A Lovely Day For A Wedding

Yesterday was the wedding of a friend of Hubby Tony's daughter that we have been looking forward to for the last two months. After a post-breakfast trip to the gym I came home and primped myself from head to toe. I cut the tags off my dress, put the inserts in my dress shoes, pulled out a dress purse, and found sparkly rhinestone earrings. 

The ceremony took place at 1:30, and the reception started at 6:00. At the last minute I second guessed my choices of purse and earrings, substituted items more appropriate for daytime use, and brought the fancier ones to change into for the evening. I also couldn't decide if I wanted to go bare-legged or wear panty hose. I ended up going without, because the sandals were open toed.

The inserts that were supposed to make the shoes less loose helped, but they still fit like flip flops and I knew I wouldn't be able to walk for long distances in them. I ended up bringing a pair of black comfort shoes to use in between events.

 The wedding was lovely. It was held in a historic church just south of downtown. The pews were filled with family and friends, all dressed in some type of dress clothes, and the bridal party was in black tie and gowns. The musicians were in the choir loft in the back.

The ceremony lasted a little over an hour. The reception venue was at a downtown hotel ten minutes away. Although we could have gone home, there would have been very little time to rest before driving back to the same section of town. We decided to stay in the area, attend Sunday mass at the same church at 4:30, then drive five minutes to the hotel.

During our down time I changed my shoes. Tony left his suit coat in the car. We walked several blocks to a coffee shop, then around the area. It was warm enough that I shed the jacket to my dress. We received several doubletakes from the casually-dressed people we passed, and one woman stopped and told me she liked my dress.

The second mass at the church was quite different from  the first. There were less about 50 people in attendance, and everyone but Tony and I was dressed casually. This time the hymns were a cappella. At the end of the service the deacon mentioned the earlier wedding and asked the congregation to pray for the newlyweds.

We knew exactly where the reception hotel was, but it was a challenge to figure out which garage was offering complimentary parking for the event. Before I got out of the car I changed back into my fancy shoes and swapped my purse and earrings for evening ones, then Tony and I walked across the street to the venue to start the second part of the day.

Although we didn't know everyone at our reception table everyone melded well, and by the end of the evening I felt like I had made some new friends. The dinner was typical hotel banquet food, but the staff was attentive and moved everything along.

Close to the end of the evening I realized that Tony and I should have a photo to commemorate our big day and asked one of our table mates to take one. Unfortunately the room lights bounced off the room's windows in a weird way and half of the photo was overexposed.  I didn't realize the mistake until I was in the car coming home, so we'll just have to remember the event without physical evidence of it.

Five years ago: As Good A Reason As Any