Weddings

In the last two months I have attended two weddings. The two could
not have been more different.

The first wedding was held in my church late on a Sunday afternoon.
I did not have an invitation, but four of us went as wedding crashers,
I suppose. We did tell the mother of the groom that we would be there
and that we would not crash the reception. As strange as it seems,
there were two wedding crashers at the reception. In fact they were
so drunk and disorderly that the Maitland Police had to arrest them.

The wedding itself was beautiful and and moving. The bride wore the
traditional wedding gown and the groom wore his firefighter's dress
uniform. All his attendants were firefighters, but in suits and ties.

The bride had six attendants plus her sister as matron of honor.
Her niece was flower girl. There was a handsome little ring bearer
but I do not recall what relation he was to the bride and groom .

There is something special about every wedding I have ever attended.
Once I went to my cousin's wedding in Mississippi. Two of my sisters
and I attended -- once again as uninvited guests. This time, however,
the groom was the grandson of our favorite great aunt Elsie. Kenny,
the groom was a very tall young man, probably 6'4 or 5. The bride
was a beautiful 6 ft. tall red head. My parents, my sisters and I
are all medium height. At that time I was 5'4; two of my sisters were
shorter than I and Connie, my youngest sister, was two inches taller
than I.

Anyway, after the wedding we reminisced, remembering all the the guests
assembled. There were so many people in that church that we had known
and loved all our lives. When I think of weddings, I always think of
them as places where family gets together and cherished old friends
materialize.

The second wedding we attended was just last weekend. The bride looked
like a princess; everything was perfect. Her parents spared no expense.
Parked outside the church was an off white Rolls Royce wrapped in a
great big white ribbon with a huge bow. That car was a hint of what
was to come.

I have never seen such opulence as was there. The reception was
a sit down dinner at the Citrus Club. The food was magnificent.
I am sure the entire wedding had a price tag of somewhere between
Fifty and One Hundred Thousand dollars. All I could of was, "Why
didn't they give the money to the kids and let them have a down
payment on a house?"

I suppose this shows my practical frugality. The whole evening
was perfect insofar as the bride and groom were concerned. Why
should I stick my nose into their business?

Anyway, I relived that evening for several days; I even made a
couple of new friends there.