Wedding Bells Ringing In My Head ©

Monday, Monday, am I glad it’s Monday.

I should be sober by the time Sunday gets here when I will be off to yet another two parties on Canada Day.
One will be the annual bbq at my cousin’s and it’s Archie’s birthday but that’s this weekend coming up.
Last weekend was the wedding and what a bash that was.

We got to the church at 1:30 where we met the brooms family at the entrance.
I saw my cousin standing in the corner talking with his brother and father so I walked over to talk to him before he said his vows.

This is it?
Yes it is, I am getting married.
NO not that, this is the last chance you get to run.
I got the car parked at the door we can make a run for it and might make it.

My uncle starts laughing and waits for his son's answer.
That’s when the bride’s father spotted us and came over to join our little group.

I know what you are all planning and if you run I am coming too because I am not going to stay here and have to listen to my wife and daughter.

We all looked at my cousin and said that he had too much invested in the relationship and had already started building the house.
Besides she works with the cops and she could probably have us found and arrested.

Hmmmm but we could all hide at the Silver Dollar, they would never find us there besides the Silver Dollar had a new batch of strippers but he said no.
Well I guess he must really love her.
He walked into the church office to talk to the priest and I turned to go into the church and his future father in law grabbed my arm and said we could still go to the Silver Dollar.
Yeah right, I know his wife and I would rather take on a charging herd of Rhinoceroses than piss her off.

When we walked into the church from the lobby we were ushered all the way to the front of the church to be with the groom’s family.
My uncle is the youngest brother of my father and my father is the oldest so they wanted us in front as my father is the head of the family.
Within twenty minutes the church was filled to the rafters with people.

The music started and my nephew who is five was the first to walk out, it was his uncle that was getting married.
This lad is hell on wheels and is usually around when there is a loud crash of something breaking.
He loves food to, at the funeral I was at not to long ago his father told him he was only allowed to eat one shrimp because he is getting pretty big.
I was sitting there watching him when I nudged my mother to get her attention and nodded towards the table.
The kid ate one and filled his pockets with as many as he could get into them.

He was given a white heart shaped pillow to carry with one of the rings on it and he was doing great until he got halfway down the aisle and decided he was Joe Montana and through himself a long bomb with the pillow and took off to catch it.
I guess he totally forgot there was a ring on it, luckily the ring was intercepted by his father who was standing close by and I am sure the seat on his pants would have wished they were padded.

His brother was next but he is the total opposite.
He is skinny and small for his age, shy reserved and never get into trouble and never makes a mess in fact he is always cleaning up.
If he sees a spill he runs to clean it.
I can hear many of you screaming that you want that kid.
As the music played he stepped into the church, took two steps, looked at the huge crowd in there watching him and froze……………
Eyes bulging and his mouth hanging past his chin looking like a deer caught, he stood there like a petrified statue.
The pillow slipped out of his hands and the ring on it rolled up the aisle with his poor father chasing that one to.
His mother who was in front of me said that he did great at the rehearsal, sure he did there wasn’t 900 people there watching him though.
His father nudged him all the way to the front of the church to stand next to the seven ushers and groom who were waiting at the front for the bride and her entourage.
His father came and stood next to me and when I looked at him he said that he had no idea that he was going to be part of the wedding party.

Next were two of the cutest the flower girls I have ever seen, the walked down the aisle tossing flower petals all over the place.
That snapped my nephew out of his trance.
After they got to the front the bridesmaids came out one by one and an usher walked up half way to meet them and escort her to the front.
This went on until everyone was at the front and the priest came out of the back to start the ceremony.

The first thing they did was exchange their vows in English and then he went through our religious formalities as is dictated by the Greek Orthodox church and to make it easier for the Italians in the church he did the service in Italian.
It was a beautiful blending of both cultures.
While that was going on my nephew couldn’t contain himself any more and ran out to the runway and started cleaning up the flower peddles and putting them in his pocket then ran to the little girls and empty them in their baskets and told them they had dropped them on the floor and walked back to his place with the ushers.
The service went off well after the bumpy start and we all went outside to congratulate the bride and groom then they all jumped into a stretch limo and took off for pictures.
We all went home to wait for the three hours before they were to arrive at the banquet hall.

At 5:30pm we arrived at the Hall and we lined up and gave the bride our envelopes and received a gift from her in return as is always done.
With this out of the way we could all party and leave when we want.
Open bar, no ones leaving early.

We barely sat down when food started arriving.
I had just gotten my first of twelve beers of the night.
The first plate had six slices of prosccutto, roasted red and green peppers, 3 small lamb chops, Melanzane (Hot pickled eggplant) I hope I spelled that right, six jumbo shrimps and some skewered shrimp.
Then there was the sushi bar.
My mother was already saying she was full and I told her that she was in trouble because I had seen the menu for the night and it was ten courses.
Next they came out with a plate of paste bow ties covered in a rich tomato sauce Farfalle Al Pomodoro and some sticky rice (Risotto Al Tartufo).
I looked at my mother and asked her how she was doing and she said she would eat just a little so that she can have the main course.
All the kids in the place got the same meals even my three-year old niece who only liked the buns so far leaving my SIL and brother to eat the difference.

No sooner than our plates had been cleared they came back with lobster tails for each person even my niece whop ran away when she say them.
My mother had never had them before and enjoyed her first taste of lobster.
My father being an ex chef complained that they weren’t up to par and probably not fresh but ate them just the same.
I ended up with two more because the SIL and mother couldn’t eat both and my brother was stuck eating my niece’s lobster.

After that the brought us a scoop of lemon sorbet and my mother gave a sigh of relief that she finally made it to dessert.
I laughed and told her that wasn’t desert, they gave it to use as a way to help digest what we ate and to clean the flavours in our mouths so that when the main course comes it won’t taste life lobster.
She looked at me and asked, “The lobster wasn’t the main course”?
I told her know and pointed to the waiter who was bringing out the main course, which were Veal chops.
I thought she was going to faint when she saw how much food was on the plate.
After that they brought salad, Italians eat their salad last which was cool by most of use because that we could leave.

Dessert came next and that was something new for me and cool I thought.
The brought us each a frozen orange that had been hollowed out before hand and filled with orange sorbet.
This was something my niece got into.
All over her.
Her father, mother grandmother and two servers.

After dinner they played a power point presentation of the bride and groom, which was great I thought.
It showed how they grew up and how they met and eventually lead to why we were here for this day.

Then the there were speeches by the maid of honor and best man who were the brother of the groom and sister of the bride.
I think it’s cool that their best friends were their brother and sister.

When all was said and done the MC called for everyone to get up and dance and from that moment on, all hell broke loose.
They played Italian music, Italians danced to it, they played Greek music and most Greeks danced to it, they played main stream music and everyone danced to it but as the night wore on we were all drinking heavy.
I had started on the scotch after the beer and there were shooters of Grappa and Ouzo being passed around by the bride’s father and groom.
I had two of each and about ten scotches so when they dragged me on the floor to dance to some Italian song I didn’t ague lol
And before long everyone was dancing to anything and everything because at some stage we were dancing to German music.

The kids were running around having a great time and not restricted to their chairs.
The hall was huge and there was plenty of room for them to run and not cause trouble.
After a couple of hours of dancing the waiters started coming around with trays of pizza and brochettes.
I don’t know how I was eating still I was ready to explode after the lobster, but I took one of each just the same.

I spent a lot of time outside to meeting new people and talking to family members I haven’t seen in awhile.
There were many people from out of town that I don’t get to see that often.

Around midnight they pulled out the heavy Greek music and started dancing to it.
Some of the Italians not having seen this, watched as people broke off in small groups circled and clapped for a solo dancer danced to the story sung by the singer.
The clarinets were blaring as the dancers spun freely with raise arms, stomping in defiance with the beat of the music.
The music played on until 3 am I was told with people dancing the whole time, at one stage there must have been 300 people on the dance floor at once to dance with the bride and groom.
Around 1:30 am I gathered the troops because my parents are getting a little old to be up that late and were wanting to go home to their beds but before they left we stopped at the pastry table where there were dozens of cakes, thousands of pastries and mountains of fresh fruit.
They filled some Styrofoam containers and we all left.
I tossed my father the keys to drive because he doesn’t drink and my mother doesn’t drive and if she did she can’t see over the dashboard.

The next day we were to go over to have a Bbq at the groom’s parents place but that’s another post in itself.

I hope you all had a great weekend as I did,

Oh and part three of the Red Clay will be up on Wednesday.
There will be an end coming and I do have the rest of the story in my head, I just don’t want to put it all up at once…….
Ok I suck at typing and it’s going to take me a while to type it all out.

Have a nice day.

Walker