Day after the wedding

Notes from the 8th Jan - day after the wedding. 

Well, the wedding is over and done, and we’re all walking around like zombies.   We went into the church at ten (I’d thought that was when the wedding was starting and wondered why everyone was being so casual about the time) and hung around for an hour until the actual service at eleven.  This meant we greeted people as they came in.  The girls were running around in the background - they get dressed and doodied up at the church, here.   Sarah was visible occasionally, but not Liz, who managed to stay out of sight.    Cathy had made some wonderful 'buttonholes' (I'm not sure what the American word is) for everyone in the bridal party.  These were made out of various bird feathers, including pheasants feathers, and were held together at the bottom so that they formed a kind of miniature spray.   They looked great. 

We got the latest update of the order of things from the pastor, Harold, a lovely man keen to make sure everyone was at ease (I think he found Dom’s shenanaghins at the rehearsal a bit surprising), but Liz had already re-ordered things by that stage by email, and so we finally went with her version! Harold had thought there wasn’t an official run of things and had made one up in case.   Ben and Dan, as well as being part of the bridal party, worked as ushers.  This meant that Ben took Celia down the aisle with me following; a little odd, but what the heck.  Sarah came in by herself, as she was the only bridesmaid - although Daniel was also on Liz’s side up on the altar steps - he spent most of the service with his cap on (except when they were praying) and much of it checking out the congregation.  

The service went well - a fairly pregnant lady played the piano for the songs (we didn’t stand, which would have made them easier to sing) and I read Psalm 103 from the NASB.  Had quite a number of people afterwards asking if I was a Pastor/Preacher because I read it so well!   (I said, nope, just an actor, which bemused them a bit.)  Anyway I was glad it went over well - I was the only non-wedding party person to do anything. 

Both Dom and Liz choked up at points in the vows section - and then Dom didn’t realise, after he’d put the ring on Liz's finger that he was supposed to say an I will at that point (I will accept this woman, or something) so that caused a bit of a laugh all round. 

After the service the two families and Dom and Liz stood in a line and greeted everyone as they went out.  It took at least an hour, and we were all exhausted by the end.   Each person wanted to say something, or felt they should, and then we talked and so it went on.   The grandparents were included in this line, as well as Chris' step-mother, who retired early on.  It was exhausting keeping up with it. 

Home for a snooze or a rest and trying to remember what else was needing to be taken to the reception.   Seems we've spent the last couple of days transporting things hither and yon.   The reception was a bit different to a New Zealand one: for starters all the guests were already there when we arrived and the food ladies were well organised.  And people weren't dressed up, as they had been for the wedding.  Only those 'officially' involved (including the parents) were still in their wedding finery.  

There were supposed to be 200 guests, but there were probably more like150, perhaps less…which meant we had a bit of a crisis when we cleared up later on: there was heaps of food left over. We managed to give away some of the excess food and took the rest home where no doubt it'll get used up fairly quickly. 

Sarah made a speech about Liz, and that was fun, and Jon made one about Dom and explained ‘wench emancipation day’ - at Celia’s behest. I wasn’t sure whether I was supposed to speak, although Dom had asked me too - there wasn’t a master of ceremonies as such - but they called me up and I delivered my somewhat prepared speech; 'somewhat' in the sense that I’d made notes and went a bit beyond them.  I wanted to pray for them too, so I’d written the short prayer out, but got very choked up in the middle of it, as I had briefly while reading Psalm 103. And again all sorts of people congratulated me on the speech - it’s the American way, I think: they’re very encouraging.

There was a bit of uncertainty about whether we were supposed to clean up before we left, but people were starting to leave by 7.30 - 8.00 anyway, so we got on with it.  Chris said he’d never had to clean up after a wedding and I said, just make a start and people will help, and they did.  The chairs and tables were put away in no time, but the food sorting out took longer.  The volunteer ladies had cleaned up the kitchen well, and it was mostly a matter of figuring out how to sort the food.  We had enough hands on deck to do all the work.  In spite of exhaustion Cathy and her family came back to the house and stayed till some early morning hour; Christin and Rick, who were supposed to be leaving about 5.30 am the next day were apparently up till 2 or more; Celia stayed up till 1 am, playing games with the others, and another group were drinking and talking out in the workshop.    

So my baby is married; seems ridiculous, but there it is.  

Friday: the day before the wedding

Some notes from the 6th Jan. 

Another thing that's popular here in Idaho is homeschooling.  Liz and her siblings were homeschooled, and Cathy is still doing it with two of her boys. We met another woman at the wedding reception who homeschools all five of her children. 

Nampa - and Boise to an extent - are places where you need a car.  I don't know how you'd do shopping in Nampa without one.  I discovered later that there's an older part of town (near the reception hall, as it happens) that's more built-up, and where the shops are close to each other like Dunedin.  And Boise has a similar older area.  But in general everything is well spaced-out.  

Last minute things are being done all over the place - small things and big.  Chris is making a 'prop' to take photographs against (I thought it was for the couple, but it was actually for anyone who wanted).  It's a board with a couple of large rectangles cut out for people to stand behind, and a bunch of sepia photos in frames scattered around the rectangles.  It got a lot of use at the wedding reception.   We had been planning to go to the reception hall this afternoon to get things ready for the wedding tomorrow, but there was a funeral arranged at the last minute and the hall was being used.   Curiously, the wedding rehearsal was to have been today (Friday) originally; it had to be shifted to the Thursday because of another funeral!

Anyway, after a sandwich-type tea, put together by Margaret, a friend of Patty, (they're both friends of Cindy’s from way back, we went off to the reception hall for the big sort-out.   We were there for three hours almost, and got huge amounts ready for tomorrow, though there are still some decorating things to do - but they’ll be done by some others.  There were quite a lot of people - maybe twenty - so the work got well done.  Liz wasn’t there (she had gone to stay the night down the road with Sarah at a friend’s house) and neither was Dom, who hopefully got some rest before his big day.

The two sisters, Christin and Cathy got to grips with the thing, along with Cindy and Celia, and labelled stuff and organised and made it clear for the volunteer ladies coming in the next day as to what needed to be done.  Note all these names starting with C - there are more in Cindy's family.   And Chris and Carol (brother and sister) also start with C.  Thankfully, the children's names break the mould!

2nd day in Boise

Notes written on the 2nd Jan relating to that day. 

I didn’t wake till 9.am Boise time, which was great, because it meant I actually slept very well in spite of the changes of time.  The house didn’t rouse up much until later, in fact, but my older son, Ben (who'd arrived the day before) and Celia and I spent our first ten minutes trying to figure out how to get the water to come out of the shower instead of the bath in the bathroom nearest to our bedroom.  Our hostess, Cindy, arrived and saved the day: there’s a little round disk that needs to be pushed up - that’s all it is; very simple.   

After breakfast - or maybe even before it (with all the guests mealtimes were a bit erratic around here) Chris  (my future daughter-in-law's dad) showed Celia and me his workshop. Massive. Not only the main workshop but a toilet room, an office, a paint shop, and a cupboard in which there are two big pipes for sucking the dust and chips out of the main workshop.  Everything is neat and there are places for everything: he’s in the middle of doing a walnut entertainment cabinet for someone, and has done a host of other similar projects over the years.  He has stacks of spare wood and machines and tools - you name it.  The ’tour’ took nearly an hour by the time Celia has asked about this and that.   And he was pleased to tell her.  They enjoy talking, these Idaho people - everywhere we go they’re happy to talk and tell you stories, and find out more about you.  It’s great, really, and very friendly. 

Cindy, Celia and I went and visited the place where the reception is going to be held.  The colouring of houses and countryside is rather muted perhaps because all the grass is browned off and the trees are bare.   I think it’s the lack of greenery that surprises me, but of course we've come from high summer.  Everyone here has been expecting snow, but there's no sign of it, and the ski fields are getting desperate. 

Celia and Cindy had a big sort out as to what we’d be doing for the meal (pretty much a buffet) for the wedding and have got it in hand.  They went shopping this afternoon and bought in all the supplies.  At the same time Liz (fiancée), Dom (son getting married), Ben and a friend of Liz’s called Heather who’d been at the house organising something else to do with the wedding - and me - all went into Boise, met up with Liz's sister, Sarah, and dropped her car off to her, and coincidentally met her father-in-law. Sarah and her husband Joel have an apartment above where Joel’s dad works, and also above the restaurant Sarah used to work.  Joel has guns, and a massive collection of Lego - which impressed Celia.  Guns are popular in Idaho, as we were to find out. 

Then we went onto the airport and hired a car - Ben seems comfortable with driving and thinks that having an extra car would be good, but on this trip Liz drove back because we had some navigating to do.  

In the end it had got dark by the time we dealt with hiring the car - the guy behind the counter was very friendly and chatty, as was the girl in the next booth, who came in to help - and so we headed onto the tuxedo place where the fittings needed to be sorted out for Dom and Ben.  One of the girl assistants turned out to be from Russia even though she seemed to speak American English with no accent at all.   Curiously she didn’t seem to know about Siberia being used as a prison area - don’t ask me how we got onto that…!