My brother was getting married. I was the best man.
The calendar also had a normal workweek in it.
I asked to work remotely from Indiana for the first three days, then take Thursday and Friday completely off for the rehearsal and wedding.
There was a bachelor party, a tux fitting, family, and everything else that gathers around a wedding. I did not want to pretend those could happen in the margins of five regular office days.
Indiana was not a quick trip from New York. The week needed one plan, not a series of last-minute calendar excuses from a different time zone.
The remote part was practical. I could keep meetings moving, answer the team, and handle anything that truly needed me before the wedding schedule took over.
Monday through Wednesday still had defined work. Thursday and Friday did not. Writing that distinction down made it easier for everybody, including me, to respect it.
The two days off were a boundary.
Operations jobs made boundaries easy to soften. The site did not know my brother was at the altar. A phone could still ring. An incident could still start.
That did not mean every family event should be treated like a less convenient office.
Being the best man was not another responsibility to squeeze into the list. It was the reason for the trip.
I gave my boss the dates, the plan, and room to tell me if we needed to discuss it. No elaborate explanation. I was going to Indiana because this mattered.
Work would get three remote days.
My brother got the wedding.