After this weekend I think I need a vacation...

[mdlbear]

... fortunately I've arranged to take one.

Consonance was, as usual, wonderful. But not in the usual way: this year, my daughter's wedding was at the top of the program for Saturday morning. Eek!

Let's back up a little.

Thursday: I took Thursday off. Spent the day loading Colleen's van. Twice: we had both our luggage, the con suite stuff that gets stored at our house, and the wedding stuff. We also loaded up a neighbor's pickup with the sparkling cider and asti spumonti. After unloading, we had dinner in the hotel restaurant with the groom and those of his family members who had already arrived, plus a couple of other friends.

After dinner we retreated to the con suite until it was time for me to shuttle back home with the Y.D. so she could get to school. There may also have been a little singing in there -- I don't really remember.

Friday: After taking the Y.D. to school, I packed, did a little guitar practicing, and read LJ until it was time to pick up the Y.D. at school and tibicina at Diridon Station. Loaded up my car with my luggage (laptop backpack and suitcase; the guitar had gone Thursday evening), and headed over to the con.

Spent all Friday afternoon greeting people. Mom arrived, and my brother and sister-in-law, and friends from all over. About 3:30 we started trying to cat-herd the bridal party for a quick rehearsal/run-through, but one of the bridesmaids had gone off with the groom's father to pick up his sister and SO in Oakland. :-P The rehearsal, and hence dinner, was significantly delayed, and we ended up missing Dr. James' concert. Well, I wasn't expecting to get to much of the programming. My niece arrived during dinner.

Concerts good, as usual.

 

Saturday: I got up early enough to have breakfast. The hotel's buffet features bacon, sausage, chicken-fried steak, and custom-made omelettes -- enough protein, in other words, to keep me until a late lunch. Then I went back upstairs to change into my Father of the Bride costume: black pants, a black tail coat bought at the last Dickens Fair, and a shirt that exactly matches the bride's dress: dark red with black. I'd brought black shoes, too, but forgot about them. I found Moira Stern (who had spent the night in our suite with her harp) and jenkitty assisting the Bride and bridesmaids with their makeup, and left them to it.

9am found me downstairs in the main ballroom helping the sound crew set up the microphones, and making sure the various items needed for the ceremony were in place: Joyce in her wheelchair, a small table, bread, wine, a wineglass suitable for both sipping from and breaking, and a small spray of flowers. Joyce and her husband Dave, as two of the only three Reformed Druid priests in Bay Area filk fandom (and old family friends) would be performing the ceremony.

Somewhere in there I made the transition from assistant roadie to assistant groomsman, and started greeting guests. About 9:50, as all the pieces were assembled on stage (it required sending runners up to the Con Suite for bread and down to the reception for a cork-puller), we started making a serious but ultimately doomed effort to shoo the guests out of the lobby and into the ballroom.

The Bride and her entourage arrived about 9:50, the wolfling wrapped in a red cloak to keep the Groom (selkit) from accidentally getting a glimpse of The Dress. At about 9:55 I had to make an announcement in the lobby to get the many stragglers to stop milling about and talking, and find their seats. Things actually got started at about 10:05, as I cued the music (provided by the lovely and talented Moira Stern) and sent the bridesmaids and groomsmen down the aisle.

Then it was our turn, as Moira fired off the first couple of bars of the Imperial March before making the segue into a more traditional processional. Kat (chaoswolf) was calm, but with a deer-in-the-headlights look that she kept all through the ceremony.

A Reformed Druid wedding ceremony is short: about six minutes. Kat wrote the vows, which were a little shorter than the traditional ones and ended with "So say I, [name]", a nice SCA/fanish touch.

Rather than a traditional recessional, Moira sent the wedding party out to "Mari's Katy's Wedding" as they took their seats in the front row for the concert. There are advantages to getting married at a filk con.

Joyce (still on stage in her wheelchair) and I led off with "Kisses Sweeter Than Wine". Then came AJA with "Animals All the Same", Vixy and Tony with "Girl That's Never Been" and "I am the Walrus", and Leslie Fish with "The Thousandth Man". Then I came back up and sang "Ferret Went A-Courtin'", which got gales of laughter from the audience and made the Groom turn several interesting colors. Moira sent us out to the reception to the tune of "Think of Me" from Phantom of the Opera; particularly appropriate because Selkit was due to go back home on Monday.

The reception was, well, a reception. The line for the receiving line stretched all the way back up the stairs to the second floor, and took an hour or more; I was glad of my breakfast. The hotel made several huge blunders: not providing someone to serve the cake, and not carding young guests while serving the champagne -- at least, not after the first batch. I think we'll be getting some money back on that one.

By the end of it, the Wolfling was looking comfortable, and happier than I've seen her in a long time. She even looked reasonably comfortable in her dress, a strapless, six-tier concoction of scarlet-and-black satin. Only the third or fourth time she's worn one since she was three.

... to be continued.