about my stepbrothers’ cool ladies over the years. And the pandemic has been an obstacle to so many family get togethers. At long last we got to meet them.

5. Dancing. Specifically: John and Maddy’s first dance, Christy rocking out with Mike, dancing with John to Sister Sledge’s We Are Family and seeing him smile at the line “I’ve got all my sisters and me” while we twirled around him, Orion’s voguing, dancing with Rachel to Lizzo and dancing together all night long.

6. Seeing my Dad/Grandpa/Ray and Christy/Grandma. We just love these two.

7. Eating good bagels. There’s little relevance to the wedding. But we all agree that eating New York bagels again was a plus.

8. It was good to be back in the U.S. after almost a year. Being able to communicate in English without feeling like a jerk was nice. Also, we liked the announcement at the Newark airport “hey Marty Smith, you out there? Check your pockets! You might have left something on the flight.” A refreshing contrast to European formality.

9. 130 Manning Boulevard and the old neighborhood. It was nice to be home, look at family photographs, and share stories with the boys. Jacob and I walked to nearby Buckingham Pond where we saw a family of geese. I pointed out all my high school friend’s houses and told him about Jason Levine’s high school parties. Jacob was impressed that Jason’s parents never seemed to be home. Where were they? we wondered.

10. Holding hands during the ceremony and remembering our own wedding and what it meant to us.

Congratulations to John and Maddy! What a joyful weekend. We love you and wish you many years of happiness.