Happily ever after

I spent the weekend in Orangeville, celebrating my big sister’s wedding!

I can’t cover the whole wedding here, and I won’t subject you to the 250 photos I took, so I’m just going to say it was a very touching wedding followed by a most excellent party.

Rob is an avid fisherman, and Deb actually went fishing with him a few times last year during the courtship. I think the only other time she went fishing in her life was in Mexico with me. I caught a tuna while Deb perched in her bathing suit on the deck like a hood ornament. Fishing is not her thing, but she loves Rob so much she actually bought a very alluring fishing vest and some lures and went fishing.

Immediately after the ceremony I hugged the bride and groom and said “Look at you, all married and everything!”

Deb said, “I finally hooked me a man!”

“Now you can give up fishing!” I said.

“And sex!” she laughed.

“And grooming!” I said, “And housework!”

“I already gave up housework,” she said.

Rob just stood there beaming.

Our family has been through numerous iterations over the years, because we have a multi-generational history of fairly high marital turnover. We were doing divorce long before it was trendy. We like to think of ourselves as the family that puts the fun back in dysfunctional.

Even though we’ve had lots of marriages and divorces, this was our first family wedding.

The reception was a lot of fun, and my niece Kati gave a speech that brought tears to my eyes. Rob’s best man was a woman and her speech was very touching too. This wedding was all about people eventually finding the love they deserve, long after they’ve given up looking for it, and how it’s worth waiting for. I actually believe Deb and Rob going to live happily ever after and stay married forever.

Here are a few of the highlights from the weekend, with an emphasis on the events at Table 2.

I wore a dress and high heels for the first time ever, and I saw my son in a tie.

There was much talk of bras since most of the women in our family had to buy bras for the wedding. There will be detailed coverage of Kerry’s new bra in a subsequent post (Kerry’s the one with the placentas and dead guinea pig in her freezer).

There was more than the average amount of discussion of feet and the horrifying things that can happen to them if you don’t wear socks. (Story and photos to follow.)

There was the usual talk of who might get married next. I’m thinking it’ll be Rob and Scott, since they didn’t recoil from the suggestion.

Deb led the congregation in a revival service. Towards the end of the evening there was even some talking in tongues.

I saw my dad for the first time in quite a few years, although he has been a faithful reader of the blog for a number of months now.

My mother and my father – whose marriage ended when they were still teenagers – danced to Chubby Checker’s The Twist.

My mother and my father’s lovely third wife met for the first time. That’s Merle on the left and my mother on the right. They seemed to get along.

Eventually my dad just got out of the way.

Following the reception there was an After Party in my son’s room, in which there was much merriment and photographing of feet. We also cast our votes for Weirdest Family Member (I can’t tell you who won, but the ground rules explicitly stated that we couldn’t vote for anybody in the room, so it wasn’t me.)

The morning after was a little more subdued, as people slowly filtered down to the hotel restaurant for breakfast, and much remedial drinking of coffee and juice took place. This is my lovely niece Lindsay. Those are not her pants.

And finally there was the long drive back to Ottawa. We took the Peterborough route and saw a street called Television Road and a store called Almost Perfect Frozen Food. We didn’t stop.