We hit up our 3rd wedding with Salvador today. Pickings are getting slim – when the groom threw out the garter, there was only one single guy there at the wedding. And he was the bride’s sister’s boyfriend. Instead of lots of single folk, there were lots of little babies. Probably 6 or so? There was a little stroller parking lot over in one corner…Sal was eager to check out some other rides.
Anyway, the couple was already married – longish story about green cards, parents, various countries and timing that lead to them already being married. So I was thinking, this would be a quickly little ditty. I didn’t know that they had lots of speeches planned.
To have a good wedding, you need a good speaker. It’s probably not sufficient. But I think it’s necessary. Without a good speaker, you’ll lose the audience. People will start making side comments…minds wander. A good speaker will get everyone sentimental about the stories, instead of just the family members that get the inside jokes are or so proud of their little boy/girl.
This one had its ups and downs. Which was fine cause the highs were good enough. And partially because the speakers were pretty interesting. Lesbian professor that ended up taking on the bride as a tenant at one point. Okay, that stands out. She’s even a pretty serious golfer and was there setting up the surprise proposal on the 12th hole…nice.
But it didn’t seem like the bride and groom talked about their speeches much. They had completely different topics/agendas during each of their talks that made it seem that way. He went first, and thanked each invitee for coming, with a little story about them. Did each without any notes, which lead to a few funny mistakes. Then got a little teary eyed while talking of his parents.
She just recited her vows to him (from notes). Which was sweet. And short. And made my earlier comment a bit funnier. My earlier comment came when the groom was done with the stories about everyone and he had a final story about his wife. And then he lead into the vows. But they weren’t his vows. They were the vows he had in mind for her. That she should stay true to herself and strong and some other sweet cuteness…because if she does, he’ll always love her. Which was nice I suppose, but not a straightforward nice set of vows. More like vows that put all the pressure on her.
If you stay perfect – as in, my definition of perfect, which can change over time – then I’ll always love you.
So I was a little surprised when she came out without any family and friend stories. And with her own vows, instead of his vows. Didn’t seem like they talked about their speeches.
Vow critiques aside, a nice little wedding. I might be tempted to use the word quaint.
Oh – then the band started. Man, Salvador had his eye on the gourd thing that the dude on the keyboard had. We saw him with it when they were warming up. But when it came out during a real song, Sal was in a trance. Standing. Staring. The gourd player could feel the concentration and they locked onto each other for a bit. It was pretty cool.
They also played some latin music – which included some spirited yelling and Salvador again was all over that. Finally – a bunch of people who loved just blowing and letting their lips bounce around against each other ending with a squeal! I think the band was Sal’s favorite part of the wedding. Oh – and the hay. He loved picking up the hay.
And he snuck a little swedish cupcake in too.
To think we almost missed all of this because of another wedding. In the end (well, much earlier than the end…probably the beginning of the middle?) it turned out I wasn’t invited to the other wedding, so it wasn’t an issue. Which, because I’m a little off center, actually still worked out for me, since I got a lot of pleasure out of the conversations around the situation.
Hmm…maybe my definition of happiness hasn’t changed that much since Salvador…
Saw that movie in the theater I guess 10 years ago. We went with Davita, my cousin in law? She’s my uncle’s wife’s sister’s daughter. Someone told me that is officially called legal, but they’re from the south so even that seems overkill.
