Laughter

I left the reception laughing out loud, careful not to let anyone notice.

The four o’clock wedding didn’t get off to a great start. The mothers of the bride and groom forgot to light their candles and, assuming they had already lit their respective candles, I led the groom’s side of the wedding party to the front of the sanctuary to move forward with the rest of the ceremony. But it was too late. Sorry moms, but we were moving on. The bride and groom will just have to improvise.

I just gave you the bad news first. The good news is that everything else went off without a hitch; exactly as how we had practice the night before. The ceremony ended with me declaring, “It is my great privilege to introduce to you for the very first time, as husband and wife, Mr. and Mrs…”

The whole experience was a delight. I never could have imagined that officiating a wedding could be so much fun. Seriously, seeing the look on the bride and groom’s faces made it all worth it. The only downside to the whole event was that the sanctuary was uncomfortably warm, made all the worse by the fact that I was wearing my thick black clergy robe. I was soaked in sweat!

One aspect about the whole occasion that I became suddenly aware of during the special music, was the fact that through my vision of the bride and groom standing right in front of me, beyond them I could also see the bride’s mother and father sitting next to each other in the front pew. But they weren’t really sitting next to each other. There was enough room for another person to sit between them. It was one of these rare moments where beauty and depravity (thanks, Eugene) are perfectly framed together. As two people were mere minutes away from being their new life as a married couple, painfully evident was the love of her parents long ago lost.

Although slightly awkward at times, the wedding reception was tons of fun. I met a lot of strangers and left the reception with at least a few more acquaintances than before. I was served a number of kind compliments for my role as the officiant and lots of good food. I was supposed to be seated at a table with several single nursing friends, but instead I sat next to a guy who is the food and beverage manager for the private restaurants inside the Boston Garden. He had some pretty good stories to share about post-game 6 celebrations with Kevin Garnett.

Overall, it was a night not soon forgotten. The whole thing felt unreal. My only response was to laugh like Sari after overhearing that she would give birth to a son in her old age.