Afterglow of a weekend in Columbus, Ohio

Fifteen takeaways from a wonderful wedding weekend last weekend in Columbus, Ohio.

1.   Centralizing everything around a single hotel and cluster of nearby restaurants is the way to go. No shuttling thither and yon. Best of all, the unfamiliar people in the wedding party stop being strangers in short order. You run into them everywhere.

2.   They should make those traditional glasses for Jewish weddings easier to break. The only glitch in the ceremony for Monica’s nephew Justin and his bride Brittany was when time came to crush it. It took the groom a second stomp. Not the first time I’ve seen that happen.

3.   Brittany did her bridesmaids a big favor. They can use their dresses again. On this black-and-white themed occasion, they had to wear black, but they got to choose their own gowns.

4.   The youngest guest charmed everyone. Not quite six months old, the groom’s nephew Noah was sweet and smiley. No crying at all.  

5.   Everyone should schedule weddings on the night when Daylight Savings Time ends. Having that extra hour is a blessing on the morning after.

6.   I want to go to another Cameron Mitchell restaurant. CM did the Friday night rehearsal dinner and the Saturday night wedding party in The Exchange, an event center attached to our accommodations in the AC Hotel by Marriott in Dublin, a burgeoning upscale suburb northwest of Columbus. CM also did the women’s and men’s bachelor night parties on Thursday in the Pearl and the Avenue Steak Tavern, across the Scioto River from the hotel via scenic footbridge, and the Sunday brunch at the Avenue. Inventive food, top-notch service. CM has restaurants across the nation. Nearest to us are the ones in Columbus. (Photo: Hotel from the footbridge.)

7.   Did Cameron Mitchell also arrange the weather? It was perfect. Sunny, dry and unseasonably warm all weekend.

8.   Downtown Columbus is 20 minutes away from almost everywhere. That’s about how long it took to drive to the Columbus Museum of Art in the heart of the city.

9.   The CMoA ain’t as grand as its counterpart in Buffalo, but it has its charms – at least four Picassos and an excellent cafeteria. Plus they’re part of that reciprocal deal with other museums. We got in free.

10.                 Same at the Franklin Park Conservancy and Botanical Gardens. They’re reciprocal too. Compact compared with Buffalo’s botanical gardens, but it’s well-kept and has lots of Dale Chihuly glasswork. Bonus: The route there via Broad Street is lined with 19th century mansions. (Photo: Chihuly at the botanical gardens)

11.                 Field of Corn. A quirky piece of public art on a broad expanse of corporate lawn in Dublin – 109 six-foot-tall concrete ears of corn on what was a farm not so long ago. We saw a photo of it in the CMoA, then I accidentally came upon it when I was out shopping. (Photo: Monica with the concrete corn.)

12.                 Kroger’s. This Cincinnati-based supermarket chain’s big new Dublin store didn’t have Quinn’s peanut butter-filled pretzels, like the Internet promised, but it had a Starbucks and Southern Tier Brewing Co. beers.

13.                 Public radio. Unlike Buffalo, Columbus still has two NPR stations – WCBE (which stands for Columbus Board of Education) and university-based WOSU. I tuned in WCBE, but felt starved for local spot news.

14.                 Like the bride’s gown, all the flowers were white. I wanted to take some with us, but walking out with a window-box-sized table centerpiece seemed like a no-no. I plucked a single white rose instead. It’s still white and bright in a vase on our kitchen counter four days later.

15.                 Also enduring is the ceremonial loaf of challah that was blessed at the Friday night reception prior to the rehearsal dinner. I asked an attendant who was clearing things away if we could take a piece with us. Minutes later he reappeared with the whole thing – a golden monster the length of a French baguette – double-wrapped in plastic. It also lives on, sliced up in our freezer, taking up major space.