Five For Friday

Apparently, last Saturday, a whole ton of people thought that because it was 7/7/07 that getting married on that day would somehow ensure their marriages would be immune to the phenomenally high rate of divorce in this country. Whatever, idiots.

In honor of this ridiculous matrimonial (il)logic, I present:

My Five Favorite Wedding Memories

5. Best Use of The Ubiquitous Disposable Cameras: And no this is not the disastrophe that led to a ruined friendship... Our friends Emily and Yanek got married a couple of months after we did, and they seated us at a reception table with other newly married/engaged couples. We struck a fast friendship with one of the couples. Later that evening we went outside with them and photographed a mock accident involving Adrian and a brick wall. Then shots of me taking his wallet off his prone body and walking off with a few of the guys from the reception. All with the disposable camera from our table. In our thank you note from the wedding, Emily jokingly asked if Adrian was all right.

4. Best Performance: Oh but there are so many great stories from my friend Evelyn's first wedding. With many years past and a lovelier new life ahead, we can laugh about a lot of the chaos of that day. Nothing is more surreal than the Maid of Honor's attempt to sing "The Lord's Prayer" during the ceremony. A Capella. After sobbing profusely through the proceeding ceremony. I think she tried out every possible key and vocal range, never quite settling on one either. It was bad. Superbad.

3. Best Location, Location: Our friends Rachel and Daniel got married in the Byrd Theater, a gorgeous, restored movie palace in Richmond. They even got the pipe organ guy to play the prelude. Fantastic. Only thing missing: popcorn.

2. Best Bachelor Party: I've never been asked to stand in any of my male friends' wedding ceremonies. But for one night I was an honorary groomsman when Sean invited me to join the rest of his guys in trolling the bars of Alexandria the night before his wedding. Considering the groom and best man were close friends from college and I happened to be married to a groomsman, I really felt transported back in time. Wonderful fun. This is the memory I hold onto from that weekend.

1. Best Spontaneous Moment: So where's your wedding in all of this, Manda? I had a great time getting married. Despite a few glitches involving bitchy people at the reception site and stormy weather, our wedding and reception and post-party was a blast. One of my favorite moments from our reception was actually brought on by the crazy rain. In lieu of the traditional birdseed that gets chucked on the bride and groom as they dash to the getaway car, we purchased sparklers for folks to wave as we walked by. However, at the end of the reception, the rain had started up again, so the pyrotechnics were a no-go. I don't know who came up with the idea, but all the guests remaining at the end of the reception shuffled out to the covered patio, lit up the sparklers, and sang "You Are My Sunshine" to us. Surrounded by friends and loved ones and a lots of little bright, white stars was the perfect end to a fabulous evening and the beginning of a new life together. Then I got nervous because Sean was holding his sparkler a little to close to My Dress...