How They Got Here: Final Interview - The Wedding & Honeymoon

(As a reminder, you can read all of these interviews here)

Well, friend, it happened. Our favorite couple got married - successfully! -in the mountains just outside Boulder, Colorado. And despite the fact that I may or may not have had to hitchhike the last leg up the mountain, it all went pretty much according to plan.

I know I had a blast at the event - seeing everyone, catching up, and absolutely ripping up the dance floor with you all. And, because the early fall is a relatively slow month for my day job writing for big time magazines, I had the time to do one more little chapter in this saga during my vacation.

And what better way to put a bow on this lovely chapter of life than to give you an exclusive peek into Macy and Joey’s post-wedding reflections, and to hear a story or two about what those two lovebirds got up to on their honeymoon.

For those of you who’ve been reading since my very first interview with the couple back in February - thank you for coming on this journey with me.

The Great Bus Breakdown

“So… what happened with the buses?” I ask, tearing into a hunk of freshly baked bread at Cart-Driver’s Highlands location in Denver. I’m famished. You wouldn’t believe how ravenous I get after the herculean effort of traveling and sending a handful of emails. I deserve this crusty goodness, I tell myself, as I settle across the table from Macy for our little catch-up over wine, oysters, and pizza.

Having attended the wedding myself, I can say that everything ran incredibly smoothly - well, with one pretty major exception. A non-zero number of guests were dropped off on the side of a mountain after the bus had a mechanical issue. Still miles from the venue, many of Joey and Macy’s guests - dressed to the nines - were suddenly stranded with no easy way up and no real contingency plan.

“Yeah, that wasn’t part of the plan,” Macy laughs, now able - weeks later - to fully enjoy the absurdity of it. “I’ll be honest, I didn’t know much about it until after the ceremony and dinner. I don’t know how we got so lucky, but we had a lot of caring and competent people on that bus, and the folks who got stranded were just… very chill about the whole thing. Between sending cars down, somehow getting a couple of Ubers to work, and - this still blows my mind - some truly successful hitchhiking, everyone made it up to the wedding. And they all seemed in a good mood about it. Just amazing. We have really lovely friends to have rolled with that.”

And she’s not kidding. As one of the “lucky lost” marooned on the side of Lee Hill Road, I can confirm what I witnessed was a lot of people being excellent - laughing, trying to hail down rides from locals going up the hill, treating it like just another piece of the adventure. Honestly, it felt fitting for a wedding on top of a mountain.

“I’d like to apologize to anyone who ended up on the side of a mountain attempting to come celebrate our wedding, and also thank them for being so cool about it,” Macy adds. “We did end up getting a pretty significant refund from the bus company.”

On the Wedding Itself

As our oysters arrive, I steer the conversation toward what’s more important - how Macy felt about the day itself. Not just the ceremony, but the whole weekend, now that she’s past the planning phase and the mad rush of wedding week.

“It was perfect,” she says without hesitation. “We were so fortunate with the weather, everyone was so lovely, and it was all just very emotional.” She pauses, smiling. “There’s so much about that day I’ll never forget, and also so much that’s a blur because it went way too fast. I remember right before Joey and I made our entrance to dinner I turned to him and said, ‘This is way more fun than stressful.’ And it was! I was so happy to find that I could actually have a blast during the wedding, even with it being this emotional high-wire act just focusing on the million moving parts.”

“Oh - I got you a Montepulciano,” Macy says as Joey saddles up to the side of the table and slides into an empty chair, grabbing the glass and taking a sip.

“Huh?” says Joey.

“The waiter recommended it,” Macy replies.

“Oh,” says Joey, committing to single-syllable sounds rather than full words for the moment. He takes a sip, tilts his head to the side, and gives a small “hmm” with a nod of approval. Quite the wordsmith, Macy’s new husband.

Finally getting past the phrasing of our cave-dwelling ancestors, Joey asks - using fully formed words - “Sorry for being late, what did I miss?”

I reply: Macy was just getting to how much fun you all had at the wedding - that it was more fun than stressful.

“Oh right, that was a great moment. I think it was the only time Macy and I truly had to ourselves during the event,” says Joey.

As we settle in and begin ordering pizza for dinner, I get the chance to ask them more about how they felt that day.

“It was just the absolute best. We’d worked hard to turn my parents’ place into a great venue for the wedding day and it came together really, really nicely. The entire day felt incredible - honest to what we wanted it to be. It was heady seeing all of our favorite people mixed together in one big crowd, breaking down the geographic, friend group, age, whatever silos they’re generally stored in when it comes to our relationship with them individually. That was one of my favorite aspects of the night, honestly,” says Joey.

“Your favorite part wasn’t the ceremony???” ribs Macy.

“Ohh, I’ll never forget standing there next to Molly, seeing you for the first time in your wedding dress as you made your entrance out the front door and along the walkway with your dad. You looked so incredibly beautiful - it wrecked me. I wasn’t able to speak clearly for the entire ceremony. That moment, your amazing vows, and Timmy absolutely skewering me - then receiving a standing ovation for it - in his incredible best man speech - those are the standouts for me,” says Joey.

“I kinda liked all of the disco balls in the garage and DJ Carl’s incredible set,” I add. “I authentically forgot I was in a garage for about ten minutes there - felt more like a club that happened to have a workshop theme.”

“Taking those down a few days later was kinda melancholy,” Joey says. “We planned the event for like a year and then it’s gone in a flash. We’re obviously happy to not have to be in that pre-wedding planning stage now…”

Macy closes her eyes and nods in agreement.

“…but man,” Joey continues, “I wish we could do this wedding like twice in one go. Soak up a little more of that night and all of the fun. Heck, I’d love to go back and get one of the cupcakes. Never even saw them - heard they were delicious though. There’s a million small things like that you miss on your wedding day or want to live again, and even though I feel full to the brim - overflowing, actually - with the experience and emotion and love from that day and weekend, I would have loved to keep drinking from that well for a little longer.”

After a second of silence, I say, “I mean, it couldn’t have been that bad taking the disco balls down from the garage ceiling - you two flew to your honeymoon the next day.”

Macy smiles. “Ohh yeah… that was nice.”

The Honeymoon

As our pizzas arrive - I’ve gone for the clam pizza which is, for my money, the only order to get at Cart-Driver (seriously, do yourselves a favor) - I get to hear a bit more about their honeymoon gallivanting around England.

“So you flew the Tuesday after the wedding and arrived at Heathrow around lunch on Wednesday?” I ask.

“Yup! From there we took a train to Oxford and stayed in this lovely little pub along the river for the evening before picking up the rental car to drive the six-ish hours to St. Ives in Cornwall the next day,” says Macy.

“How was Cornwall?” I ask.

“Amazing,” Macy says. “We got this lovely home at the end of a lane with the most beautiful gardens. It was so secluded and peaceful - exactly what we needed after such a busy season of life. We were within walking distance of the beach, and a short bus ride got us into St. Ives, which was a town and community we ended up really falling for. We didn’t get perfect weather, but it wasn’t bad either - we actually liked our cloudy beach days and getting to throw on a sweater.”

She adds, “I really loved slowing down and exploring the town - restaurants, shops, art galleries - between going to the beach. We’re excited to go back. It was great.”

“Ahh, there it is,” exclaims Joey as the waiter arrives with three small glasses containing a suspicious-looking deep amber-red liquid.

I examine them cautiously - can’t be too careful when Joey’s ordering.

“They’re a combination of Fernet and Campari… he ordered them while you were in the bathroom,” the waiter offers somewhat apologetically.

I’ve never liked Campari, or Fernet for that matter, but I'm not one group fun so I dive in - it’s palatable, is my review. Joey and Macy both seem to have a more positive opinion, taking appreciative sips.

“So after that you drove to a fancy hotel in Oxfordshire?” I ask.

“Yup! I found this beautiful old manor home that had recently been turned into a hotel called Estelle Manor. It’s the kind of property you’d expect to see preserved by the UK National Trust, but instead it’s been turned into a pretty bougie estate with multiple restaurants and amenities in addition to a bunch of hotel rooms. Kinda bougie but perfect for a honeymoon. They have beautiful gardens, a great gym, and a stunning pool…”

“And an amazing Roman bath–inspired spa!” Joey interjects.

“Yes, I was getting to that,” Macy says, giving Joey a loving but slightly annoyed look. “Think it was the best spa we’ve ever been to - just incredible. Totally over the top, the whole thing seems carved from white marble, and the main hot tub is big enough to swim in. Very relaxing. We also explored the Cotswolds a little by car.”

“I heard you weren’t the only celebrities staying there?” I ask.

“We might have seen a Kardashian and her famous drummer husband walk right past us while we were playing cards at the hotel bar,” says Macy.

Joey adds, “The place was nice, but we weren’t thinking it was that nice. Hardly Keeping Up with the Kardashians fans, but it was wild to see the apparent cachet this place has - we had no idea. We also saw someone arrive for dinner via their helicopter. I mean, we spent some money because it was our honeymoon, but we didn’t splash anywhere near celebrity/helicopter cash.

"Not sure what was going on at that hotel, but it was a really fun stay. Also, please note for your readers that I won that game of Gin Rummy against Macy - because she usually wins.”

Grabbing another slice of the clam pizza, I take a bite and ask, “So after the hotel, what’s next?”

“We went to London for a few nights,” says Macy. “That was really fun - we planned a few days to explore our favorite spots, do some touristy stuff we’d missed on a previous visit, and booked some great dinners. We also got to see our friends who live there - we went out a couple nights with them, one in Soho and another in Peckham.”

“That group had just been in Colorado for a week vacation leading up to the wedding,” Joey says, “and getting to see them again in London was really special. I went to college with them and don’t get to see them enough, so having a couple nights out with them at the end of our honeymoon - once we’d kinda recovered from the wedding a bit - was a really, really great treat.”

Our dinner lasted well over two hours, and plenty more details from the wedding weekend, the wedding itself, and the honeymoon were swapped back and forth across the table. But I’m going to stop here. I’m conscious of length (not a joke), and you’ve already read plenty from me. Besides, not every story needs to be written down. Some are better left as part of the lore of the wedding weekend.

And whether that’s because they’re lightly scandalous or simply better told in the verbal tradition, I’ll let you decide.

As we wrap up dinner and the check lands in front of us, I half-heartedly say, “Ohh no, don’t…” as Joey and Macy both reach for it. (I haven’t been paid for this writing - I do it out of friendship and love - the least they can do is buy me wine and pizza. Macy turns to me and says, “Nora, thank you so much for doing all of these interviews - it was really lovely of you to do.”

Joey adds, “I feel like we’ve been talking about ourselves nonstop for like the last seven months. What have you been up to? How are you doing? It’s definitely time we focus on someone other than me and Macy.”

And with that, I pick up the tossed-aside dessert menu and give it another examining look. We can always have the check re-tallied. Because he’s right - it is time to talk about someone else for a change. And it might as well start with me - and with whichever dessert I decide to order.

Which leaves me, at last, to close the book and watch them get on with the task of continuing to build and grow their life together.

I’m sure you’ll keep getting the updates - even if they don’t come from my pen.

With love,

Nora Factchecker