This past weekend Gavin and I flew down to Dallas for Amanda and James’ wedding. I’ve known Amanda since the sixth grade, we were in choir together, and probably a few other classes as well (it’s been a while).
We flew down Friday, it was a rather uneventful day, we had dinner at the hotel and went to bed early (early for Dallas, we were still on Boston time).
Saturday morning we met Amanda in hotel lobby for breakfast. We compared rings, talked about her wedding day schedule, the dress, little details, and what we’d been up to since we last saw each other (April 2006).
After breakfast we headed up to Amanda’s room, woke up her brother, Brian, and looked at the pictures of her on her iPod. Amanda hurried off to her hair, make up and other appointments and Gavin and I went back to our room and watched the History Channel.
After lunch (Quiznos), we called Eric (an usher, and the husband of Tiffany the red-headed Maid of Honor) who was going to give us a ride to the wedding. He said he’d pick us up around 2, so we relaxed in the room until 12:45.
At 12:45 Gavin realized he’d forgotten his dress shoes in Boston. Fortunately the hotel had a free shuttle for anywhere with in five miles of the hotel, and there was a nearby mall with a Macy’s. We acquired the nick-name “the [crazy] shoe people” because of our slightly odd dilemma. By this point the front desk knew me fairly well, I’d gone down earlier asking for scissors to cut tags out of my dress.
We were back at our hotel by 1:30 with time to spare. A little after 2 we piled into Eric’s car and headed to the church.
It was a large Catholic church with lots of large stained glass windows and Jesus hovered (suspended on wires) in the center of the church. In the foyer there were pictures of Amanda and James, along with directions to the hotel (for the reception).
Amanda had printed several hundred programs for everyone to follow along during the ceremony. For the most part I could follow along, but I occasionally got lost when there was Priest/audience response, or when the Priest ad-libbed. The Maid of Honor’s mother did an amazing job, singing several solos. James helped Amanda on the stairs, kneeling and standing, and there was always a bridesmaid to help rearrange the train of her dress.
When the wedding was over, there were more pictures to be taken, and Gavin excitedly pointed out that he knew one of the Bridesmaids, Julia (?). Apparently they’d gone to elementary and middle school together. On my trip to the ladies room I accidentally stumbled across the Bridesmaid’s changing room and introduced myself. “… my husband says he went to elementary school with you…” “…Gavin?… I haven’t seen him in forever!”
She was “the bridesmaid getting married in Palo Alto next weekend” and we were “the couple from Boston.” Small world.
We hung around the church (we couldn’t go anywhere anyway), watched more pictures being taken (something borrowed and something blue fell and had to be rushed to Amanda’s Mom), and volunteered to help carry stuff (bouquets) to the car.
Back at the hotel we hung out in the lobby, met the groomsmen, the mother of the groom, a variety of Amanda and James’ friends and had light snacks and drinks.
We had assigned tables, but no exact assigned seats. I cannot remember who we sat with. All three women were friends of Amanda’s from medical school, the the two men at our table were there, like Gavin, because of their wife/girlfriend. Dinner was salad followed by chicken or pork and then wedding cake. The food was quite good, I only saw the cake in passing, but it looked fantastic.
There was lively conversation, and even livelier dancing (the chicken dance, the hokey-pokey, the YMCA, in addition to the couple’s songs and dances with the bride/groom, parents).
By around 9:15pm I was nearly asleep on my feet. After a few words with the newly weds and Amanda’s Mom, we headed to bed.
Sunday, after breakfast and more History Channel, we headed to the airport. We had lunch, sat down and waited for our flight. A voice announced that they needed five people to volunteer for a later flight for $300 flight vouchers. We took them up on the offer and waited an extra two hours for the next flight. We ended up riding the DFW tram in the huge loop around the airport, that took about fifteen minutes. We sat and read and the best man (who had the latest flight available back to Boston) noticed us and came over. We chatted and he tracked James and Amanda’s flight to Jamaica (their honeymoon destination).
They offered more vouchers for the even later flight, but we decided not to take them. As we boarded they announced vouchers for a flight Monday morning. Gavin gave me a look. We sat in row 32 of 32, aisle and middle. There was no window, but there was a seat next to the bulkhead. I felt sort of bad for the man in the little dark corner. We were the second and third to last people off the airplane.
It was wonderful to be able to go to Amanda and James’ wedding. Amanda looked radiant, and James looked quite handsome. It was fantastic to see them again, hopefully we’ll have more reasons to see each other in the future.
