The Wedding - Part III

Okay, I promise this will be the final installment in the wedding series.
The reception took place at the stone pavilion about a hundred yards from the rose arbors (where the ceremony was). Very convenient for everyone. The tables were decorated with little galvanized buckets filled with cream roses and green button daisy-like flowers. The centerpieces were oil lamps ringed with hydrangeas. It was very summery and very pretty. And still very hot.

We sat or stood in the shade of the pavilion waiting for the bride and groom to arrive. They were spotted coming across the lawn when quite unexpectedly, Matt leaped into Kelly's arms and she carried him! Okay...yeah, he's a little guy…but I SO would've dropped his ass on the ground. It's sweltering hot and I'm in a very expensive wedding gown. Get OFF of me! Heh.

Since this was a Mississippi/Alabama wedding, on the menu was barbeque (with sweet tea, of course!). There was plenty of champagne and cigars. I swear, it felt like a Groucho Marx Festival with cigars hanging out of everyone's mouth. And Kelly and Matt drank from the largest champagne flutes I have ever seen in my life. I know you are at this moment imagining how large a large champagne flute really is. Hold that image…now enlarge the flute like at least a 100 times. Seriously.

They danced their dance - although I can't for the life of me remember what the hell the song was. Ah well. I was busy hanging out with Kelly's friends from architecture school, who were all very friendly and very entertaining. Her one pal, Lamoh, has threatened to harass me at my office if I don't set up a MySpace page within two weeks. He REALLY likes MySpace.

Josh and Kim arrived with a really gorgeous three-tiered wedding cake that was rapidly succumbing to the heat. Lacey and I were nominated to cut this wilting masterpiece of flour, sugar, and butter, and I must say, considering the conditions we did quite a good job.

Lots more photos were taken. Liz, who is apparently some kind of karaoke legend in Mobile, refused to sing for everyone. Corwin, the best man and Matt's cousin, gave a drunken toast in which the words, "hope this one lasts longer" and "at least this time I actually got to meet the bride before the wedding" were used. I was aghast, but since I was probably the only one not drunk, maybe no one else noticed, or remembered…

As Kelly and Matt prepared to leave for their honeymoon, we all pelted them with dried lavender flowers (MUCH better, in my opinion, than rice or birdseed or those annoying bubbles) and wished them a safe and fun trip. As they drove off, Kelly's mom stood next to me and said, "ya know what, she forgot her freakin' passport". Hee. Kelly's mom cracks me up, so I stayed and helped her clean everything up. Later, it was blissful peeling off my blue dress, kicking off my heels and sitting in my air-conditioned apartment with a bottle of complimentary champagne chilling in my fridge.

Thus the wedding is over. Matt and Kelly will return from Mexico next week (that is if they haven't been thrown into a Mexican prison - we keep waiting for the bail call at work), and if all goes well, I will never have to construct another bridesmaid's bouquet for as long as I live.