Happy Couple: Shadow and Jason
Wedding Date: Saturday, October 15
Location: somewhere south of Atlanta, GA
Participation: attended
This was the most unusual wedding I've ever attended, and that's saying something. Not only did it incorporate all my favorite things about weddings (good friends, good fun, good food, pretty clothes), but it was also a fascinating glimpse into a subculture of which many of my friends are a part but of which I know next to nothing. Shadow and Jason are LARPers - LARP stands for Live Action Role-playing Game. A LARP is like an online adventure game in which you play a character, only you have costumes and props and play it in real time with other real people. Shadow and Jason decided to make their entire wedding a LARP, so we all wore period costumes and went down to the state park where they play. The ceremony itself in the pavilion featured groomsmen wearing chain mail and armor and an officiant garbed as a monk, yet it was one of the most moving wedding ceremonies I've ever witnessed. Shadow and Jason have such deep respect, admiration, and affection for each other, and it shone from both of them as they exchanged their vows. I love those two. After the ceremony, it was time for the games, and by "games" I mean people whacking each other with fake weapons. First was the "melee" (big, crazy group battle), and then people paired off for duels or lined up for the archery tournament while I (among others) watched and cheered from the porch. After the games, we enjoyed a magnificent feast in the campsite dining room with medieval-style food that was historical and delicious, particularly the platters of bread, cheeses, herbed butter, and chardwarden, a sort of spiced applesauce. As you might expect, the toasts were not your standard-issue mumblings; there were several fancy presentations. A treasure chest was carried in by knights of the realm, and I surprised the happy couple with a song I wrote just for them. (I recruited my singing friends in attendance to jump up and sing along on the chorus, which no one saw coming; it was my best trick of the year.) All in all, it was a unique and enriching experience, and I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Wedding Photo:

To see more pictures from this wedding, go to the LiveJournal entry.

OK, now for the awards! Who was best-dressed? Who was worst-dressed? Who ill-advisedly hooked up at the reception??? Well, all right, most of these aren't that juicy; we are no longer 21, after all. But here are things I thought deserved special recognition during Wedding Season 2007.

Best Ceremony Location: Becky and Wade - What's more romantic than a gazebo in the garden? Nothing, that's what.

Best Reception Location: Rachaele and Johnny - They found the cutest little site with a balcony area, a crowded dance floor, and a spacious outdoor deck with a view of the water.

Quickest Turnaround: Fausto and Angela - Brides-to-be, here's a tip: Angela says they got the location (a ballroom that specializes in weddings), along with all the food and trimmings, for about half what they usually charge because they booked it only about a month in advance. Sometimes it pays to plan quickly!

Funniest Moment: Becky and Wade - The ceremony was solemn, the readings were Biblical, the officiant was eloquent... and then Wade broke the mood with a loud, goofy, "I DOOOOOooooo."

Most Awkward Moment: Fausto and Angela - There was a runner over the carpet serving as an aisle, and one of the parents' high heels went right through the material and tore it; the proceedings had to pause while a new runner was put down for the bride's entrance.

Best Ceremony Music: Becky and Wade - Having Rivka on harp and Dolph and guitar was especially meaningful since they are the other two thirds of Three Quarter Ale.

Best Rehearsal Dinner: Fausto and Angela - I only went to the one, and I was only invited because Derik was in the wedding, but it was a lot of fun. We went to one of those Japanese steak houses where they throw knives around and set stuff on fire. They also did something I'd never seen done before; they took a picture of the bride and groom before dinner and then presented them with a cake for dessert with that picture on it. It wasn't the best cake ever or anything, but I personally never look a gift cake in the... frosting?

Toughest Bride Award: Shadow and Jason - Although Angela could not have had an easy time in her tight, tummy-flattening wedding dress, Shadow gets the Toughest Bride award for getting pneumonia the week before her wedding and not showing it at all! Seriously, if she hadn't told me, I never would have known.

Best Reception Music: Rachaele and Johnny - This band was great! It was a full-on soul/funk band, complete with horn section, and the woman singing looked and sounded fabulous; I was checking out her dress and her voice and her dance moves and thinking, "Now THIS would be a dream job!" Probably the best wedding band I've ever heard.

Best DJ: Fausto and Angela - It was Dolph, of course. Always the charmer (though he really does need to invest in a pair of dress pants to wear to weddings).

Best First Dance: Fausto and Angela - Their ballroom lessons paid off when they hit the floor; they didn't have anything specially choreographed for the occasion, but they did bust out a perfectly respectable fox trot. The part where Fausto got tangled up in Angela's gown only added to the charm.

Best Dance Floor: Rachaele and Johnny - When the band started, some people stayed seated, but it didn't last. You cannot sit out music that good! Old people, young people, people who had come alone - everybody was on that dance floor! Even out on the deck, we were all still bopping around to the music. This award was hard to give because we did some pretty amazing dancing at the other weddings, too, including a rousing "Love Shack" at Fausto and Angela's and a monstrous zombie "Thriller" at Becky and Wade's. There was traditional court dancing at Shadow and Jason's reception, which I bet was awesome, but it was already pretty late when the feast ended, and I was sick and really had to go home and sleep.

Best Bouquet/Garter Toss: Becky and Wade - My friend Elizabeth, who was one of the bridesmaids, caught the bouquet without even trying. The real surprise was her boyfriend, Charles, who not only caught the garter but - we swear we're not imagining this - actually jumped for it! Sure, it could be just a coincidence, but I suspect - no, you know what, I know - that something is brewing in that boy's mind and that this particular wedding bouquet just might fulfill its stereotypical purpose!

Most Adorable Children: Shadow and Jason - On some level, I think it's wrong to costume small children because they have no choice in the matter, but I also can't imagine risisting the temptation when they're just so cute! (I just sent Ollie a hat and mittens that make him look like a dinosaur, in fact.) Several of Shadow and Jason's wedidng guests garbed their children, and the results were precious. I remember one elf-child in particular who was pretty darn adorable.

Cutest Flower Girl: Fausto and Angela - Fausto's neice and nephew were the flower girl and ring bearer, respectively. They were shy and nervous and wouldn't walk down the aisle without their mother, who was a bridesmaid herself, but my advice to any performer is to be four years old forever if you can possibly manage it because any audience will forgive you anything if you look that adorable doing it.

Best Reception Food: Rachaele and Johnny - The food at this reception was not only delicious but very clever, with some things on the menu that I'd never seen before. My favorite items were the "martinis" - served in martini glasses, the choices were shrimp & grits and roast beef & mashed potatoes, and both were equally delicious and cute. The rest of the buffet was really good, too, especially the scallops. I very rarely have scallops I think are really tasty and well-cooked, but these fit the bill.

Best Bar: Rachaele and Johnny - The bartenders were set up at tables out on the deck, which was part of the reason the deck was such a great party. If memory serves, it was just wine, but there was something very fun and glamorous about standing on the deck with a glass of wine. I don't know. It worked for me.

Most Beautiful Cake: Shadow and Jason - The cake was a model of Minas Tirith, the "white city" from the Lord of the Rings movie, and it was gorgeous! I don't know how someone managed to make such a perfect copy with buttercream frosting. As a bonus, the groom's cake was a chocolate Minas Morgul, the Nazgul stronghold - complete with Eye of Sauron on top!

Most Delicious Cake: Becky and Wade - All the cakes were delicious this year, but Becky and Wade's was chocolate with white, blue, and silver frosting, and it was super, super tasty. It was so good, I snagged an extra piece (shhhh!).

Best Groom's Cake: Fausto and Angela - As I mentioned, it was Nancy's Bailey's cheesecake. And there wasn't a scrap left over!

Best Toast: Rachaele and Johnny - Johnny's sister gave a funny, heartfelt toast that made me feel like I knew Rachaele and Johnny better by the end of it. The runner up for this award is Fausto, who gave a very funny toast about Angela, during which he promised to ply her with chocolate for the rest of her life. (He's a good man, no?)

Best Photographer: Fausto and Angela - As I said, Annabella has photographed several friends' weddings now (Kelley and Allison discovered her), and I really like her work. She's working with a partner now, and they still do a photojournalistic style rather than a lot of posed portraits. The funny thing is, there are some techniques she uses that I don't like so much - too many pictures of people taken from below (not flattering!), more pictures of still objects than is probably absolutely necessary - but then, looking through the proofs, I'll come across something that takes my breath away! There were some gorgeous close-ups of Angela that were among the best wedding pictures I've ever seen.

Best Wedding Dress: Shadow and Jason - This is a tough one because all of the brides looked absolutely stunning this year. Rachaele had a strapless gown with a sort of jeweled bow in the back that fit her perfectly, Becky had a made-just-for-her Eowyn gown with long, blue-lined sleeves, and Angela had a sleek gown with a band of trim circling the column. However, Shadow wins this award because she is the only woman I know who is creative, crafty, and gutsy enough to make herself a new wedding gown out of the one she wore for her first wedding. No, seriously! She took her old 80's wedding dress, re-did the bodice, sewed royal blue flowers onto the train, and made a royal blue jacket to complete the look. Now that's ingenuity!

Best Veil: Rachaele and Johnny - She walked down the aisle with a veil covering her face and her fabulous updo. Anyone who attended my wedding already knows I'm a fan of that look!

Best Hair: Becky and Wade - It seems unfair to give this award to someone who earned it more by virtue of what nature blessed her with than by anything she did, but hey, flaunt it if you've got it. Becky's hair always turns heads (long, blond, curly), and she pulled it up into a circle of braids at the top with long, loopy braids tied with blue ribbon in the back and left the rest in its naturally long and gorgeous state. Definitely pretty pretty princess hair!

Best Bridesmaids' Dresses: Becky and Wade - The bridesmaids wore light blue (but not too light - almost periwinkle), and the dresses were more detailed than most off-the-rack bridesmaids' dresses, with lacing up the back and little embroidered cap sleeves. As a bonus, the hair braiders from the Renaissance Festival made pretty hairstyles for all the bridesmaids, except for Penny (who has weird issues with putting stuff on her head or on her feet), who just took a bunch of blue flowers and scattered them through her hair, making her look even more than usual like some wayward woodland sprite.

Best-Dressed Groom: Shadow and Jason - Usually, grooms wear tuxedoes, and that's that. However, Wade's detailed Musketeer costume and Jason's dashing garb both deserve special mentions for flair and imagination. The award goes to Jason because I so adored the magnificent cuffed sleeves of his white coat.

Best Attendee Fashion: Shadow and Jason - You have to be careful with this kind of thing. Shadow and Jason wanted everyone to be in garb, but they did not want things to get too Dragon*con/sci-fi/fantasy. They suggested "period garb" rather than costumes, and people mostly complied with that request. I saw a lot of very pretty gowns and cool boots and chain mail, but I didn't see the Klingons, Storm Troopers, Goth Angels, etc. I normally see at such events. I did see an elf or two, but that fit in with the Lord of the Rings theme that was woven through the wedding, so that worked. Shadow loaned me a really pretty green velvet gown with long oversleeves that she made herself and that I loved; I thought it made me look very ladylike. In fact, I still have it. I've got to get that back to her...

Best Favors: Becky and Wade - Their favors were cute little mesh bags with Three Musketeers bars in them. Not only did they fit the theme, I looooove Three Musketeers bars! Second place goes to Shadow and Jason, whose favors turned into a challenge; inside one of the white chocolate-dipped fortune cookies was a prize! Everyone ran around opening the fortune cookie favors, looking for the prize. I don't even remember what the prize was, actually, but I remember the excitement of wondering who would get it.

Best Invitations: Shadow and Jason - They used parchment-looking paper that had a faint background - it almost looked like silver filigree - of the door to the Mines of Moria (you know, the really famous illustration from the Lord of the Rings novels). The invitations were folded and sealed with sealing wax. I'm a sucker for cool stuff like that. In fact, I got some sealing wax and a seal as a Christmas gift once a long time ago and never used it much. Now I wish I still had it.

Best Guest Book: Shadow and Jason - The guest book was actually based on the Jewish tradition of the Ketubah, a marriage contract written in Hebrew and English that is signed by the couple, the Rabbi, and witnesses. They turned that idea into an enormous piece of art with the above-mentioned Lord of the Rings doorway illustration as the background and the marriage contract written in Elvish, Dwarvish, and the tongues of men! Below, there were spaces for all of our signatures. They are going to frame that and hang it in their house, and I think it will be an incredibly cool thing to have on their wall.

Congratulations, all you 2007 brides and grooms! May your lives together be happy in the new year and for many years to come!

What’s in my stereo at home:

• George Winston - December

What’s in my car:

• WABE 90.1 (NPR)

What's playing at work:

• iPod playlist of all my favorite Christmas music, shuffled

What I'm reading:

• Entertainment Weekly and Cooking Light at the moment, actually