feast and merriment to follow

my favorite photo of that day

I almost titled this post, Reader I Married Him, in a nod to my favorite novel, Jane Eyre, but then I remembered that I read that somewhere somewhat recently and it wasn’t in a book. Finally, it donned on me that Luisa used that line on her blog.

On our invitation, we expressly told our guests to bring their dancing shoes. It said, “Feast and merriment to follow. Bring your dancing shoes.” And so it was. Feast and merriment followed, though, technically, merriment started well before dancing. It was a famous night.

Up above is my favorite picture from the wedding. I love it for a multitude of reasons, but not the least of which is that it looks like I’m wearing fairy wings. It’s merely a detail of the tent we’re under, but that’s pretty much how I felt all night – floating and glowy. That gigantic grin I have is how I feel about Andrew every day.

OA-1787web

When Andrew and I got engaged, we decided that for a few months, we weren’t going to plan the wedding. We were just going to enjoy the engagement part of it. Boy, I’m glad we did that.

Here’s the funny thing about wedding that no one really tells you (and there’s no way of knowing this if you haven’t been married before): wedding require a lot of planning and coordination. I had some idea that this is going to be big, but I had no idea how big. The trick is, and no one tells you this in earnest, but planning a wedding is a full time job. I know that, technically, people do say that, but what they really should be doing instead is to gently take you by the shoulders and sit you down and in a quiet but very serious voice say, “This is a full time job. A full time job.” And no one does this. They just throw their arms up and roll their eyes and you think, “This is one big hyperbole! It can’t possibly be that time consuming.” It is. Believe me, it is.

The veiling and the ketubah signing

I say this all partly because I never dreamed of planning a wedding. It was never something I thought I’d find fun or a wise use of time. I had a book to co-author, and then without so much as a break, I moved onto another book in the final throes of which I remain and, frankly, should be working on this very minute. Heh.

But even though I never envisioned my wedding day (I did dream of marrying a great person), it turned out to be a perfect day. Slightly chilly, it worked out for the gentlemen in suits. During picture taking, the skies were slightly overcast (aka the photographer’s dream); but just as we started to process for the ceremony, the sun came out, bathing everything in its warm, golden light. It was as if someone cued more light on command.

happy!

The entire day and night, Andrew and I were grinning from ear to ear, and I finally realized what my friends meant about your cheeks hurting at the end of the day. What we wanted was a great, fun party, filled with great food, drink, and people, and we got just that.

There were mushroom mini-tarts, foie gras torchons, lambcicles, spicy tuna tartare, and fava bean crostini. There was short rib, roasted salmon with sorrel sauce, and crepes with mushroom duxelles. And there was a dessert buffet: lavender crème brulee spoons, carrot cake bites, bourbon bread pudding, profiteroles, and strawberry shortcake. There were signature cocktails. And as far as I can tell, everyone’s bellies were full and everyone’s shoes were a little more scuffed from the dance floor.

under the chuppah

I remember seeing our dear friends and family and my heart swelling with love and joy. It meant so much to see people gather from all over, England and Germany, California and Washington, New York and Toronto, to share our wedding day with us. I remember walking down the aisle with my parents, both beaming with joy. I remember standing under the chuppah, as Andrew and I held hands, looking over at my father-in-law who mouthed, “I love you”, and it almost made me cry. I remember Andrew placing the ring on my index finger and not realizing it wasn’t supposed to go all the way, so he tried to push it up the finger until the rabbi told him it wasn’t supposed to fit.

during our first dance

But my absolutely favorite moment of the night was when the DJ played Queen’s “Somebody to Love”. Andrew and I wanted to end the evening with a great, rock love ballad with heart and follow that up with a loud and energetic “No Sleep ‘Til Brooklyn”. We figured the former might be a good slow dance song – the only slow dance song of the night. What we couldn’t have anticipated was that everyone, as if scripted, huddled into a circle with their friends and family, and all just swayed to the music, belting out the lyrics with Freddie Mercury.

somebody to love circle

There was a feast. There was merriment. And there was a lot of love. Freddie would’ve been proud.

somebody to love...

***

UPDATED!!
I wanted to give a nod to some of the folks who were totally instrumental in making our wedding incredible.

Photographer: the incredible, inimitable Stacey Ilyse (who shot many of my friends’ weddings) and whose image above can only be captured by someone who sees beauty in tiny details – you are amazing, thank you!
Music for Ceremony: the incredibly talented Naseem Khuri of Kingsley Flood (how friggin’ lucky did we get?)
Venue: Moraine Farm (particularly Amy Hudon who walks on water as far as I’m concerned)
Caterer: Fireside Catering (including our tiny, awesome homey carrot wedding cake)
Florist: Gregory’s (Wakefield, Massachusetts)
DJ: Murray Hill Talent (DJ Rob Camberlain)
Beer Truck: Ipswich Ale Brewery
Invitations: Minted
Dress: Priscilla – sadly no longer in business (they were truly awesome), but several of you asked me for the name of the dress. It’s called Cricket and it’s from the Vineyard collection or something like that in case you’re looking for that very dress somewhere on eBay or wherever. It comes with a halter, which due to my small shoulders, looked silly on me so we went strapless.

41 Comments

Leave a Comment