There's a scene in "Pushing Tin" where one rival air traffic controller tells another he's got planes "lined up like rockette's". Not my favorite way to do weddings but occasionally an awesome experience. The weddings today were all down town and 1.5 hrs apart, each a very different circumstance.
The first featured two beautiful and devoted brides from the US. As usual, there was joy at the wedding feathered with a small bitterness that it couldn't take place in their home country. Unusually, many of their family and friends were able to make the trip up which made for a small but supported ceremony. As I waited with family and friends for the brides to walk down the stairs of the inn they stayed at, I was struck by a statue on the bottom most post. It was a two foot bronze of armed Justice, scales balanced and blind folded, one foot firmly on the ground and the other almost leisurely placed on the head of a writhing snake. Sunlight through stained glass on young and hopeful shoulders as they walked past the statue and into a lawfully recognized future together. Have to say, I misted up a bit.
Second wedding was of the ambush variety. I'm currently writing a guide book on weddings (will likely put it up on Cafepress or something) and including a section on these since it's my forth and after comparing notes with the caterer, a growing trend. Want your wedding your way, without any familial interference in the planning stages? Don't mind skipping the whole shower and presents thing? An ambush wedding is like eloping with your friends and family - you simply tell them they're at the party for a different reason, like a birthday or a housewarming. Expect to hear about it for years. In this case, everyone had received an invitation to attend an engagement party where they would watch the groom propose to his intended bride. I'd conducted the grooms brothers wedding years before, so I walked in dressed as a waiter with my over coat in a tote bag with regristrar and ceremony. Some glances but no recognition as I ducked in the back near the food prep area to start filling out the legal bits on the license. When the bride arrived she was was greeted at the door by her groom and they announced that actually, it was a wedding as I walked out with coate on and book in hand. Two second pause for shock, and then (thankfully) howler monkey like shrieks of delight. Shortish heart felt ceremony, closing with a traditional Greek bread breaking. The space was an open and bright venue on Richmond St, and the caterer was a genius. I've seen soup shooters before, but creme brulle in esspresso mugs? The crown jewel in the sparkly thingy of finger foods. By the end of the ceremony at least his parents recognized me, and his step mother said as I left "thank you, that was lovely...you could have called me, you know!" I pled a vow of silence and ran part way to the third.
Mingling before dinner, the bride and groom of the third chatted up their guests at a posh restaurant on King St, specially closed for the event. The head table was off to the side to allow space for the ceremony. A second marriage for both of them, they walked toward their vows (which they'd written themselves) with eyes wide open and the known world before them. After the ceremony the music was played for their signing, but during the applause and love they started to dance instead, the groom holding his brides hand like a delicate orchid. "It's a Wonderful World" has not had a more passionate and spontaneous display of affection set to it, in my eyes. It was a bit before we got to the signing as after their dance the floor turned in to not so much a receiving line as a receiving scrum, and guests felt moved to come over and offer immediate congratulations. Freaking brilliant, loved it.
Then I realized I had my other purse with me, the one that doesn't tear up the brocade as much as the one that's made out of a tire. While I had my metropass, I didn't have my wallet and called beauteous husband to wait outside with cash so I could take a cab home. After that many groovy vibes in the day, I didn't want to waste a minute on TTC that I could spend in his company because I am a total freaking mush. Sofa, TVO, Chinese takeout and time with geriatric cat. Perfect evening closing off a totally awesome day.