Announcing: Ray and Donel!
The rest of Saturday was of course wrapped up in what Kris and I had originally been planning to come to NJ for this weekend - Ray and Donel’s wedding! Of course we had a great time, and both of us, my family, and everyone else I know are so happy for them! They make a great couple. Anyway, for the time being I have posted the pictures from my camera, Kris’s, and my parents in my gallery here (I hope to get a few more of the higher-resolution digital pictures of “us” from Ray soon).
Ok, so as I mentioned below, after Valerie’s bridal shower, Kris, myself, and my mom headed back to my parents’ house to get ready for Ray and Donel’s wedding. It was a big rush to get clothes ironed (I had to turn my skirt inside-out, and Kris’s clothes were super-wrinkled from the trip in the suitcase), but in all honesty it didn’t take all that long to get ready. We headed out just in time, as we heard later that there was a big accident on the parkway which prevented a lot of the wedding guests from arriving in time for the ceremony. Well, it also didn’t take that long to get to the Victorian Manor (my dad already knew how to get there from when we’d visited it to check out as a reception site for my and Kris’s wedding last year), so we arrived in plenty of time for the ceremony.
I saw Donel as soon as we entered the building - she looked SO beautiful! I was really excited for her, and Ray, who has been one of my best friends from high school, and only one of a small handful that I still keep in touch with on a regular basis. But I also knew the wedding day jitters/annoyances, and made sure NOT to ask her if she was nervous (being asked that question makes you nervous even if you’re not, for all of you that don’t know!), and just told her how great she looked and wished her luck. Then all of us wandered into the ceremony room. Since we were among the very first people to be seated the ushers only asked which side we were on and showed us where we could sit - they didn’t escort me or my mom as they did the later female guests. The rest of the groomsmen came into the room, and I pointed out to Kris the two long-time friends of Ray’s that I had pseudo-dated years back. Of course I had already warned Kris about the fact that these “boys” would be there, and we had laughed about how I’d obviously ended up with Kris, and not one of them! Well, it was just plain good to see the two of them - after all, Ray has “kept me in the loop” of what’s happened to his buddies through the years, because girls are curious about these things. One of them is already married himself and has also had a baby - that they brought to the wedding and was mercifully quiet throughout the whole evening! The other one is apparently steadily dating someone. I made sure to say hello, have a quick catch-up, and introduce them both to Kris throughout the evening. Thankfully the awkwardness I’d kind of worried about was non-existent!
Anyway, so the ceremony started, and we wondered where the heck Linda, Art, Valerie, and Bill where. I’d tried to save seats for them, but since the moms were already being seated with guests standing, we had to give them up. Next down the aisle were two sets of junior bridesmaids (dressed in pink and so cute), two “regular” bridesmaids (dressed in periwinkle), the matron of honor, two flower girls and the ring bearer. Once Donel came in, escorted by her dad, I realized why the girls were dressed in different colors - Donel’s dress had both pink and blue flowers on it. The ceremony itself was not your regular “I Do’s,” but a more modern mix of vows written especially by the JP for Ray and Donel. I personally thought the JP went a bit overboard with trying to poke fun at Ray (by saying Ray was incredibly nervous and such) and lighten the mood, but maybe that’s just me feeling defensive toward my friends. We got some great pictures of the ceremony, including the kiss.
After the ceremony was over, we were ushered upstairs for the cocktail hour. We found our table assignments, which were attached to the LOVE glass coaster favors, and signed a black and white picture which Ray & Donel were using as their guest book. Val, Bill, Linda, and Art finally arrived and told us about the huge accident on the Garden State Parkway which we had managed to avoid, yet they got stuck in traffic with. Nevertheless, we all enjoyed a few cocktails and some appetizers. For the most part they were good, but I do have to complain a bit about two items. First, the “minor” annoyance of the very tasty hot wings - just so messy and nothing to “cool” down the hotness. I was left to chug my cocktail to relieve the fire in my mouth, and relegated to using 50 small and nonabsorbent cocktail napkins to try to clean my hands off. The second was the major lack of weenie tots, a favored hor d’ourves by the old high school crowd of Ray, Marisa, Val, and myself, and a joking comment Ray made back then that “there’d better be weenie tots at all your weddings, regardless of the fanciness” or something along those lines. Marisa certainly had them, and so did I, but Ray hid most of them in the bridal party only cocktail hour! I think I maybe had two which I grabbed from a passing and almost-empty plate.
Soon after, we were once again ushered to a new room for dinner and dancing. We found our table right away - it was right by the door, and we had a great view for the bridal party entrance. Unfortunately, it wasn’t very close to the dance floor, so we missed out on being able to see most of the first dances. Somehow we also ended up being among the last tables to “be called” for the buffet-style dinner, but the food was really good and there was plenty to go around (enough for seconds!). We wandered around looking for the mysterious but much proclaimed daiquiri fountain, which I thought would be huge and prominently placed, but was in fact pretty small, and hidden in a corner. I actually got Kris to dance for a little while, and then joined in with Val and eventually my mom and Linda for some of the “typical dances” like the Electric Slide and the Twist. Once again seated at the table, we realized that they had brought out the desserts (since we were seated so close), and garter & bouquet tosses, and the cake cutting, we rushed the dessert table. That was pretty much the best “alone” time to give Ray and Donel our well wishes, so we did so and said goodnight. I don’t know how much longer Val, Bill, Linda, and Art stayed, but my parents, Kris, and I had already had a long day so we left for the evening. All in all, we had a great time, and of course it was wonderful getting to spend the evening with close friends who are getting married at another close friends’ wedding! Congrats again to Ray & Donel!!!
(And I apologize for the late back-dating of this post!)
