by the Night Writer

Here’s my favorite photo (so far) from the wedding, posted by KingDavid over at The Far Wright. I kind of like the sentiment as well.

There were a lot of great memories to savor as we watched Faith and Ben dance their first dance. I must say, however, that the wedding weekend created many more memories to treasure thanks to the way friends and family responded to the event. Instead of being overwhelmed by all the details that go into planning a wedding (and hosting it in your own yard) we were overwhelmed by the number of enthusiastic volunteers who showed up as early as last September to help clear out the back gardens to prepare them for this spring; the people who guided the food plans and organized the cooking and serving; the seemingly countless young servers rushing food and drink out to the tables; the drivers who shuttled people from the parking area to the wedding site; those who helped set up and tear-down the chairs and tables (I think the yard was completely cleared of tables chairs and trash within 30 minutes of the bride and groom’s getaway); the people who put on the bachelor party and bridal showers; the women and girls who got up early several mornings to rehearse the “Thriller” dance; the videographers; the limo; the DJ; not to mention the personal and professional devotion of the photographers…as we watched the bride and groom dance it was deeply moving to realize just how much they had to have touched the lives of others to stimulate such an outpouring of affectionate effort (even among people who we couldn’t fit into the invitation list and who still called and offered to pick up folks from the airport or help cook or do anything they could).

Some other memories:

We had everything set up by Friday afternoon for the rehearsal and left it up overnight. We called our friends at the SSP Police Dept. and asked for a couple of extra patrols overnight to keep an eye on things. To help with security I turned on all the front outside lights. About 12:30 I was having trouble getting to sleep so I got up to take an antihistamine to make me drowsy and in walking past our bedroom window I noticed that the lights were off…and there was some kind of activity going on at the end of the driveway. I pulled on a shirt and went downstairs to investigate. I slipped out of the door by the garage and saw heads bobbing behind my daughter’s car that we were using to block one of the driveway entrances. Almost immediately three people went dashing up the street while a fourth person in black ninja-like garb came running toward me. That could have been scary except the “ninja” was whispering “It’s me! It’s me!” (or perhaps it was “Don’t shoot! Don’t shoot!”) in Tiger Lilly’s voice. It seems TL had snuck out to decorate her sister’s car along with the other bridesmaids. Unfortunately for her, the bride had walked through the kitchen after I’d gone to bed and noticed that the door was unlocked and the outside lights were on. She couldn’t believe I’d been so careless (perimeter security is my responsibility at night), so she turned off the lights and LOCKED the door, leaving Tiger Lilly on the wrong side of it. If I hadn’t have come out to investigate TL would have had to spend the night on the couch of one of the b-maids. No doubt my tingling Dad-senses were what were keeping me awake, sensing that one of the chicks was out of the nest.

When I got back upstairs the Diva was on her bed, going over yet another to-do list. Not wanting to give anything away I told her that I ran some vandals off.

“Are my b-maids decorating my car?” she asked.

“Hey, would I stand around outside in the middle of the night in my underwear talking to young women?”

“I wouldn’t put it past you.”

Another Friday night memory is the Groom’s Dinner put on by the groom’s parents for the wedding party, closing The Black Sheep for a private function and hiring a great band, Deluge, to play while we enjoyed the fresh-from-the farmer’s market cuisine put on by Peter, The Black Sheep’s proprietor. We had Shepherd’s Pie baked in a fluffy filo dough, a fantastic salad and our choice of chocolate lava cake or chocolate cheesecake (some chose both, I think) plus all the exotic coffee, tea and juice drinks that are the Sheep’s specialty. It was a truly congenial and entertaining evening and atmosphere and we learned where Ben gets his poetry skills(?). Peter and his staff were totally into the evening and provided great service and the band, who Faith and Casii had met on the open-mike coffee-house circuit, was perfect!

Memories from the “A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words” category:

The Groom and Groomsmen warm up before the ceremony with the traditional bocce ball game (I’m sure it’s traditional somewhere):

There was no stress in the kitchen (well, almost no stress):

The Best Man was a very good one, indeed, with his heartfelt toast to the new couple:

I’m not sure how Tiger Lilly ended up with the groom’s top-hat, but rest assured that she didn’t decapitate him.

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