The Wedding of Fun

It's like rain on your wedding day - Alanis Morissette

I guess it's time to report on the Wedding of Fun! Hooray.

I woke myself up at a reasonable hour and headed over to Howie's. I said I'd be there between 9 and 10 and I arrived at 10:20am, so that's not too bad.

We sat on the couch and watched Jamie Cullum on DVD. I love that DVD. Howie wasn't wearing much. That was fine because one of my jobs as the Best Man is to help him to get dressed I heard. So I cleaned his shoes as that was all the help I felt I could offer. But we groomsmen (David, Kostas and I)were at least encouraging. Howie's mum was the most help. She ironed our shirts and pants for us.



Howie in his state of undress an hour before the wedding.

Anyway we got dressed and did our hair. Michael, our driver, turned up and tied all our ties for us as we are all tie knot impared. And then it was off to the Chapel to get Howie married.

We arrived and got a few photos taken and then stood around saying "Hello" to people.

Finally after a bit of lateness the women arrived. We positioned ourselves on the stage and waited.

The Bridesmaids were looking spesh, all green and cream and stuff. And the Bride she looked darn good too. I reckon Howie scored!

The wedding was fun. The Band was funky, especially their Amazing Grace. It was weird standing there looking at Howie and thinking "Gosh, that's Howie, getting married." How can someone so close to you do something so grown up?

I much enjoyed the Lucky Door Prize. Who has a wedding with a lucky door prize? They do.

After the reception it was off to Eden Gardens for our photos. Keith drove the couple wearing his OV uniform which was most funny. I loved the OVs.

It was raining at Eden Gardens. We headed out into the gardens for the photos but found ourselves hiding in various structures and under various umbrellas more than actually doing photos. I was on Bridal Umbrella Duty for a little while holding the Howies' umbrella which made me feel important.



Hiding from the rain during photos

The reception was in an under cover attrium thing. I was the MC which, to my perplexion, meant that I was the chief liason with the Venue Manager. I didn't really know what was going on, so I just made things up and gave the man instructions to do this or that, I think I made up the right things about the reception because nothing went too badly wrong.

It was fun seeing lots of people at the reception. I can't really remember many of the conversations I had, but I'm sure they were good.

For the speeches I was all ready to give toasts and stuff but I think the speechers (apart from me) had been told not to do a toast, so I'd prepared everyone to be ready to toast, but the toasting never came. But seeing as I never got the instruction I toasted in my speech anyway because it's fun, and I like drinking champagne.

The speech was a bit scary. It was like preparing a sermon with no Bible passage. I felt a little lost. In the end I was just rude to Robert for a while and then was nice to both of them at the end. I think that's the traditional format. I think I would have liked to have said more nice things, but I got lost. I read out Robert's poem which got many laughs. It was good because while it was he that wrote it, it just made him embarrassed and me look funny. Score!

Once all was done at the reception I got to drive The Gowies to their hotel. When we arrived Howie (the male one) had to run in and pee while we were in the driveway so Jenny and I parked the car and unloaded it. The Hotel men kept thinking Jenny and I were the couple, which was a little weird. I had to keep insisting that I was leaving, Hubby was inside. Once he arrived back things sorted themselves out and I left them to go honeymooning.

I came home and sat around in the Commie House with some Commie types.

Then I went to bed.

It was a special day. They're special people. I really like them. I'm excited to see them together. I'm looking forward to being their friend. It was an honour to get to be a Best Man in their best day. I'm praying for much goodness in their marriage in the many years ahead.

Hoorah for the Howie Family!