Oct. 31, 2003
5 Weddings in 7 Weeks
No, it's not a cute, funny movie starring Hugh Grant. It's my life. I have had few free weekends, I have attended countless showers and other pre-parties, and all of these wedding gifts have taken quite a toll on my bank account, but, honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. I love weddings. It's almost an obsession. Aside from my love of celebrity fashion, it is the girliest thing about me. I always go. I always cry. I always make them tell me the proposal story. I always dance. And I always try - really try - to catch the bouquet.
The first wedding would have made it 6, and it would have made it 8 weeks, but, unfortunately, I couldn't make it to Buffalo to toast the health of Amy Moudy and Chris Comeau on October 13th. Amy used to be my boss at the Atlanta Opera, and we have a lot of friends in common. I did make it to her wedding shower, though, which was a lovely affair (and from which I stole several of my ideas for the shower I later threw for Kelley and Allison). I did make Heather Smith tell me all about the wedding, though, and apparently it was very fancy, Amy looked beautiful, and the alcohol was plentiful. Heather says Amy's hair was literally tied in a bow. I wish I had a picture.
You know, I'm lying, because, actually, the first wedding of the year was Schuyler and Jen's. They got married in July. That one was local and beautifully DIY. Jen wore a strapless white gown with lavendar flowers on it; it was so pretty. Jen's pretty anyway, though. I don't see where she could have gone wrong, really. The outdoor ceremony was hot but short, and the reception was a lot of fun since everyone we knew was there. That was the first wedding Derik and I went to together, and we spent the rest of the evening strolling through the park in Avondale Estates, holding hands and talking about the weddings we always imagined for ourselves. Obviously, he had not worked out nearly as many details as I had (I have been planning my wedding since I was five, after all), but, given that he's a boy, I was impressed that he'd given it any thought at all.
But the 7-week marathon began on September 27th with the wedding of Geoffrey and Fiona. They got married in Stone Mountain, GA at an outdoor chapel with a quaint little indoor reception hall. It was really beautiful, and they seemed so happy. They still seem happy. Fiona used to work at the Renaissance Festival, and I sing for her Christmas caroling company. Here's an official photo:
Memorable Wedding Moments:
The next wedding was the one in which I was most involved: the wedding of Kelley and Allison on October 4th. I know, I know - I've talked about that a lot lately. But it was such a wonderful wedding! Everything came together so beautifully! I loved meeting Allison's and Kelley's families; I'd heard so much about them. I loved being the Maid of Honor! I got to act all self-important, walking down the aisle with my Maid of Honor bouquet (a bundle of purple cala lillies) wrapped in carefully hidden extra tissue for the bride, just in case. I got to coordinate the reception activities to make sure everything happened on time. I got to give the first toast! And I drank exactly the right amount of champagne; I was happy and tipsy, not drunk and tired.
The planning of Allison and Kelley's wedding was not without stress. I was making programs the day before the wedding, and I know a lot of other things came together at the very last minute, too. But at the end of the day, it was just such a great time. Because every aspect of it was done as inexpensively as possible through people who were friends of the couple or friends of their friends, it felt like every single thing that happened that day, happened just for them, never to be duplicated. It didn't feel like the work of a wedding planner. Almost everyone who attended had a job to do. Charles and Shadow were the "stage mangers" of the event and organized a crew of friends to set up chairs and tables and everything else and break it all down at the end of the night. They got a caterer; in addition, one of Allison's friends who's a sushi chef brought a huge tray of sushi. Hollie did all of the flowers, bouquets and centerpieces, and they were beautiful. The bouquets were simple but elegant, and the centerpieces were flowers floating in bowls of water that just looked perfect. Jonah made the decorations for the altar. Cathy made signs to tell everyone where to park and where to go for the wedding. Nancy made the wedding cake - actually cakes, plural; she concocted hundreds of little, mini lemon-glazed cakes (the leftovers of which I successfully absconded with, thank you very much). Amanda tended bar. Penny took pictures. Becky, Jaynie, Cathy, and a whole bunch more people passed out champagne. And you would think that such a plan would be a recipe for disaster, that someone would forget to do something, that something would fall apart. But nothing did! And at the end of the day, being involved in the wedding was what made it so much fun for everybody. I know that's what made it fun for me. I had the time of my life. Here's a picture of the ceremony:
And here's another one, for those of you who, like me, absolutely must see a full-length shot of the dress:
Memorable Wedding Moments:
Now we jump ahead to the wedding of my cousin Lynn Fletcher, daughter of my mother's brother Paul, whom you may remember as Acting Potentate of the Abracadabra Club. Lynn's wedding was in southern Maryland, of course, so Derik and I jumped on a plane on Friday night and learned our first important lesson: do not fly standby on a weekend. However, as nerve-wracking as it was, it worked out in the end; not only did we both get on the flight, we got to sit in first class! In the very first row, even! That was my first time ever in first class, and I was quite thrilled. The return trip did not go quite as smoothly; all the flights at Dulles were full, and we ended up racing across town to National Airport in a shared cab, making it onto the very last flight leaving D.C. for Atlanta on Sunday night. I consider myself to be an adventurous person, and I do love to travel. But that's just a little more adventure than I like in my travel these days. I know. I'm old.
Lynn's wedding was exactly what I expected: a lovely Episcopal ceremony at their church, followed by a fancy dinner reception at the Officers' Club (Uncle Paul is retired from the Navy). Lynn and Ed are party people, and their reception was definitely a party! It got to the point where the tired bridesmaids (who'd been up since 8:00 a.m.) were taking wine glasses and disposable cameras away from people and busily cleaning up trash to try to get people to leave. It was fun in the way that only family weddings can be: you have so much history with everyone there, and you stand around and reminisce about all of the previous weddings, and you try to make sure the grandparents have everything they need. And you still feel like a kid even though you're 30 years old because, in this family, you're still one of the kids. And you see that your mom still feels the same way, with her mother and her uncles there. It was great. Unfortunately, none of my pictures really came out, so here's the only one with both Lynn and Ed in it (courtesy of my mother):
And, the full-length shot (best I've got, sorry; and, yes, that's Uncle Paul, not the groom):
Memorable Wedding Moments:
And the wedding fun continues! Tonight is Halloween, and it also happens to be the wedding of Jeff Petermann (whom you may remember from the days of Lindsay Smith and the Fill-In-the-Blanks) and Sarah Rutledge, both members of Celtic band Mickle-A-Do. I've borrowed my Victorian caroling costume, which I think is a good compromise between wearing a costume and dressing up for a formal occasion. Then, following this Halloween wedding, I'll attend the wedding of Bettina and Carl on November 8th, in which I have a small part to play as part of the choir. I'll tell you all about these last weddings of the year next month. If you're sick of weddings, well, too bad!
I told you, I live for this shit.
What’s in my stereo at home:
What’s in my car:
What's in my CD player at work: