You know what? I don't especially want to write about my brother's wedding any more, and I doubt anyone wants to read a description of it, either. It all went as expected. Frantic last-second dashing around... Magda hadn't finished the wedding cake until an hour before the ceremony. :) The ceremony itself was delightful - about half an hour long. To all our relief, the ringbearer, a four-year-old cousin of Naomi's, did not pull his shirt over his head to admire his belly button the way he had during the rehearsal. There were a few minor mishaps, however... One of the deaconesses from the Bisagno's church (yes, female - I wasn't quite sure what to think about that) who was helping out told us bridesmaids to start walking up the aisle before the bridesmaid processional started. Heehee! Joe and his groomsmen had to dash on stage in a dignified fashion to get there before we did. They played only about two bars of the bridesmaid processional, but I don't think anyone noticed. :) Other than that, all was good, except standing there in our high heels for half an hour. It wasn't about us, anyway. It was about Naomi, and she looked lovely. She claimed she wasn't nervous at all until she started walking, but by the time she came up the steps, her bouquet was shaking. When they proclaimed Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Pride, she looked very solemn. Joe looked delighted. :)

lol at self. I seem to be writing a description after all. C'est la vie.

So ya, after the ceremony they took pictures. Many pictures, in many different combinations. Mrs. Bisagno had found a relative to be photographer, a very nice lady who was the mother of the belly-baring ringbearer. It was interesting rubbing elbows with all these relatives of Naomi's whom I didn't know very well. They were all extremely friendly. I'll say this for the Californians I met - they seemed in general more genuine than many of the Midwesterners I know, though everyone is polite in the Midwest.

After the pictures, we snuck out of the church sanctuary and hid again in the nursery, where we had been waiting for the ceremony to start. They seated everyone else, and then they called in the bridal party and introduced us all. We had to parade around all the tables and sit at a large rectangular one in the front, on display. Again, I was thankful for the relative anonymity of being just a bridesmaid. Nobody particularly cared about me, because it was Naomi's day. :) It was a little funny again, however, because nobody had told us how to sit. I sat with Greg on the wrong side of the table, next to Joe, while his best man, Rob Pole, sat with Jessica and Naomi on the other side. We all were very cool about it. We waited until they called for us to go get food, and then when we came back Rob and I switched places. Then all was good. We ate dinner and watched a slide show of Naomi's and Joe's lives.

I have to chuckle again, because right after the slide show and wedding cake, Naomi and Joe were supposed to throw the bouquet and garter. Unfortunately, the garter had been falling down from around Naomi's knee before, so Jessica and I had taken it off her and kept it with the intention of giving it back before the dance, when we had been told they would do the garter toss. But they changed plans without telling us. They called Naomi to sit on a chair in the middle of the room. We all at the bridal table just looked at each other, because we didn't have any idea what they were going to do. Then Naomi moved to the chair and sat there with a puzzled air. "You know what comes next!" boomed the DJ. We all still looked at each other. Then Jessica began to splutter, "Oh! Oh!" and wave frantically to Mrs. Bisagno. They dashed out together and fetched the garter from the nursery, gestured to Naomi to join them, and put it on her in the bathroom. Then the ceremony continued as before. Except, the groom is supposed to pull the bride's skirt up to the knee and reveal the garter, then remove it. Joe had never been to a wedding before, so he sort of reached up and groped around under Naomi's skirt. We at the bridal table were shaking with repressed laughter. Poor Naomi.

After this, the bridal party climbed into a swanky limo to take us to Naomi's grandparents' place for the reception. The limo driver had been commanded to cruise around for fifteen minutes to give us a chance to enjoy the swankiness. We found a bottle of champagne in the fridge and each tasted a little bit, feeling very daring. It was my first time drinking alcohol, except for communion wine. It was sort of interesting for that reason, but otherwise wasn't so special. I'm suspecting one has to drink more than two ounces to feel any sort of effect. Naomi said that it felt like a party, and that she had stopped being nervous.

The rest of the evening, we danced at the grandparents' place. Magda, Rob, Greg, Jessica, and some other people departed to "decorate" Naomi's and Joe's getaway car, but I didn't see them go. I just danced. It was fun. Before we knew it, it was 10:30pm and time for the newlyweds to drive away. By that point I was falling asleep on my feet, but I was awake enough to appreciate the little paper horses attached everywhere on their white Chevy Cavalier, and the shaving-cream messages on the windows. :) They drove away, tin cans rattling proudly behind them to call attention to the "Just Married" on the back windshield. Relatives waved and cheered. I felt sad and happy both at once, and I prayed hard at that second for God to keep their marriage safe forever. He's the only One who can.

So, there it is. I wrote it, and I enjoyed it. I left out all the details of relatives which, if described, could fill a book indeed. They would fill in nuances of the story, but they are ultimately irrelevant. God bless all newlyweds everywhere!  ¶ 11:20 AM