30 May 2010
Mario's Wedding
30/05/10 18:12
This was a very busy weekend, hence our sending this note on Monday. This was Mario's wedding. We figured it would be great. A nice ceremony on Saturday afternoon, the reception, see a bunch of people, eat some good food, and then home. Well, it grew over time.
On Thursday we found out we were invited to the pre-wedding party. Friday we went over to Mario's mother's (Ursula for those keeping score) house. There we ran into all the principles, plus friends, plus co workers, etc. etc. It was a great time marked by a couple of events. The first was when Ursula came into the room and asked me "Do you start fires?" I thought for a second and replied "Well it's not like a hobby or anything…" As it turned out she wanted me to start the bonfire. This was a challenge as it was raining a bit. But the wood was dry, I had one match and my pocket knife to split the logs, and soon had a merry blaze going (OK to be honest the logs were already split I just needed to make some shavings, and the 'one match' was one Bic lighter.)
The second event was something both Marsha and I noticed as we talked to Mario and his friends. They are all about 30. They are musicians, writers, composers, the ones that aren't performing, or mixing music are writing music for CDs, movies, and TV. The others are a mix of designers and artisans working in everything from clothing to jewelry, to performing arts. Several own their own companies that sell on both sides of the border. One ran a major theatrical troupe in Beijing China, gave it up to study in Paris for a couple of years, and on June 1st is leaving to go back to Beijing. What Marsha and I noticed was they're a little intimidating. As nice as they all are, and they really are a great group of people, it's like being a water at the Algonquin Round Table. They've done so much more than we did by 30, heck more than we've done now at 50 that it's amazing. This got me thinking about our nieces, nephews, and god-kids. I'm starting to believe that in 10 to 15 years North America will have a shortage of average people. Brilliant artists and composers and medical people, and engineers, and such will be a dime a dozen, but there will be nobody to work the checkout line at Target. Oh yeah, that's what us seniors will be doing.
Saturday was Mario and Robyn's wedding. It was planned as an outdoor backyard event, a gutsy move this time of year in BC, but the rain held off and it went without a hitch. Mario's sister Jessie made the wedding gown (the gown had pockets, for hands kleenex whatever, brilliant), helped select the bridesmaid's dresses, and was the Best Man. She and Mike, my cousin and Mario's father performed the music for the procession. The whole thing was web-cast and went smoothly. The only gaffe was when the person performing the ceremony messed up the vows (that Mario and Robyn wrote themselves) and inserted 'obey'. But everyone laughed it off. This was helped by the ceremony only taking about 15 minutes. No this was not like ours in church, full mass, multi hour oh-and-in-the-middle-of-all-this-religion-someone-is-getting-married event. No, we milled around for a little while before as final preparations were made, they had the wedding, we milled around for a little while as they signed paperwork and then we all went over to the Community Centre for the party. It was very relaxed. Seriously, when was the last time you went to a wedding where they had popcorn. One funny part was when a 5 year old kid attending kept saying this was "Bobs and Lolo's wedding". No matter how they tried he couldn't understand that Bobs and Lolo (http://www.bobsandlolo.com ) were't getting married. Bobs was marrying somebody else. He just couldn't get his head around that. But when they arranged to get his picture taken with Bobs and Lolo - he was in 7th heaven.
The reception was at the Community Centre in Lantzville. It was a very modern event though, befitting the artistic and above all musical group in attendance. Out was the annoying tradition of clinking glasses to get the bride and groom to kiss. No if you wanted that, you or a group had to stand up and sing a love song. This was a lot of fun and had the added benefit of reducing the number of times it happened. Also rather than just lining up for the buffet, they played a trivia game with whichever table answering the question correctly going next. I figured this would be no problem. I know the atomic number of Hafnium (72) and the capitol of Gabon (Libreville). However, it was trivia about Mario and Robyn. What elementary school did they go to, what time of day was Mario born, etc. Fortunately Mike was at our table, otherwise we might never have gotten to eat.
The food was good. The speeches were entertaining (it was a group of professional performers after all). Then the music started. For those of you in the midwest, there was no dollar dance. As Marsha put it so well: "It's hard to stuff a Loonie into a dress". Instead there was a series of performances. Bobs and Lolo did three songs, Jessie sang a couple. Mike did one ripping number. A friend of Mario's did a set where he live mixed his own accompaniment, laying down percussion, base guitar, lead guitar, and sax, before singing to this loop. It was very impressive and wonderful. And many others. Finally a bit after 11:00 we left. We found out later that was about the end of the live performances as well. The party wrapped up by midnight with the last of the cleaning done by 3:00 and by 8:00 the next morning the last of the cars left behind by those that decided it would be more prudent to cab were retrieved.
On Sunday we found ourselves invited to a party at Mario's grandparents house. It is a very nice place in Nanoose overlooking the golf course and the sea. Everyone gathered there and had lunch (a very German meal with red cabbage, spaetzle, some kind of bread things, vegetable cabbage rolls, and a loaf of bread with a roast beef cooked inside it. I passed on the latter.) Then we watched as Mario and Robyn opened all their presents and then in the early evening departed. It had been a huge weekend and we were exhausted. Unlike those of you in the US this is not a holiday weekend for us. It's back to work today. Marsha went to sleep at 6:00. I took a nap and stayed up until 7:00 and then went to bed and slept right through until 5:00 this morning.
It was a fun weekend but full.
Doug And Marsha
The location
Mike and Jessie performing at the ceremony
(Note the boots - all of the ladies of the wedding party wore wellies.)
Mario and Robyn
Mike, Robyn, Mario and Aunt Barbara. Which by the way - Saturday was her 85th birthday. Great way to celebrate!
The cake.
On Thursday we found out we were invited to the pre-wedding party. Friday we went over to Mario's mother's (Ursula for those keeping score) house. There we ran into all the principles, plus friends, plus co workers, etc. etc. It was a great time marked by a couple of events. The first was when Ursula came into the room and asked me "Do you start fires?" I thought for a second and replied "Well it's not like a hobby or anything…" As it turned out she wanted me to start the bonfire. This was a challenge as it was raining a bit. But the wood was dry, I had one match and my pocket knife to split the logs, and soon had a merry blaze going (OK to be honest the logs were already split I just needed to make some shavings, and the 'one match' was one Bic lighter.)
The second event was something both Marsha and I noticed as we talked to Mario and his friends. They are all about 30. They are musicians, writers, composers, the ones that aren't performing, or mixing music are writing music for CDs, movies, and TV. The others are a mix of designers and artisans working in everything from clothing to jewelry, to performing arts. Several own their own companies that sell on both sides of the border. One ran a major theatrical troupe in Beijing China, gave it up to study in Paris for a couple of years, and on June 1st is leaving to go back to Beijing. What Marsha and I noticed was they're a little intimidating. As nice as they all are, and they really are a great group of people, it's like being a water at the Algonquin Round Table. They've done so much more than we did by 30, heck more than we've done now at 50 that it's amazing. This got me thinking about our nieces, nephews, and god-kids. I'm starting to believe that in 10 to 15 years North America will have a shortage of average people. Brilliant artists and composers and medical people, and engineers, and such will be a dime a dozen, but there will be nobody to work the checkout line at Target. Oh yeah, that's what us seniors will be doing.
Saturday was Mario and Robyn's wedding. It was planned as an outdoor backyard event, a gutsy move this time of year in BC, but the rain held off and it went without a hitch. Mario's sister Jessie made the wedding gown (the gown had pockets, for hands kleenex whatever, brilliant), helped select the bridesmaid's dresses, and was the Best Man. She and Mike, my cousin and Mario's father performed the music for the procession. The whole thing was web-cast and went smoothly. The only gaffe was when the person performing the ceremony messed up the vows (that Mario and Robyn wrote themselves) and inserted 'obey'. But everyone laughed it off. This was helped by the ceremony only taking about 15 minutes. No this was not like ours in church, full mass, multi hour oh-and-in-the-middle-of-all-this-religion-someone-is-getting-married event. No, we milled around for a little while before as final preparations were made, they had the wedding, we milled around for a little while as they signed paperwork and then we all went over to the Community Centre for the party. It was very relaxed. Seriously, when was the last time you went to a wedding where they had popcorn. One funny part was when a 5 year old kid attending kept saying this was "Bobs and Lolo's wedding". No matter how they tried he couldn't understand that Bobs and Lolo (http://www.bobsandlolo.com ) were't getting married. Bobs was marrying somebody else. He just couldn't get his head around that. But when they arranged to get his picture taken with Bobs and Lolo - he was in 7th heaven.
The reception was at the Community Centre in Lantzville. It was a very modern event though, befitting the artistic and above all musical group in attendance. Out was the annoying tradition of clinking glasses to get the bride and groom to kiss. No if you wanted that, you or a group had to stand up and sing a love song. This was a lot of fun and had the added benefit of reducing the number of times it happened. Also rather than just lining up for the buffet, they played a trivia game with whichever table answering the question correctly going next. I figured this would be no problem. I know the atomic number of Hafnium (72) and the capitol of Gabon (Libreville). However, it was trivia about Mario and Robyn. What elementary school did they go to, what time of day was Mario born, etc. Fortunately Mike was at our table, otherwise we might never have gotten to eat.
The food was good. The speeches were entertaining (it was a group of professional performers after all). Then the music started. For those of you in the midwest, there was no dollar dance. As Marsha put it so well: "It's hard to stuff a Loonie into a dress". Instead there was a series of performances. Bobs and Lolo did three songs, Jessie sang a couple. Mike did one ripping number. A friend of Mario's did a set where he live mixed his own accompaniment, laying down percussion, base guitar, lead guitar, and sax, before singing to this loop. It was very impressive and wonderful. And many others. Finally a bit after 11:00 we left. We found out later that was about the end of the live performances as well. The party wrapped up by midnight with the last of the cleaning done by 3:00 and by 8:00 the next morning the last of the cars left behind by those that decided it would be more prudent to cab were retrieved.
On Sunday we found ourselves invited to a party at Mario's grandparents house. It is a very nice place in Nanoose overlooking the golf course and the sea. Everyone gathered there and had lunch (a very German meal with red cabbage, spaetzle, some kind of bread things, vegetable cabbage rolls, and a loaf of bread with a roast beef cooked inside it. I passed on the latter.) Then we watched as Mario and Robyn opened all their presents and then in the early evening departed. It had been a huge weekend and we were exhausted. Unlike those of you in the US this is not a holiday weekend for us. It's back to work today. Marsha went to sleep at 6:00. I took a nap and stayed up until 7:00 and then went to bed and slept right through until 5:00 this morning.
It was a fun weekend but full.
Doug And Marsha
The location
Mike and Jessie performing at the ceremony
(Note the boots - all of the ladies of the wedding party wore wellies.)
Mario and Robyn
Mike, Robyn, Mario and Aunt Barbara. Which by the way - Saturday was her 85th birthday. Great way to celebrate!
The cake.