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Saturday June 10, 2000
"If it were not for the presents, an elopement would be preferable." George Ade, Forty Modern Fables
father of the groom
just married Click here if you actually like wedding pictures...I didn't think so...
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most presumptuous of all endeavors I was going to get up at 7:45. I fell asleep again and it was nearly nine when I woke up. Haircut! So I showered and set off for Jane's barber shop. She said it would be 45 minutes so I waited and read the paper and watched her give a couple of buzzes. Finally she got around to me and gave me the usual and the comforting shave and hot towel on the neck. I spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon making some cards, working on my journal and doing a bit of e-mail. This afternoon at 5:30 my friends Cheryl and Juan (from college) are seeing their only son, Ben, off into wedded bliss. I have excused Forrest from the wedding after hearing that it is oversold. He hates weddings. Truthfully, so do I. But I like these people. The preacher gives me the great title for this piece. The ceremony is blissfully short but then there are all the usual things: photo ops, food and drink, toasts, cake cutting, bouquet throwing, garter throwing, dancing. (The groom tried to learn how today. He and the bride practiced a few steps in the Met Club foyer. Then headed into the main room while he said, "I suck. Let's go." Another friend from college came for the event, all the way from Omaha. Lou is making up for missing Cheryl and Juan's wedding, thirty years ago. The daughter of some other college friends is here, too. Her name is Snow White. I'm not kidding. Her parents were married twenty-odd years and then split and she enjoys hearing our tales of college. Although our memories are fading, we still have the goods on each other, or so we think. Finally there is a carriage ride that sets off from in front of the building and we all drift off. That may be the last time I'm in the Met Club before it closes. Cheryl, Juan, Lou, Snow and I meet Forrest at Four Seasons bar and join with Gene and Amy and Steve (Rebecca's boyfriend). Rebecca has a sax player sitting in with her. The guy plays with Lyle Lovett. They fill the lounge with dynamite standards while we relax. Cheryl and Juan are dropping the tensions of the last few days, relieved. Weddings are so stressful that I don't know how anyone survives them. Plus...have you ever wondered if it's a letdown for kids who are just starting out and might have to struggle a bit to be the center of attention for one night? At the Seasons, other weddings have been performed. The wedding parties are filtering by the lounge including, in one case, the bride. Juan wonders aloud if she shouldn't be some place else.
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