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Thursday, July 06, 2006
Wedding Story, Part 3
As soon as Jason and I were seated, the DJ decided to kick things off with the best man's toast, which, I'm sure, caught Neale completely off guard. I had never been to a wedding where the toast happened before dinner and not during, but there you go. Neale toasted, and Larry said a blessing, and then Jason and I were brought plates of food.The food was, as I put it, basic eastern shore men's club food. Joye told us that it was "very white," whatever that means. We had a roast, marinaded chicken, roasted potatos, string beans and, at Jason's only half serious request, mac and cheese. We also had a bottle of champagne on our table that I didn't get to have nearly enough of. It was all very, very good. Despite guests stopping by our table on their way to the buffet, we managed to clean our plates. Jason even contemplated going back for seconds, but the caterers cleared away the food and tables while we were looking the other way.
We danced our first dance to "Broken Road," by Rascal Flatts, then I danced with my father to "Because You Loved Me" (his choice) and Jason danced with his mom to "Three Times a Lady" (Jason's pick). Dad told me that I should stand on his feet to dance, the way we did when I was little. I gave it an honest try, but it is way harder than I remembered. After that, we had a couples dance, in which all the married couples join us for a dance, and the DJ gradually has them sit down based on how long they've been married. Halfway through the song, we were dancing with a handfull of couples who had been married more than 25 years, which was pretty awesome. In the end, I think we were left with one of Jason's aunts, who had been married 39 years. Or maybe it was even 49. In any event, I was impressed.
Much like the ceremony, the rest of the reception is one big blur. I don't think I sat down for more than 90 seconds straight for the rest of the night, but neither did most of the guests. Every song was a dance song, and no one was shy. I had been told that I shouldn't worry much about the music because I wouldn't get to enjoy it anyway, but I danced just as much as everyone else, and still managed to greet just about all the guests. I thought I had them all covered, but realized a few days later that there were three or four I'd missed.
The DJ and banquet organizer claim we set a record for the longest locomotion train, and I'd believe it. It got pretty out of hand. I'm happy to report that there was no Electric Slide, Chicken Dance, YMCA or other such atrocity, and no one really seemed to miss them.
Everyone admired my dress, and several people mistook it for an expensive designer piece, which cracked me up because I got it on clearance for $80 and I'm pretty sure its from one of the labels that sells the neo-Victorian line of dresses to Hot Topic. My jewelry was a hit, too, and it made me happy to be able to point to my friend Barbara and say that she made it for me.
The DJ remembered that "I'll Cover You" was an mp3, and managed to get it to play for out cake cutting. Mom's cake was beautiful, and I'm still sorry that I only managed to get a bite of it. We also had our friend Lloyd bake a grooms cake, which the DJ christened the Man Cake, and had Jason make a production of cutting in a manly way.
Despite major effort on the part of a few of Jason's cousins, Liz caught my bouquet (to be fair, I cheated and was aiming for Christine, but I throw like a girl). Jason made a show of removing my garter with his teeth, but the guys were a little less gung ho about getting out on the floor. In the end, Cristina's boyfriend Mike caught it, but I think Jason played fair and just tossed it at random.
The music was great, and the DJ kept saying how easy the guests made his job. The dance floor was full the entire time, and the DJ even ran for an extra half hour off the books because he was having fun. I so loved looking around the room and seeing everyone I love dancing together, even when they only knew three people in the room. It was really, really cool to glance around and see my mother dancing with Jason's uncle, or our friends who had never met dancing in a big circle.
Every single moment of the reception was wonderful, but there were a few highlights.
Someone got the DJ to play the "Time Warp," and a good group of people danced to that.
The DJ called Jason and the guys onto the dance floor and suddenly "Bye Bye Bye," started playing. The five (Or six? How many awful boys are in that band?) of them lip synched and danced to the song while the younger girls in the room made a show of falling at their feet. We all totally assumed that it had been planned, but I found out later that Jason was as surprised as the rest of us. Later on, the DJ parked me on a chair in the middle of the floor and Jason, Neale and Homer serenaded me with "Tupelo Honey."
My brother looked super spiffy in his dress blues, and Jason's uncle suggested that I have the DJ play the old song Soldier Boy and dance with Robert. I mentioned it to the DJ, who was able to download the song (ah, the wonders of the interweb), and Ashley, mom, Christine, Liz and I made a show over fighting over dancing with him. In the end, we were dancing in a circle, and saluted him at the end. He seemed pretty tickled by it all.
Though guests trickled out through the night, a good number were still there at the very end, when the DJ made his "You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here" announcement. The whole room was torn down faster than I could have imagined, and everyone was ready to line the sidewalk holding sparklers to light the way for Jason and I to escape to our car. I have to say, the sparklers were a much better idea before I realized that people wouldn't actually be holding them still, but rather waving them around, which made them a little more exciting than I anticipated.
The wedding party had done a serious number on our car. There were signs and crepe paper, pom poms and balloons...and the whole, entire back seat was filled to overflowing with balloons and those damn paper bells. I swear they must have taken every single one we found and put them in the car.
We were scheduled to stay the night at The Tidewater, an old landmark hotel that seemed like a swanky place to spend our first night. Ha! Evidently, they lost our reservation altogether, so the room they gave us as a replacement was seriously the smallest hotel room I have ever seen. Also, the air conditioning on our floor was broken.
After some arguement with the front desk, Jason called his brothers and there was a room shuffle at the hotel where they had stayed the night before. It worked out for the best in the end, because we were able to trade our two double bed room for the king room that Jason's cousins had gotten stuck with. The AC worked, and the room was infinitely nicer.
We had planned to meet whoever was interested for breakfast at The Tidewater early the next morning, but when we called to give them a heads up, they told us that they didn't serve breakfast anymore. It boggles the mind. Some frantic, early morning calls were made, and everyone congregated instead at Bob Evans. I was pretty surprised by how many people turned up so early in the morning, and it was great to get to say goodbye to everyone before we left.
Along with Christine and Mike, who were taking our car from the airport, Jason and I were the first people to leave breakfast, to catch our flight. It was pouring down rain, but we still made the airport in plenty of time and without incident.
So, all in all, I think the wedding went as perfectly as it could. Pictures have been trickling in from guests, but we won't have the professional shots for another three weeks or so. Everyone has told us what a wonderful time they had, and how memorable the wedding was, which means a lot to me because that was my goal all along.
Posted at 1:35 PM ::