Wedding (part 3): Friends and family

Wedding report continued...



Above: Erin waits in the women's restroom for the ceremony to begin.



The ceremony itself was simple and beautiful. I didn't have the greatest view of it from my place behind the scenes, but Allison posted some photos in her blog entry on the event. Erin and Rand each wrote their own wedding vows. There were also several readings, and Erin's father sang.

Rand's brother, Dan, was the officiant at the ceremony. Now I know how some people must feel when they meet Ruth; not only do Dan and Rand share some physical resemblance, but also many mannerisms.



I had the opportunity to chat with quite a few of both Rand's and Erin's relatives. Above: Erin's aunt, Erin's mother, and Rand's mother. Finally getting to meet Rand's mom was one of my weekend highlights. She came up to me at the rehearsal and introduced herself, then gave me a huge hug. "I've wanted to meet you for a very long time," she said with a big smile.



In addition to the joyous formal celebration of a couple's union, weddings also bring together groups of people who may not regularly cross paths. Erin's often talked about her college friends in her blog, and I looked forward to meeting some of them.

Like Jen of AllThingsJennifer.com, for example, who hosted a virtual wedding shower for Erin and Rand. Great to finally meet her in person; I loved her enthusiasm and wicked sense of humour, plus it was clear she cares about Erin a great deal.

Here's Erin with Jen at the rehearsal:



Jen seemed to know most of Erin's friends and family at the rehearsal dinner but said she didn't really know Rand's friends. So I dragged her over to meet Allison and Jodi and the others; in return, she introduced me to some of Erin's college pals. :-)



And yay, I finally got to meet Eden (above, on left)! Wish we had had more time to chat, argh.

And speaking of argh, I forgot to ask Rand to introduce me to his friend Celia so never did meet her even though she was at the wedding.



Also great to find people I hadn't seen in a long while, like Dave Lennon, Dave Wheeler, John McClester (sp?), Blogshy, Randy, Wolfram and Rai-Ann. Especially great to see my friends Alisa and Luis again! I met Alisa ages ago before she became part of Puzzlebox, and I met Luis when he was the drummer for Ookla The Mok. Luis has mellowed since those years; for a contrast in physical appearance, here's a photo I took of him when he was recording a drum part for our first CD at Allison's place. You can see him at the far right in the photo below, which I took at breakfast this past weekend:



At the wedding rehearsal, I had a chance to chat with Adam and Thomas again:



I'm glad I had the chance to talk with both of them earlier (at the wedding rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner) because both were pretty busy during the wedding reception, though I did manage to snag a dance with Thomas.

Thomas was the DJ/emcee during the reception:



While Adam did caricatures of guests throughout the evening (his wedding present to the newly married couple):



I introduced Jeff to Rand's friend, John Kalisz, and Jeff coveted John's iPhone. I'm excited that John is going to be moving to Toronto for a short-term assignment, and am secretly hoping that turns into longer term.



All three Urban Tapestry husbands attended the wedding, by the way:



From left to right: John (Allison's husband), James (Jodi's husband) and Jeff (my husband) at the rehearsal dinner party. We sang happy birthday to James on Saturday morning and gave him a Chapters/Indigo gift certificate at breakfast. I offered to (loudly) sing him happy birthday again at the wedding reception, but he said that my birthday present to him could be to NOT do that.

:-D



Speaking of loud singing...

Neither Allison's husband nor I had ever attended a karaoke before, but we decided to end our karaoke virginity at the wedding reception. During a dinner we shared at FilKONtario, when Rand and Erin mentioned they were planning to do karaoke at their reception, Walter suggested that John should do karaoke.

I mocked John, saying he was too chicken to try it. He said he'd do it if I would, but that -I- was too chicken. To make a long story short, we ended up deciding to do a song together in a mutual dare...our one and (since neither of us plan to ever do it again) -only- karaoke performance. We decided on Sonny and Cher's "I Got You, Babe."

David Wheeler got a photo of me singing my part. :-) Jodi also participated in the karaoke, doing a smokin' version of "Fever."

Other personal highlights from the reception:



Seeing the expression on Dave Huth's face when he found out that his name had been randomly drawn to be a witness on the marriage certificate. Dave and Rand are longtime friends. Dave is one of the sweetest and most positive people I've ever met, and also one of the most creative. Do check out DaveHuth.com to get a glimpse of just some of his amazing projects.



Hearing Greg Klyma and Tom Bianchi perform a song that Greg had written in honour of the occasion. They passed out slips of paper with the chorus on it so we could all sing along: "Call it luck / call it love / call it anything good you can think of / call it quick / don't let it get away / call it Rand and Erin's Wedding Day." The lyrics were funny, sweet, and ultimately deeply moving.



The table settings were beautiful as well as unique; each table had a card with the name of a famous couple from the media (television, movies, comics). Jeff and I were at the Zoë and Wash table with Allison, John, Jodi, James, Samantha, Greg and Tom. Erin and Rand sat at their own table with a Homer and Marge table card.



Must go work, so will continue in my next post.





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