"The Wedding March"

My son is getting married in July, in Durham, North Carolina. Now that is not like he is getting married in Europe but it is still an eight hour drive every time we need to make arrangements for our portion of the festivities. And that is what we had to do this past weekend. We had to put the finishing touches on the hotel where we and our friends will be staying, and we had to put the final signature of approval on the restaurant where we will be giving the rehearsal dinner.

The place we have picked for the rehearsal dinner has been great to work with in every way. They have an event planner named Misty, and Misty and we have become close friends. We talk to her by phone a lot and we send her our money for the dinner in advance. She has sent us pictures of the "room" we will be using and the menus for the meal, but she couldn't ship us the food to taste. That required an on the scene visit.

Since I have had the flu, or something like it, for the past week I was not in the best mood for a drive to North Carolina. Still good sport that I am, I did it. We got to Durham on Friday night and we had the "tasting" at eleven the next morning. In order to have total appreciation of the food to be served, I didn't eat breakfast. So by eleven I was screaming, "Bring it on!!!"

And bring it on they did. They hauled out dish after dish after dish. I mean we tasted a variety of pasta dishes, three or four meat dishes, salads of all types of variety and then the desserts. And after each course me, my wife, my son, and his fiancé all had to rank what had been served. Best of all the restaurant offered to box up all that we had not eaten and let us take it home. JJ and Angela can live off that "extra" for a week or more.

And even better than that, it was all complimentary. Of course we will be spending a hefty amount with the restaurant on the night of the rehearsal dinner but I still thought making the "tasting" a free treat was a very gracious thing to do. I am sure Misty had something to do with that.

After we finished eating we checked out the hotel where the reception will be and made sure we could book a block of rooms there plus a "Hospitality Room" for our friends to congregate in and visit. We have been to several out of town weddings recently and that is a new requirement. You have to have a place to visit with each other.

Now all we have to do is sit back and relax and let the days to the big event march forward. They will pass in the blink of an eye. And then both of my sons will be married and I can relax until its time to do it all over again with the grandchildren. 

In this day and age I feel truly blessed that both my sons believe in the institution of marriage and not in just living together. People keep telling me the world is not the same as it used to be but I believe in love, marriage, children - in that order. Thankfully my children do too.

I can hear the music of the wedding march playing in my head. And I raise my diet coke in a silent toast to Durham in July. Dum dum dee dum - here comes the bride.

 

 

 

 

 

©2005 Jackie K. Cooper

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