My partner (J) and I went to a wedding yesterday that was pretty nice; it was for a friend of mine from school. It's not the first wedding we went to together (that would be his youngest brother's, last fall), but it was the first since we got engaged. Plus, his brother's wedding was so non-traditional that it was fun to see a wedding that would be more similar to ours.
We got to the hotel at noon, which is when we were told early check-in might happen (when I called to make the reservation). The man behind the desk was very apologetic, though, because nothing would be available for hours. We sat in the lounge/breakfast area and waited for an hour and a half, while a very very sick J tried to rest with his head on the table.
Fortunately, a room opened up around 1:30pm, and so we were able to go up and rest a bit more easily. Very clean, comfortable room; nothing fancy, but absolutely perfect for what we needed. After about an hour, we finished getting ready, and went down with our heavy gift to catch the shuttle. The shuttle left on time, but when we got to the venue, the shuttle driver said that he'd be back at 9pm and 12am (end of reception and end of afterparty). That was odd, since we had been told by the bride that the shuttle would be doing pick-ups at 9:30 and 12:30.
We had some trouble finding the gift table, but the venue staff managed to direct us to the gift table. I'm sure we weren't meant to see the reception hall before the cocktail hour, but poor J was about to fall over and we needed to unload the gift somewhere. Then we went across the street to the ceremony.
This was probably the one point where I think that my friend and her now-husband kind of dropped the ball. They had the ceremony on the shore, and the waves were incredibly loud; there was no microphone at all. There were only chairs for the parents and grandparents, and some elderly guests, and the rest of us had to stand and form an aisle on a grassy hill. Fortunately, I wore wedges, but it was still tough. J was so sick that it was hard for him to stand for so long. The bridesmaids clearly wore the wrong shoes (not sure if they were warned); most of them were not smiling because they were trying to hard to walk down the grassy hill in heels.
The officiant was able to project pretty well, but it sounded very hammy because she was trying to shout AND be moving (emotionally) at the same time. To hear her do a repeat-after-me with the vows was the weirdest thing; she'd shout out part of the vows, and the bride or groom would repeat it, but you could only hear the officiant. I'd have preferred to hear the bride and groom say their personally-written vows to each other, and not in a repeat-after-me fashion.
Cocktail hour was fine; open bar and yummy cheeses, fruits, and veggies. Most of the passed apps were things J and I don't eat (e.g. pork). The bride and groom did NOT keep us waiting more than an hour, thank goodness! They entered in and went straight into the first dance, and then we were able to sit down and have the first course.
I'm not going to talk about the food much because honestly, it was amazing, and I don't want to ramble about it because omg. It was delicious and everything was served quickly. I was never waiting and expecting food for long periods of time.
The fathers of the bride and groom gave wonderful speeches. It was awkward when the bridesmaids and groomsmen gave toasts; there was no best man or maid of honor, so both of the groom's brothers gave toasts, and ALL of the bridesmaids did a toast together that was super forced.
The DJ was pretty good, except for a few things. There was an anniversary dance, and when the groom's brother and sister-in-law missed that it was an anniversary dance, and wanted to dance together to the song that was playing, the DJ repeatedly scolded them and told them to leave the dance floor. At multiple points during the night, he would cajole guests to get on the dance floor, and at the end of the night, he KEPT playing "final" songs. Like, "Okay, last song!" and then another and then another.
I had double-checked with my friend, the bride, who confirmed that the shuttle was leaving at 9:30, which was the end of the reception. A lot of us then went outside at 9:30 ... and no shuttle. Anywhere. There were at least 10 or so people waiting, so we weren't just mistaken. We got a cab company from the hotel (sort of--this is Maine), and after about 30 minutes managed to arrange rides for everyone back to the hotel. I'm going to let my friend know soon (not the day after her wedding, that's for sure!) that the shuttle totally failed. When we got to the hotel, they said they hadn't seen a shuttle arrive at all since it left for the ceremony.
Anyway, the wedding was really lovely. I do wish that the ceremony had had seating for everyone, and that we could have heard the vows from the bride and groom, and not from the officiant. And it's a bummer that the shuttle didn't work out. And, ya know, that my fiance was super sick. But we still had a wonderful time and omg the food you guys it was the best.
now with ~* INCREASED SASSINESS *~
