Awesome Wedding!
Attended my favorite wedding ever this weekend. It was the wedding of two of my mathematical siblings (students of my Ph.D. advisor), and out of the 5 weddings I've attended in my entire life, this one was without a doubt the best. But the way it began was pretty terrible. At least for me. The previous evening, I was up all night, wallowing in emotional turmoil rather than sleeping. My boyfriend of 4 years and I had broken up that night, and it seemed like it was finally the real deal this time. He said he would not go to the wedding with me as planned, and I just hated the thought of showing up to a wedding with break-up all over my face.
Pretty terrible time to attend a celebration of love, but I was very fortunate that the wedding was well put-together and attended by so many awesome people. I was sad, of course, heart-broken really, but it was impossible to remain bitter under the given circumstances. In many respects, it was perhaps the best situation possible--being among friends and others celebrating their love and happiness, and all of it having nothing to do with me whatsoever.
It was outside in a shaded gazebo in rural PA. The gazebo was out back of the place the couple was living, which was an old barn that had been renovated and converted into a very cushy place to live (think beautiful brown barn outside with lots of polished medium-colored wood inside, immensely high ceilings, and cottage feel). The ceremony was a quaker ceremony. Never really knew anything about that, but when they said 45 minutes of silent worship would follow the vows, ring exchange, and music, I thought I had a great test of meditation in mid-day heat ahead of me. However, people were encouraged to speak as the Spirit moves them, and I thanked my lucky stars that the dang Spirit moved. There was relatively little silence as people were standing up and talking, giving Candace and Matt advice about married life, telling them how happy they were they were together, etc. Many included interesting jokes and touching moments. Some people were moved by the Spirit days before this announcement, as they delivered impressive speeches they had prepared in advance. I almost cried a couple of times; first time for that to happen to me at a wedding besides the time when I was asked to give a toast. (Words of advice: DO NOT ask me to give a speech at your wedding unless you want a tear fest.) Initially, I nearly cried when I saw the bride. She was so stunning. The next couple times were in reaction to people's speeches during the "silent" worship.
The music was medievalish, and not that great IMHO, but it was an interesting touch for sure.
After the ceremony, there was a wonderful reception complete with contradancing and all the garnacha one could wish for. Turns out, I love contradancing, and I was thankful that my friends Jackie and Simon indulged me in that. The reception area was beautifully and elaborately decorated. One touch that I loved was each table had many colorful origami cranes sprinkled over the white tablecloth.
As it was in a rural location, the stars were out fierce that night. Lovely, lovely time.
My colleagues and I had planned to stay overnight, so there would be no rush to leave. Therefore, we stayed until end of the reception. I slept exceptionally well that night since I had zero hours of sleep the night before. The next day I felt so nice and refreshed as we went to a brunch thrown for the wedding guests at a cottage on the nearby lake. The brunch was also nothing short of spectacular. There were two types of strata, four types of minimuffins, minibiscuits, a bangin' fruit salad, and some fish and things that I didn't pay much attention to. I ate my heart out, and then had a pleasant drive home with friends Mike and Andrea.
In hindsight, my ex-boyfriend did a wonderful thing for me by not attending the wedding. Not only did it save me the pain of people slowly finding out we had broken up and asking all kinds of uncomfortable personal questions (people hate prying about these sorts of things while at a wedding . . . and what better way to announce a break-up than being absent at an important event), but it also took my mind off things and refocused it on sharing a very special day with friends. Thanks, Slobodan, for making that final tough decision and for doing it so well, especially given that I disagreed with you at the time.
As for this weeks fun adventure: It's blueberry picking!
(Edited Jan 16, 2011)
Pretty terrible time to attend a celebration of love, but I was very fortunate that the wedding was well put-together and attended by so many awesome people. I was sad, of course, heart-broken really, but it was impossible to remain bitter under the given circumstances. In many respects, it was perhaps the best situation possible--being among friends and others celebrating their love and happiness, and all of it having nothing to do with me whatsoever.
It was outside in a shaded gazebo in rural PA. The gazebo was out back of the place the couple was living, which was an old barn that had been renovated and converted into a very cushy place to live (think beautiful brown barn outside with lots of polished medium-colored wood inside, immensely high ceilings, and cottage feel). The ceremony was a quaker ceremony. Never really knew anything about that, but when they said 45 minutes of silent worship would follow the vows, ring exchange, and music, I thought I had a great test of meditation in mid-day heat ahead of me. However, people were encouraged to speak as the Spirit moves them, and I thanked my lucky stars that the dang Spirit moved. There was relatively little silence as people were standing up and talking, giving Candace and Matt advice about married life, telling them how happy they were they were together, etc. Many included interesting jokes and touching moments. Some people were moved by the Spirit days before this announcement, as they delivered impressive speeches they had prepared in advance. I almost cried a couple of times; first time for that to happen to me at a wedding besides the time when I was asked to give a toast. (Words of advice: DO NOT ask me to give a speech at your wedding unless you want a tear fest.) Initially, I nearly cried when I saw the bride. She was so stunning. The next couple times were in reaction to people's speeches during the "silent" worship.
The music was medievalish, and not that great IMHO, but it was an interesting touch for sure.
After the ceremony, there was a wonderful reception complete with contradancing and all the garnacha one could wish for. Turns out, I love contradancing, and I was thankful that my friends Jackie and Simon indulged me in that. The reception area was beautifully and elaborately decorated. One touch that I loved was each table had many colorful origami cranes sprinkled over the white tablecloth.
As it was in a rural location, the stars were out fierce that night. Lovely, lovely time.
My colleagues and I had planned to stay overnight, so there would be no rush to leave. Therefore, we stayed until end of the reception. I slept exceptionally well that night since I had zero hours of sleep the night before. The next day I felt so nice and refreshed as we went to a brunch thrown for the wedding guests at a cottage on the nearby lake. The brunch was also nothing short of spectacular. There were two types of strata, four types of minimuffins, minibiscuits, a bangin' fruit salad, and some fish and things that I didn't pay much attention to. I ate my heart out, and then had a pleasant drive home with friends Mike and Andrea.
In hindsight, my ex-boyfriend did a wonderful thing for me by not attending the wedding. Not only did it save me the pain of people slowly finding out we had broken up and asking all kinds of uncomfortable personal questions (people hate prying about these sorts of things while at a wedding . . . and what better way to announce a break-up than being absent at an important event), but it also took my mind off things and refocused it on sharing a very special day with friends. Thanks, Slobodan, for making that final tough decision and for doing it so well, especially given that I disagreed with you at the time.
As for this weeks fun adventure: It's blueberry picking!
(Edited Jan 16, 2011)