When I arrived at the reception hall after Sally and Tom’s wedding ceremony at the chapel, I was set aback. I saw this wall of wedding favor containers. The stack of these boxes looked like a barricade protecting a medieval castle. My curiosity got the best of me and I couldn’t resist picking one up and shaking it. Well I shook it, but nothing moved. These things were tightly packed with who knows what. The entire evening, I was distracted by what in the world could be in those containers. I was actually giving myself a stiff neck by turning to look at them all night. My wife nudged me several times to get my attention. She really got upset when I kept looking and I accidentally crushed her toes on the dance floor, due to my distraction. She was so upset that she insisted we leave early. The funny part was that I never found out what was in those boxes. I am afraid to bring it up. She’ll really lower the boom on me if I do.
Whimsical Decorations
I was always impressed by a simple phrase I heard somewhere, sometime, someplace. It represented something so ethereal and spiritual to me ever since. It was the simple term, “On gossimer wings.” I see it as describing something lighter than air drifting about slowly and gracefully in such a whimsical way. I have this vision of Andie’s wedding decorations being presented in just that fashion when my first little girl gets married this summer. Andie, is and always has been angelic in that way in my eyes. Certainly this is influenced by the fact that my wife and I were told we would never have any children. Three months after the sad news, Bingo! We were pregnant with Andie, the first of out four girls. I think I have been looking forward to her wedding for years before she had even met anyone. For some reason I have always pictured her as this gentle caring mom and loving wife. She just exudes love and compassion in everything she does. She was our miracle child and now she will soon be ours to share.
Our Digital World
If there is one area of human relationships that has no reason to be regarded as having selective opinions or irrational judgement, it is our digital world. It is lending itself to be seen as common ground for everyone of us on our fair planet. I wake each day expecting and receiving news of something more exciting and dynamic from the innovative minds that we were all blessed with. They add access to the myriad of possibilities that never before have been in the realm of so many individuals. Denis Griffith of Atmosphere Proximity impresses me as a pioneer in digital agency and brings incredible usability and flow to the online presence of a list of very impressive clients. Every so often a special talent arises in our technical arena. Watch the progress of the usability and efficiency of the Emirates Airline pages online and you will begin to recognize the genius I know I am witnessing. As I said, I can’t wait to wake up tomorrow to see what is new and amazing in our never stagnant digital world.
Big Wedding
I think it would be fair to say that a wedding with 2500 guests was a big wedding. Our little town of 5300 residents is more like one big neighborhood. The last thing you would want to do in a neighborhood would be to insult any of your neighbors by not including them in a major celebration. My brother’s wedding to (you guessed it) a neighbor was originally planned for 250 guests. To imagine that it would grow tenfold was ridiculous. But it happened. One word to the next door neighbors and before you knew it every person in town over the age of twelve was invited. It was a good thing it was in the summer because there certainly wasn’t any place indoors big enough to accommodate that size crowd. Things like wedding favors and sit down dinners weren’t feasible. It became a baby back rib short of being a BBQ. . The buffet worked out just fine and it ended up being the benchmark for all future weddings. Now there are sometimes two or three weddings held simultaneously on the last Saturday of every month.
A Ton of Favors
Our family is probably three to four times the size of the average American clan. My mother was one of thirteen siblings and my father one of nine. Compound these numbers, keeping in mind that they were and are practicing Catholics and the numbers become staggering. My sister is the oldest granddaughter on my dad’s side and she had 362 people at her wedding reception. My cousin David is the youngest on that side of the family and he had to limit the number of guests at his wedding to 500. It left very little room for friends outside the family. I’m not going to be all that surprised if one of these days we have a 1000 guest reception. I can’t imagine what the total would be if someone from my mom’s side married someone with an equally large family. It should be obvious that weddings of these proportions require special attention to making very economic choices in the planning of everything from the food to the tons of wedding favors required. It is also easy to understand the fact that there have been no less than a dozen elopements at this point in time.