Apart from the tiniest bit of snow, the wedding went pretty well. But I get ahead of myself.
The trip to Johnstown was actually quite uneventful. My mom and I got going pretty well near 1:30, which is when we expected. Actually, maybe a little earlier.
We talked in the car almost until the Lawn service plaza, which was nice. I wonder how it is that I talk with my mom so much, or that we find so much to discuss. But after an hour of driving, it was time to throw in the audiobook.
This trip brought us Q is for Quarry, by Sue Grafton. I usually like the Sue Grafton "alphabet mysteries", but I found this one and the last one to be a bit... tedious? There just wasn't as much excitement in them as I remember. Maybe I'm spoiled on some of the more recent thrillers I've been listening to.
We got into Johnstown at a pretty reasonable hour, and headed directly to the hotel. "Directly" in this sense meaning we drove around Johnstown looking for it for a while before we actually found it.
The Holiday Inn in Johnstown is pretty much like any other Holiday Inn I've been in, although the lobby arrangement was a bit odd. The front desk was around the corner from the actual front of the building. And the smell of the indoor pool chemicals wafted oddly about the lobby.
Communicating my cell phone with Berta, we managed to arrange to meet her, Abby, and Nana at a restaurant where the rehearsal dinner was being held. Beer, pizza, and wings. Is that traditional?
We got to meet a few of Ryan's family and friends. All of them the usual Johnstown salt of the Earth. Nana shared a couple beers with one of the guys, who turned out to be Berta's partner in the wedding. This partner concept is one that disturbs me, but I should probably save it for a separate article.
Back to the hotel. The evening went uneventfully, and I know because I was awake for most of it. The room heater was very loud, and only for 30 second intervals every two minutes. The room wasn't even that warm.
On Saturday morning, I took Mom and Nana out to see the sights, er, sight (there's only one). Berta and Abby stayed in the room and waited for the room service to arrive, which it did but 45 minutes after Berta called to remind them to bring it. Boy, she was upset when we got back. She said she yelled at the delivery guy.
Our breakfast was in the hotel restaurant, which wasn't much better for prompt service. Every so often I get seated at a table whos waitress just slacks. Our food came out very late, and delayed our trip to see the world's steepest vehicular inclined plane. [If that's not the cheesiest site for this mediocre attraction...]
At the top of the incline, Mom took a few picture of the snowy Johnstown landscape. Nana looked down, impressed. There was snow on the outlook platform, which made it seem more treacherous than usual. We left quickly because it was just too cold and windy.
Back to the hotel. I got dressed up in a suit. My shirt collar was too tight. Berta gathered her and Abby's wedding outfits and we all hopped in the car to head to the church.
The service itself was held in a quaint church in Johnstown's West End, just a few blocks from Mary Ann and Ryan's house. We sat in the pews for a while, waiting for the service to begin.
I think every girl dreams of having many roses around the church in which she's married, but doesn't realize until the wedding actually arrives that this is impractical. Mary Ann had a very tasteful bow and single flower arrangement on alternating pews.
I got very little video of the proceedings, mostly because I was sitting in a poor spot for recording anything but the back of Jason's head. (Ooh, shiney!) But I had my seat arranged so that I could catch Abby, who was masquerading as flower girl in this little procession.
She was cute from what I saw, but I was told later that she wasn't looking up at people, but down at the petals that Emily (the other flower girl) was throwing in the aisle. Oh, well. She looked cute in her little flower girl dress.
She sat quietly during the beginning of the ceremony, but then Abby started to point and ask something about hearts rather loudly while the priest was speaking, so I had to hand her off to Mom. Mom said that she behaved well for her, so who knows. Maybe I should have held on to her.
Ceremony ocurred. I noticed that nobody spoke up to stop the wedding, nor did the priest ask. Good call, there.
Abby walked back down the aisle with Emily on the way out, which work ok, except there wasn't anyone there to receive her, so they wandered around in the lobby for a bit until everyone crowded in there after the newlyweds.
Then there were pictures. Tons, and tons of pictures. There are few pictures from our wedding, and none formal, so I guess I just wasn't thinking about having to wait two hours to get pictures. Abby got cranky when I tried to keep her from interfering with the people in the back of the church who were trying to repent, and then I got cranky because Abby was cranky.
I think this is when things started to go bad for me. Berta was made to ride in the limo with the wedding party. We tried to get Abby to nap, but couldn't. There was much upheaval over where the reception was and how to get there (even though it turned out to be very easy to get to). And then I forgot the diaper bag, and had to run back to the hotel to get it.
When I returned to the reception with the diaper bag, everyone was gone. Like, vanished. Completely gone.
As it turns out, dinner was in the basement of the building and they had all moved down there. But talk about Twilight Zone, man!
Dinner was... bland. We had a table by ourselves because, well, the only people my mom knew there were Berta's fmaily (who all had a special table of their own) and me. So we ate dinner with the photographer and the very chatty decorator. Both of them were nice, but didn't feel too obliged to involve us in their discussion. Berta's brother John was also there, but he mostly just ate.
Somehow I managed to miss the toast. Too bad. I heard that there was much drinking and carousing in the limo. So much so that it had little flower girl Emily huddling in fear in the corner with all of the girls trying to tell her it was ok.
Everyone eventually moved upstairs for the dancing. Cake was not served, but cut and wrapped in colored napkins.
The traditional wedding rites were performed. There was the married couple's first dance, the dollar dance with the bride, the father daughter dance, the mother son dance, the flower tossing, the garter removal, the garter application on the leg of the bouquet catcher, etc. We didn't stay long enough to hear any chicken dance music.
I don't want to sound like it was a bad time, but we really weren't involved too much. We were just kind of there. Maybe Berta was more involved than we were. I think there was also too much drinking on the part of the ushers. They probably should have gotten all of that out of their systems at a bachelor party.
Fortunately, we heard that Mary Ann and Ryan got out of town in time to catch their flight to St. Maarten before the snow hit and closed everything. I hope they're having a good time down there. Lucky dogs.
I wish them a happy marriage.
