Such a lovely wedding

This weekend, my friend R got married, and I was honored to be the one to conduct the wedding ceremony! I had gotten a one day "License to Solemnize" from the Governor's office, and religiously there is no specific requirement other than a bride, a groom and 2 kosher witnesses.

So Saturday morning my parents came up to stay with the kids, and David and I took off for Cape Cod. We were all staying in Hyannis - I'd booked 5 rooms (although L&M had to cancel for lack of a babysitter). David and I arrived first, so we walked into town looking for lunch. We started drinking margaritas with a couple sitting next to us. Eventually R&J and D&E arrived, so we met up with them. J&M joined us soon after. We went back to the room for a quick rest, and then back into town for dinner - and more drinking.

R&J had arranged a dinner for 14 of us (J's friends, too). It was so nice of them. Unfortunately, the waitresses are NOT nice (and D and I both had bugs in our drinks), and later (after David and I had left), the groom actually ended up getting KICKED OUT because he'd taken a photo of his friends and the waitress didn't want her picture taken. Silly - he'd just spent about $1000 there, and hadn't actually done anything wrong, but still he got kicked out. Makes for an interesting pre-wedding story, at least!

But we all had a lot of fun all evening. It was sooooo nice to get away without the kids, together with these good friends. The bride and the other women and I are a "gang" from the day school - we all have kids in 3rd grade together - and our hubbies also all get along well, so it's a blast when we get together.

Sunday morning, after breakfast and a flash-back to college dorm times (we kept going to each other's rooms to borrow things like conditioner and lotion and stuff), we headed over to the wedding. The reception was at a lovely Inn right on the water, and the ceremony was also on the beach. We all went to the reception first, because we had to sign the Ketubah. I had to run that ceremony, and J was signing as one of the witnesses (and we needed E there as a native Hebrew speaker in case we had any language issues - the other witness needed help signing his name in Hebrew).

David and I got to ride in the limo with R&J and their 4 kids (two each - her oldest daughter is in Sam's class). That was fun, because they are turning into such a lovely family.

The chuppah was set up right on the beach. Everyone was standing in the parking lot when the limo pulled up, so we sent them to their places, and then we processionalled in: me, then the groom's parents, then the groom and his kids, then the bride's daughters, then the bride and her folks.

The ceremony was lovely (if I do say so myself!). We'd found some nice explanations and readings, including a beautiful reading about StepFamilies and another reading about the Circling custom. It was so nice to have all the friends and relatives gathered in close to the chuppah, but the bride and groom and their kids were the primary people under the chuppah, with the 4 parents standing very nearby. Since I know both their parents and a lot of the family and friends, it was such an honor for me to participate.

After the ceremony, we all went back to the Inn for a very very lovely reception. They had a steel-drum band playing during the cocktail hour and a great DJ for the rest of the party. We danced up a storm! And when we weren't dancing, we sat on the beach and had so much fun talking and being funny together.

David and I left the Cape around 7:30, got home about 9pm. It was terrific.