Wedding Recap

Please excuse any of my errors. I was in a haste to post.

Saturday morning was my oldest brother's wedding.

The wedding was held at the church where he and his fiancee are members.
It's Roman Catholic, but it's one of the most nontraditional Catholic churches in Archdiocese.
It has one of the biggest congregations and one of the most financially strong in the state.
The neighborhood surrounding the church was once a dying neighborhood.
Because of the Pastor and the members , the neighborhood is thriving and a safe area.
Despite being singled out by the Cardinal for being a "troublemaker" the pastor does great things for the community.
My husband and I donate often to this church even though we attend Mass at another Parrish.
But once again, I must state, it's not your "typical" Catholic church.

We arrived at the church and my youngest brother and his son escorted my mother to her pew.

As my husband and I settled into the pew, husband discretely started with his questions.
"why is there a neon 'Jesus' sign hanging from the ceiling? where is the crucifix? where's the statue of Mary? Is the bride Catholic? did you brother get an annulment from his last Catholic wedding? where are the kneelers!?"

His reaction to everything was so silly that I almost lost my composure. I guess taking a shot of vodka before leaving the house didn't help either.

The wedding procession was as normal as you could get.
The bride was given away by her father and step father.
Opening prayer was normal.
Okay, it's just a wedding service not a Catholic wedding.
Okay
Brides father walks up to the altar and sings a song to the couple.
Okay, nice but different.
The "Lords Prayer" was sung. Very long and slowly.
Husband whispers," Okay, that was like 20 minutes, its not that many words"
Why was my husband trying to make me burst out laughing.

Okay the exchanging of the vows...
at first I could hear the bride speaking, then she started whispering. I mean really whispering!
She went on and on and on.
Whispering
And then the groom started and he was whispering
People in the church we all looking all attentive like they could actually hear what was going on.
I started looking around confused because, it went on for a long long time.
I told my mother to sit back down if she felt week.
And it went on...

Then the priest stated something about going before God.
The bride and groom went to all the way up to the altar under the "Jesus" neon and someone shined a spotlight from the balcony.
So they stood there in the spotlight, whispering to each other again while music played.
Still standing
I begged my mother to sit down, but she held on.
This went on for 10 more minutes.

Not making this up now, repeat I am not making this up.

One of the bride's maids decided to start praising and speaking in tongues and "caught the Holy Ghost"

You should have seen the look on my husbands face!

Oh dear I fought so hard not to laugh!

Then the bride and groom came back down and things went back to normal.

Wedding over!

Now here comes the big top secret reception announcement!

"We would like to invite you to the church basement for the reception."

If haven't mentioned it before, the new couple had ran out of funding and was hoping for someone to donate a huge amount of money for the reception. I guess that donation hadn't come through.

If money was an issue, they maybe should have considered having the reception in the church basement originally.  It's a beautiful banquet area, there's even a cafe and a store that opens on Sunday.

The reception was put together at the last minute.

The buffet style meal consisted of, 2 chicken wings per person, 3 meatballs, a scoop of green beans,  a dollop of potato salad, and Hawaiian punch.

My mother looks at me and says, "don't eat the meatballs."

My second oldest brother ( the best man) was still moping about with that stick up his azz.
My husband began to feel bad when he noticed no one had brought gifts.
He asked the "best man" if the couple had a honey suite.
"Yeah", he grumbled.
 If they didn't we would have given them a room using our Marriott points on top of the check we had written as a gift.

yes, despite them being azzholes towards us, we still gave a gift.

We would later find out that they had no reservations and just $150 bucks for the night.
I feel bad that no one told us.

Despite the craziness, the ceremony was beautiful.

There was one bright moment that day.
My oldest brother had a 5th child while he was in between marriages.
My mother and I have always tried to be a part of the girls life.
We would go to recitals, have her over for dinner, buy her Christmas presents, etc.
She was a cool little kid.
We never wanted her to feel less of a grandchild because of her father's mess.
Well, she's 18 and she will be graduating from an accelerated learning program this weekend.
Not only will she receive her high school diploma but she will also be receiving her Associates Degree at the same time. Despite not having her father in her life she still managed to succeed.

This is something to really celebrate!