Rain, Rain, Go Away — Can’t You See it’s My Wedding Day?
I was chatting with Bill the Limo Guy the other day about weddings. He always has something to say about them — he sees at least one every weekend, in settings ranging from humble to swelligant (yes, limos are de rigeur even at a lot of humble weddings).
I always press him for details, especially about what people are wearing. The experience is a lot like interrogating someone who speaks Swahili but uses a lot of gestures. Or like when you’re backpacking through Europe and you don’t know the language, but you still get the sense that you’re grokking at least a third of what the other person’s saying.
After a lot of prompting, threatening and coaxing, I’ll usually get something like this: The bride’s dress was nice. It didn’t have a lot of stuff on it (stuff, meaning embellishment). It was pretty simple on top.
And I’ll say, was it strapless? A halter top? Princess skirt or A-line? Was it satin, or could it have been silk? (I could automate these questions.)
And then with a lot more digging, I’ll learn that the bridesmaids’ dresses were not that great. Or if I’m really lucky, that the bride chose to clothe her girls in three separate shades of maroon, which looked okay except when two clashing shades were standing next to each other. Surprisingly often, I hear that “the color wasn’t very good for their skin tones.” I think this is what he says when he can’t remember.
Other things I’m sure to hear about is whether the gowns involved a lot of cleavage. Or if the best men got really, really drunk … so drunk that the best man had to halt the limo to relieve himself, and in the process tumbled down the bank … and all this before the guy made his speech.
So I don’t normally feel electrified or edified after talking over weddings with Bill, although I can’t seem to stop doing it. But I did learn something the other day — he turned up a superstition. You see, virtually every single weekend for what seems like the whole summer has involved sheets of rain. We’re talking time-to-track-down-that-ark weather. And every single weekend was filled with optimistic brides who chose to share their weddings with the great outdoors.
Well, this last weekend was slated for dramatic thunderstorms, but Saturday’s bride miraculously escaped them. People even commented on it. And she said her secret was this: that she’d asked all the Catholic guests to throw their rosaries in the bushes. Apparently, this tactic’s supposed to ensure some Florida shine for your big day.
What obliging guests. Were they able to find to their rosaries after all the eating and drinking and dancing? Bill didn’t know. I went home and googled the superstition wasn’t able to find anything on it. Perhaps bride invented it herself (crafty!) But maybe this is a real practice given the go-ahead by someone in The Lives of the Saints. If you’re marrying outdoors and the skies look gloomy, it might be worth a try.
I woke the morning of my wedding day to rain, rain and more rain. Did I mention that my wedding ceremony was planned to be on the beach as well? My aunt ensured me that the rain and wind were to move out by 3pm and the wedding was scheduled at 5pm. We went to the reception hall and stayed there until it was time to walk out on the beach. I didn’t realize it then but my bridesmaids and mom were shoving mimosa’s down my throat and blocking all doors that led outside. While one wall of the hall was all windows and I saw that the rain had subsided, no one made mention of the weather conditions outside. When it was time, I looked out the window and saw droves of people walking over the boardwalk to my ceremony site in SWEATERS AND SCARFS! I walked outside and to my dismay, the rain had stopped and the wind had picked up. Apparently there was also a cold front that moved in as it was 54 outside the reception hall and the wind on the beach was enough to blow the chairs over. Luckily, the wedding went off without a hitch (except my veil in my face, one of my sand ceremony vases shattering after it was empty, and my smallest bridesmaid turning purple in her fuschia strapless-knee length dress). After the ceremony, the sun came out from behind the clouds and showed the most amazing sunset for pictures. In the end, I shed a few tears because of the weather and at the time, my heart was broken (and cold). However, looking back on my wedding day, I chuckle because I have a story to tell. If the sun were out, everyone may have been squinting in my pictures…if it weren’t windy, there may have been gnats (just like at the rehearsal). Everything happened for a reason and I realized it wasn’t just me, it was my husband and I on that beach..freezing our butts off…together.
I know it sounds crazy, but try to find some humor in the situation. Humor will ultimately save any marriage. There was a yard sale in front of the church when we got married and my husband and I still laugh about it. Plan on having a really nice first anniversary party on the beach.
Well remember the crappy, hotel conference room? That is where I got married last night, it was suppose to be on the beach in the middle of a sand heart with flower petals and kids destroying the sand, but it was in the hotel room. A few hours before the wedding it started raining which is normal for Fl, but most of the time it is gone 30 minutes later, but this one stayed for hours, (4 almost 5)the gazbo would not work since it was raining sideways. (We are talking typhoon)So it was moved for a 3rd time to a hotel room. With me trying to look and act ok,but my heart was broken, and I dare not show it to my now husband because he was the one that pushed for the big wedding when I was trying to keep it simple.
The 5 star restaurant that we went to had music so loud that we could not hear each other, my husband traded paint with another car, and my daughter had a melt down when she had to stay with her dad because it was my wedding night, she cried so hard so made herself sick in the parking lot. We left ate taco bell, while he was gone getting food… I walked onto the beach wedding dress and all around midnight just staring at the ocean, trying to find my center or calmness again. I know a few people on the beach must have thought I was going to jump in, huge dress, veil blowing in the ocean breeze…but it was midnight and I think they were assured I was going to dunk myself into the ocean.
So my 8-8-8 wedding is now over, and I can not tell anyone else how sad the day made me, accept for you and the rest of the interent world.
Signed,
Sad bride in Florida