Wedding Report:
The Bride's father was in a bad mood by the time he turned off I-90 onto SR 18 down into the Green River. Traffic just crawled. Two miles away from I-5 it stopped crawling and started inching. Took me an hour to go the last two miles to get to the I-5 Interchange. I-5 wasn't bad, so I had time to recuperate.
The wedding was to be in a private home not far from where SR-18 ends at I-5, so the next day I went over to help get the home ready. All the women were making flower arrangements, corsages, and so forth. I helped the home owner spread some gravel and cleaned up the tools he had scattered around the deck he had built on the lake side of the home. It was really quite a lovely view down to the lake.
I finished my jobs dirty and soaked, so I decided to go home and return for the rehearsal, leaving about 4 pm. By 6 pm I still wasn't home and I realized I didn't have a key to her house either. My wife suggested I stop at Walmart and buy some new clothes, which I did. Then I went to my brother in law's room at the hotel to shower and change, and then we all went together for the rehearsal, which I was told was not optional for me.
The wedding turned out very nice, although I flubbed where the minister asks who gives this woman? I said "Her mother and I." Then I forgot to kiss daughter on the cheek and place her hand in the groom's. Upon being reminded, I said "Here," and turned her over.
Then they had me read my poem, which I revised a little from the one I wrote the morning of her first wedding. After that I was pretty much useless.
When all the ceremony was completed, food was delivered to the house, and everyone feasted on ribs. There were about 40 people present, 14 of whom were doctors, colleagues of the groom.
I offered a toast, saying I'd never been in a room with so many doctors, none of whom would help me unless I died first. They were all pathologists. I also offered a toast to the military people in the room, which included the 14 doctors and several others, and thanked them for their service. My father in law was the only former POW, so I gave him special recognition.
It was a very joyous occasion for all, but I'm glad it's over. We stayed over until Monday and drove home without incident.
We were fortunate to have both of the bride's grandmothers present, and one of her grandfathers. They made a long flight from Ohio to attend, which was a real pain because father in law has a pacemaker and can't go through the x-ray machine so they have to give him the third degree to make sure he's not a terrorist. He's 88 years old, and gets around well for his age but is deaf in one ear and can't hear well out of the other. The security people still search him thoroughly, which makes no sense to me at all. |
