Princess Leia and Han Solo on the wedding cake
The ceremony was one of the best I've ever seen. When we got there, it was 3:02. We were out by 3:16. Short, sweet, and to the point. I like it. A lot. As a child, I remember being bored silly with marathon wedding ceremonies. I would play with the Bibles and song books in the pews, wondering why there were no colouring books or ... something fun. There should be a new rule for wedding ceremonies: If it's going to be over an hour, it better be fun for everyone. For instance, at my wedding, the ceremony would be an hour long, but everyone would be wearing costumes. And holding lightsabres.
After the ceremony, there were a couple of hours left until the reception. It was time to find a gift. It's not that I had forgotten, but I knew what I was going to get weeks ahead of time-- a home depot gift card -- but kept on putting it off for one reason or another. You know. Life gets busy.
So we made our way to Home Depot, but the only gift cards that were around were ones that said "Dad, you rule!" I sighed. We were running out of time. I purchased the card, loaded it up with money, crossed out "Dad", and wrote "Lori and Shawn". I could only laugh at the absurdity of it all. I really wanted to be able to get them the kind of gift that they could look at after 15 years of marriage and think, "isn't that such a great gift?" I'll have to make sure I'm the first one to hit the baby registry.
Fast forward. New dress. Picked up Jackson and Ryan. The reception. Play.
You don't really appreciate how much planning goes into weddings until you hear the behind-the-scenes stories of people who are getting married. There are so many details that have to be taken care of that I'm surprised more people don't get married at city hall and have their reception at Chuck E' Cheese. However, Lori, being the goddess of organization that she is, had everything taken care of weeks ahead of time.
The reception was fantastic. The food was delicious. And if there was any disappointment, it is only because I don't think I will ever get another opportunity to see so many people from my academic life in such a different context. Imagine seeing all of your professors dancing it up, forming a giant conga line, and doing the funky chicken. And to literally top it all off, the wedding cake had figurines of Princess Leia and Han Solo, frozen in perpetual awesomeness, knee-deep in icing.
Absolutely beautiful.