Wedding Etc.

Bubble-Blowing Festival as an Alternative to the Reception

So the wedding was great. I had missed Cowbell and Database. And Fev’r, too, though I’m loath to admit it. The location was completely gorgeous. Christ Haven is a Christian retreat lodge a few miles outside Florissant, Colorado. The elevation is close to 9,000 feet, so climbing stairs, walking, sleeping, etc. resulted in frequent pauses to gasp for breath.

Due to some freak of room rearranging, Alex and I got the Bridal Suite in the lodge. OK. Twist my arm. It looked out over Pike’s Peak. It’s hard to describe how completely beautiful the countryside was. As we walked through the Fossil Beds, Garden of the Gods, etc., I kept having to stop and just soak it in. Those high meadows and forests… I had forgotten. The experience kept triggering childhood deja-vu (not that I remember that particular place, but the White Mountains in Arizona, and the mountains in Utah and Washington all share some smells and sights in common; in particular, these places are all quite different from the humid, lowland forests of the East).

The wedding was very nicely done. The bride was radiant, the groom was handsome, the parents were all choked up, the bridesmaids all had entertaining tattoos revealed by their strapless gowns, etc. There was also a cat wandering under the pews during the service. Alex liked that part. The cat, it must be said, was very friendly. The reception included delicious dinner and various heartfelt things being said by friends and family members. On the way from church to reception, Alex stopped to feed llamas, and convinced about half the wedding party, it seemed, to join her. I’d like to remember that experience. It’s pretty funny.

I need to mention here that Database was a complete chicken. She came close, but in the end, she refused to come anywhere near the llamas.

The next day was actually my favorite part of the wedding weekend. Alex and I got to hang for a while with the bride & groom while they recovered from the ceremonies. I said to Scott, “You must be tired by now. You must have been going at full speed for several days at this point.” He replied, in his Scott way, “MONTHS!”

Scott and I shot some hoops (I got HORSE while he only got to HORS), and the four of us chatted a bit as we meandered through the day. Alex and I had a nice conversation with the owners of the lodge, who told us about buying the place and moving from urban Virginia out here to the middle of nowhere. I quite resolutely resisted the urge make jokes about The Shining. Then it was time to take pictures, but by the time we got to the pictures I wanted to take, it was raining. When I asked Lisha how bad it would be if her dress got wet, she just said, “bad.” But the pics I shot all guerrilla-like while her sister was taking pictures on the roof turned out well, so I’m satisfied.

In retrospect, it was both fortunate and unfortunate for the bride that the minister who performed the ceremony was her father. He really raked her over the coals, I thought. In a humorous way, he commented on some of her apparent lapses of character (which I know nothing about; I’ve only ever heard glowingly good things from Scott). It almost felt like a roast for a minute or two. But things got back on track, which was good. I’ll end with the minister’s comment that everyone seemed to like the most:

“…giving away a daughter is like giving a Stradivarius to a gorilla.”