MOLLY'S WEDDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, in unrelated news, I'm reminded of yesterday's wedding homily about love needing to go both ways (among other things) this morning, and am feeling quite good at the fact that I'm apparently in a quite healthy relationship when there are some pretty messed up ones in the alternative. Granted, we appear to be rather messed up INDIVIDUALS, but at least we have a healthy RELATIONSHIP. Okay, enough of that. If I go into detail majellen might feel like ranting, and I would not want to put that on her. ;)

OKAY, so yesterday we went to my Ancestral Church, St. Mary's Byzantine Catholic in Bradenville. My great grandparents went there when they first came to America, and even donated a stained glass window, which now hangs in my parents' kitchen since the church was being renovated at the same time my family's kitchen was once however many years ago. I don't know when or why they (my great-grandparents) suddenly became Roman Catholic. Probably moved out of Bradenville and couldn't find another Byzantine Catholic church. So we stepped inside this church, and it is GORGEOUS-- definitely got that eastern-orthodoxy (although it's not, it's in-between that and western catholicism) look to it, it looks like something in Europe. Amazing murals and stained glass and bright, bright colors. I had to take pictures of the church itself! (Since I used up my roll, they will be developed soon, and I will post some on here). It was quite small for its grandeur, so we sat in the next-to-back row. We got these lovely little programs that were really simple, they just had a fall leaf sticker on the front, it was quite effective. Inside the programs it said "You can follow along with the ceremony in the booklet provided," and we looked around and could not find a provided booklet. Then Angie came in and joined us and she could not find a provided booklet either. This would be sad, because no one had ever been to a Byzantine wedding before and it's quite different. Well maybe not TOTALLY different, but definitely not the Methodist weddings I've been going to all summer, nor the Roman rite wedding I myself had. There's a part in the ceremony where they actually literally get crowned as heads of their household-- Molly was really excited about that part ahead of time, it definitely appealed to the princess in her. Or, she's more queeny than princessy actually. Anyway, so we were sitting in the back and right before the ceremony we could hear Molly giggling in the back as she waited for the procession, so Angie and I just looked at each other and started giggling too, and then Jason said "That's Molly giggling," which of course was very obvious so we started giggling harder, and basically had an incurable case of giggles for about the first ten minutes or so. There was no instrumental music-- they had a cantor who sang almost the entire time, a lot of chants and things that are part of the ceremony, she was really amazing. We could NOT see, being way in the back, and Molly being REALLY SHORT-- I did not realize Kurt was nearly as tall as he looked next to Molly the whole time, it was quite shocking-- we COULDN'T REALLY SEE anything, except we did see her just after she finished her half of the vows drop her head against Kurt's arm and that was really cute so we all "awww"ed. Well not EVERYONE, just us there in the back. They actually had one of their friends from St. Vincents who had JUST been ordained do the service which was cool-- he said he was nervous because this was his first wedding homily ever but I thought it was one of the better ones I heard this year. (Little known fact: okay not really little known but YOU all don't know it: Molly asked Kurt out a long time ago in college but he turned her down because he himself was going to be a priest. I don't know if he changed his mind about that the same time he changed his mind about Molly or not! BUT, the screwed up Freudian part of this is that Molly's DAD had been going to be a priest until he met Molly's Mom, so for awhile back then we just figured Molly had a deep-seeded psychological thing for seminarians that she needed to get over badly). Anyway, so the service was pretty long, and they had a Mass, which is similar to the Roman rite Mass but enough completely different to entirely lose me, then the priest gave complicated instructions on how communion is recieved in the Byzantine rite which confused me further so I decided not to take it to avoid the insanity, but then the three of us ended up giggling the whole way through communion so it wasn't very reverent, and then Jason's wool coat was sparking so I told him he was being Smited for laughing during communion, and Angie and I just got out of the Smiting because we luckily did not have wool coats. Then at the end they did something really cool: the photographer went up in the choir loft and EVERYBODY turned around and squeezed together for a big group picture. That is so cool! I wish I had one of those from my wedding!

Then Angie came with us to the reception, which was in an Italian restaurant on 30, and we got put at the BACK BACK table, although this happened to be RIGHT next to the cake so we DID have front-row seats for the cake cutting. Originally the invitation said it would be "an hor douerves reception," so we assumed no dinner, but they ended up serving us dinner anyway. Albeit dead last since we were at the BACK BACK table. But there was a HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGGGGGGE cookie table so we weren't that hungry. At the end of the day Janie came around handing out bags to everybody saying "TAKE COOKIES! We don't want them all!" Anyway, let's think if there was anything particularly mentionable about the food. No, mostly just the cookies. So for the main part of the eating portion of the day Jason spent telling Angie all his stories that I have heard lots of times but Angie actually seemed interested in so it all worked out, and this other girl at the table who I think was someone from St Vincent that I don't know kept looking at him funny the whole time, so that was sort of amusing in a weird way.

I had to laugh because when we went up for our food Molly was ALREADY out on the dance floor dancing with herself to the dinner music, which is just so typical Molly that it made me happy. Then there was some dancing happening, and it was odd having our table WAY in the back like that... a lot of running back and forth.

Then Angie caught the bouquet. She'd gone up there and said "Oh I'm not here for the bouquet toss, I just came up to get some more beer," but since it took a lot of coaxing to get any other single women up on the dance floor she stayed to be a good sport, and then of course the bouquet went STRAIGHT TO her and didn't get anywhere near anybody else. So I think the cycle of superstition might have finally gotten broken there. The garter was caught by an old guy who was one of Molly's uncles or something, and was actually married, so go figure.

Molly came up dancing to me at one point and cried, "Did you ever think you'd actually see me get MARRIED?!?!?" which I thought was a very funny thing to say, and replied "Well EVENTUALLY!" But it is funny to think that in sixth grade I would have had no idea that I'd someday be at her wedding, or that she would even be IN mine. My oldest friend that I made myself (without parental meddling). :)

So then afterward we drove Angie home and since we'd been joking the whole time about how Randy stood Angie up for the bridal party dance at our wedding we decided to call him and harrass him, but his phone was off (it turned out the battery was dead), so Angie just left him a long message about watching the bridal dance here and thinking how remarkable it was that the ENTIRE BRIDAL PARTY ACTUALLY SHOWED UP FOR IT (although of course Molly's bridal party was quite small but we didn't mention that) and how that made her wish that SHE'D had a partner for the bridal party dance and so forth. It was quite amusing, as Randy is of course one of those people that ought to be harrassed on a regular basis. Although goodness knows he does have issues. Most of them are Kenny. Sorry. Anyway.....

THAT is the story of Molly's wedding, and a good time was had by all. It turns out through some fluke at the Rite-aid I will ACTUALLY be getting my pictures back THIS EVENING, so I will post some then!