Grow Old Along with Me

You probably recognize the title. It’s a song that gets played at so many weddings, that it now probably tops a lot of “do not play under penalty of death” lists for wedding receptions. And yet, when trying to come up with a title, that’s the one that came to me. So be it. I like it because it encompasses the wedding and my birthday.

So let’s talk about the wedding. It was a beautiful ceremony. Katie looked radiant as all brides do. She was pretty smart too since she was carrying tissue with her. Turns out there were a lot of tears going on during the ceremony. It was sweet, really. One of the funnier moments was when she took her tissue and blotted Chris’s head. We all saw her telling Chris how warm it was. Another interesting moment from the ceremony was when the microphone decided to act up. I thought flames were going to shoot out of Brian’s head (he was the Person of Honor for Katie). The minister didn’t miss a beat. He just turned off the mike and kept going. Katie (we all noticed) switched to “trainer” voice and we could all hear her perfectly from the back of the room.

It felt like a reunion of sorts. There were a number of people there from my previous employer that I hadn’t seen in a long time. It didn’t dawn on me until well after the event, that I never even noticed any of the other people that attended the wedding. I was so wrapped up in tables 16 and 17 (Woo! Table 17!!) that the rest of the crowd went largely unnoticed. Here is a picture of the crew. We are missing a couple of people who ended up leaving before the picture was taken. It was really nice to see everyone again. Some of the people in this picture I have known since 1994.

Ok, so back to the wedding. When the happy couple made their grand entrance, they went right into their first song. The DJ said it was by U2, but didn’t immediately give the name of the song. In the slight pause he took, our table started coming up with some really unlikely U2 choices. I took notes. Here are the Top 5 songs by U2 that Katie and Chris did NOT choose to dance to as their first song.

1. When Love Comes to Town


2. Angel of Harlem


3. I still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For


4. Where the Streets Have No Name


5. Sunday Bloody Sunday (I think this one was everyone’s favorite)
   

In fact, what they ended up dancing to was “All I Want is You.” After the dance came the toasts. Both fathers made toasts and then Brian took us briefly through the history of Katie and Chris (making a very PUN-ny Match.com reference) as well as an interesting story about a rickshaw ride through London in winter. I believe he also arranged the slide show of the happy couple as well. Several of the photos used in the slide show were taken by another friend and former coworker. You saw him in my blog from January about his house party in San Diego. In fact, he was nice enough to give me a birthday card at the ceremony that said I needed to come for another visit so I could clean his house again.

The reception was a blur of fun dance songs and lots of gin and tonic. At some point, someone requested Happy Birthday, so that was nice. After that, I ended up on the dance floor doing a very poor impression of Tina Turner doing “Proud Mary”. Luckily, there were other proud Mary’s willing to come dance with me.

After the reception ended, I followed the caravan to the hotel where a bunch of them were staying. The bride and groom (each looking a little more comfortable with Chris in a t-shirt and pants and Katie in flip flops with her dress) joined us for one more round before we were kicked out of the hotel bar too. I thanked them for throwing me the best birthday party ever and headed back to Dayton.

The pictures were provided by my friend Nanci, since I didn’t bother to bring a camera. I am hoping that eventually, the pictures will circulate and I will get to see some of the others.