My Big Fat Wedding Weekend

Two, count 'em! Two weddings to go to this weekend. We are not 'wedding people' so two in one weekend was testing my social skills. :-) And to top it off, both were along the lines of social obligations of the husb - my acquaintance with the participants if superficial at best.

The first wedding, Saturday, was a very small affair with the ceremony and reception held in a lake-side restaurant. This was a family affair, less than 30 people invited. Why us? I have no idea. We should not be on anyone's 30 or less invitation list! It is a lot of pressure being on a 30 or less list.

This was a wonderful wedding, simple and heartfelt. The groom was very nervous before the ceremony, the couple wrote their own vows which brought tears to many. The husb and I were given the music job (ala Seinfeld). The groom had all the music on an ipod plugged into the sound system. We were instructed to turn the music down when the bride reached the front and then when the ceremony was over, to skip to the next song and turn it up. When we turned the music down, there was a soft feedback that could be heard over the speakers. I asked the husb if I should unplug it. He said go for it. As soon as I did, there was a huge sound of loud, very loud feedback, ladies in the audience gasped and people started laughing out of nervousness. I quickly plugged it back it with shaking hands. I almost burst into tears, I was so horrified. My only consolation was that it didn't happen while they were saying their vows. Of course, no one thought anything of it afterwards.

The wedding today was almost the complete opposite of yesterday's. It was a splashy, spare no expense affair. There was an open bar so the liquor was flowing and the dance floor was full. It was held in Geneva on Seneca Lake and while it was chilly, the sun did shine a little and it was gorgeous on the lake.

Both couples made attempts to meet our dietary needs, today more successful than yesterday. Our experience has been that most restaurants, unless they are large ones with formally educated chefs, tend to struggle coming up with vegan alternatives. Yesteday, we were served plain angel hair pasta topped with sauteed onions, peppers and mushrooms. Yes, I am vegan but onions, peppers and mushrooms are my least favorite veggies so that dish will not be going on my list as a top meal.

Today, the venue was a larger, formal banquet hall type place and they came up with a bruschetta topped, grilled portobella mushroom on a bed of orzo with green beans. This was a much more successful dish however.....note the portabello. Bleech......just can't bring myself to eat fungus.

What was nice was that, in both instances, the couples were thoughtful enough to request accomodation and both places tried their best.