Wedding Extremes

Monday I did several weddings.  I was helping to train an intern who wants to be a marriage commissioner.  She was going to watch me to see how we handle weddings. 

The first license was interesting.  The bride is 41 years old, the groom is 31 years old.  Age doesn't matter, but she has already done a lot more living than him.  This was his first marriage, and it was her fifth marriage.  They told me they wanted the shortest ceremony I could do. I told them only three sentences are required by law to be married.  Were they sure they wanted that cold of a ceremony.  Oh yeah, that's what they wanted. "We are having a real wedding later."  You know how well I take that statement.  I told them they were breaking my heart.  ( I hate doing the three sentence ceremony.  It doesn't seem real.  It also seems pretty tacky.)  I did the ceremony as requested:  Do you. . . ? Do you. . .?  I now pronounce you . . .  She jumped his bones and we had a tacky tongue down the throat kiss, and I eased them downstairs to do the paperwork. 

The intern was lucky. She saw the extremes that come to the wedding room. We had the three sentence wedding and the next one was a full blown extravaganza.  There were 30+ people in the room.  The bride wore a knee length white strapless dress.  It had a deep purple sash.  She carried white roses with purple flowers mixed in.  The groom wore black slacks, black vest with a deep purple shirt and purple boutonniere.  Their toddler daughter had on a white dress with a deep purple sash.  Do you see the theme here?  Everyone at this wedding had on purple.  Many had on corsages/boutonnieres. Even I had on a blouse that was a shade of purple.  I had received the memo. We had a great look going on. 

The couple had a best man and a maid of honor stand up with them.  Few of the couples do that.  I did the sweetest fluffiest ceremony I have.  The bride cried, her parents cried, the maid of honor cried.  It was a lovely ceremony.

I was worried about pictures after the ceremony.  With so many people it takes a long time.  The lobby was full and I needed to get the next couple. I needed the picture taking to be quick and everyone move out.  I shouldn't have worried.  One of the guests was armed with a digital Nikon and she was organized.  She barked orders like a drill Sergeant:  all the girls with the bride and groom; next all the boys;  next all the children; next Mom and Dad; next . . .  I asked Nikon girl if she would come in on Mondays and Wednesdays and help me. 

This was a beautiful wedding.  They had everything planned, they listened to my rules, they told me what they wanted, and the guests were great.  It was fun, it was lovely, and it was so nice after the cold three sentence wedding.  The intern was excited to see two such extremes.  She didn't realize people came in wedding dresses with lots of guests.  These two weddings taught way more than anything I could have told her.

SUCH A WINDY BLUSTERY DAY.

Sometimes I get to do weddings outside the County Building.  Yesterday I was privileged to do the wedding ceremony for a lovely couple.  The bride is the sister of a dear friend. The wedding ceremony was beside the Bay.  I mean beside the Bay.  It was a beautiful setting.  Oakland and San Francisco in the background and the water a foot back and 6 feet down off the pier.  There were a few problems: fog, really windy, rather chilly, chairs blowing over, the runner blowing.  You know the average problems of a wedding outside.  None of that mattered.

Because of the wind the sound man, Joe, decided I needed to be miked.  Otherwise all my fluffy words would blow out to sea.  That was an interesting thing to have done to me.  It was a lapel mike, the wire had to come under my top and then attach to my lapel. The wire and battery/control was to then be attached to the back of my slacks.  They were too flimsy to hold up the control.  So it was attached to my rather sturdy underwear.  Joe and I are now engaged.  Marty did help wire me. Then he took his seat.  But to turn it on, I couldn't see the buttons, so Joe played with my clothing in the back and turned it on.

Other problems with the wind, dresses.  Our Babe of Honor, did a Marilyn Monroe, only more so. She has great legs, and the moment was appreciated by many.  Others also fought to not flash the world.  It did relieve all the tension.

I am about a foot from the edge of the pier.  And there are whitecaps behind me. There were even sailboats behind me.  Notice the hair is perfect.  I had a huge amount of product in my hair.  No messy hair for me.

Look at these two pictures of Kat and Duane.  You can see signs of the wind with her dress.  But the second picture as she began her vows, the sun came out.  She was spotlighted by Mother Nature.

After dinner they cut the cakes.  One traditional and one Danish for Duane's heritage.  And then he toasted us and his lovely bride.

I have been involved in a lot of weddings not connected to my volunteering.  I have never seen such a great group of guests.  We knew no one other than the bride's sister and her husband.  People came up to us and talked to us.  Really talked to us, not  "aren't they a lovely couple".  They made sure we felt a part of the celebration.  Both sets of parents were lovely, gracious, and highly entertaining.  Aunts, cousins, whoever, they made us feel like family.  Thank you to all.

It was a joy to do this wedding. I just wish the Babe of Honor had lots more sisters for me to do their ceremonies.  There is a brother, hummm.