Monday, June 27, 2005

The Wedding of The Century #1

As I have mentioned before on here, my sister Rosie and her ginger-topped sidekick are getting married in August. It is going to be the Wedding of the Century; the biggest and most lavish family wedding we're going to have and the only one I am likely to have any investment in* - unless she does it again, or my folks split and remarry**. Since this topic is likely to rear its lace-adorned head more frequently, I have decided to give it its own series of blog entries. This way, everyone who is allergic to weddings can avoid these posts entirely.

Last night, R sent me the reading I get to do. It is very groovy, a new translation of St. Paul's bit about love. The commonly known version goes on about how "Love is patient and kind..." etc which has always been one of my favourite bits out of the Bible. I have already learnt it off by heart (I commit poetry and prose to memory in a flash). I tried to do recite it standing up, but it takes longer than I can stand up for, so we're going to have to work out some way I can address the entire congregation from a seated position.

In other Wedding Of The Century news, our friend H has now become involved in the fitting of the bridesmaid's dress. I didn't do this - [...] roped him in somehow. H used to make ball dresses and stuff, he knows what he's doing. This bridesmaid's dress has already become far far more trouble than it is possibly worth. I wanted to be a bridesmaid when R asked me because she wanted me to be and if I said no, it would be because of my illness. I have no desire to wear a silly dress (and it has now become the silliest dress in Christendom), but I didn't want my illness to hamper my involvement in what will be the only big wedding I am likely to be involved in.

Mind you, if I wasn't a bridesmaid I would need to find some other mainstream-wedding-oriented outfit and I had enough trouble cobbling something half decent to attend my cousin's wedding a couple of years ago. The last three weddings we've been invited to in Whitby have had a pirate-orientated dresscode. Whitby is an odd kind of place like that, but if you are yourself an odd-ball it is far easier and cheaper to conform and totally acceptable not to.

I just hope the Wedding of the Century guests can cope with a little non-conformity.


* If [...] and I ever marry we shall either do it in secret or we shall do it in some weird and wonderful way and only invite the five members of my family I have regular and personable contact with. R & A are laying on a mini-bus for the occupants of the family vault.

** When I was a kid I always wanted a brother. Now I have two brother-like figures - Adrian who has been my brother-in-law in all but name for years now and H who is also rather like a brother-in-law but in an even less official sense since he is not actually [...]'s brother and [...] and I are not married.

However, I really need a third to fully compensate my fraternal deficit, so ideally if my folks split my Mum could remarry someone just a little bit older than me - mid thirties perhaps - and I would be invested in such a wedding. I wouldn't attend their wedding if my Dad remarried at all, since that would just be odd.

If you spend so much time alone, you think about these things. It's natural. The only thing which I do not have an excuse for is writing them down.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey Goldfish,

having Just ben to a family wedding of sorts I have plenty of thoughts on this topic.

As for dress code, the bridesmaid regalia is proba a safer bet as long as you and they have taken into consideration sitting down a lot in your chair. On saturday I *STUPIDLY* put on a boobtube type top and pants , looked great if I stood but as that aint too often these days, looked incredibly awful (think spare skin from once overstretched belly, reminders of pregnancy hanging over the waist band of gorgeous pants!)

The evening I out on a LOVELY, BEAUTIFUL Monsoon irredescent skirt, I have LITERALLY spent 3 years waiting to wear. BIGGGGG mistake as I might as well have gone naked as I was sat doiwn and the full effect of the skirt was lost, esp as no one could see it..but then again *I* and my hubby appreciated it and felt good, so BLAH to anyone else..but I am sure you get the picture.

This is stuff I have Never had to *or even imagined I would* thought about before.

I am so glad that you feel so close to your "brother in laws" I am a great believer in the addage that it is not necessarily blood which binds us, but kinship, *knowing* the person and shared lives.

i think it is brill that he is making your dress (hal I am referring to) :) good bloke if you ask me.

My own weding was a performance with all in sundry there, if left to me I would have escaped, but I did feel I *had* to doit that way, and to be honest it was a lovely day..if not one which I find painful to think of this weekend.

hugs

K

The Goldfish said...

The 'rules' of looking good while sitting down is indeed a whole new ballgame - Agent Fang and I have been having a discussion about setting up some sort of website of fashion advice for disabled women. The perils of the floaty skirt worn over unco-ordinating knickers was one of the first lessons I learnt while zooming down the high street against the wind...

Hal's not making the dress, but he's helping with the fitting which is otherwise being done long distance - my Mum in Suffolk is making the thing, so has posted it up here, but being a bodice & skirt affair I haven't a hope of working out any necessary adjustments by myself.

The Goldfish said...

"And quite often the best family are those that we choose and end up choosing us, not necessarily the people we are randomly allotted by genetics"

That's so true, Sue. :-)

I'm glad you got all your dresses made all right - gold velvet sounds lovely.