By Vicki Brown
PART ONE: The Party
My youngest son was getting married. It was the first wedding in our immediate family, and I wanted it to be special. But with my luck, do you really think it would be? However, it was unforgettable…so unforgettable that I must continue this saga in three parts. Next week’s continuation is “PART TWO: The Dress.
My future daughter-in-law is a gift from God; not only is she beautiful and loving, but she took my obnoxious son off my hands. Don’t get me wrong; I love my son with all my heart, but sometimes he drives me loony. I told my daughter-in-law that if she backed out of the wedding, I would sue her. She fell over laughing…I was serious.
When my daughter-in-law was in high school, her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer. Unfortunately, she passed away, and so I desperately wanted to be a mother figure for this beautiful, sensitive, and amazing young woman. I was there the day she chose her wedding gown and cried like any mother would. I made her veil and paid for her flowers. I love this girl and wanted to do everything possible to make her wedding day wonderful and special.
But first, I needed to plan a fantastic wedding rehearsal dinner.
After a lot of research, I found a hotel that boasted an atrium with a pool surrounded by lush plants, a huge dancing floor, soft glittering lights, a white gazebo, and a door leading to a bar.
Now we are Baptists, and strong liquor is frowned upon. And the fact that my husband is a pastor made it even more of a taboo. However, I knew there would be a lot of people there from her family who were not teetotal Baptists, so if they wanted to drink, there was a bar, and they could buy it for themselves.
I hired the caterer who was going to serve hors d’oeuvres and then a nice dinner for the crowd. And for me? A chocolate fountain in the gazebo. For my husband? A friend who was a DJ and would also have a karaoke system…which I thought was stupid and would ruin the elegance of the evening. But I went along with it.
It was a few days before the rehearsal dinner when my son enlightened me that the family of our future daughter-in-law were concerned that we were “weird holy rollers” and would hold a prayer meeting at the rehearsal dinner, complete with a sermon, laying on of hands, a ceremonial foot washing, and possible snake handling.
I was aghast. Seriously? This called for something unexpected, fun, and down to earth.
The party officially began, but it wasn’t much of a party at first. Half of the crowd didn’t know the other half, so everyone was stiff and formal. But then my oldest son walked in, surprising us; he had been given leave time by the army to come to the wedding. Next, using the karaoke equipment, my husband and I made introductions and crowned our future daughter-in-law with a huge pink “Bride” crown. We then showed funny pictures of our son growing up, told a few hilarious stories about him, and then sat everyone down where we presented the kids with a terrific present.
My husband and I donned long fake beards and sang and danced to the song “I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow” from the movie “O Brother, Where Art Thou” with George Clooney. Needless to say, we were a hit, and that’s when everyone loosened up and her family made a trip to the bar.
The worst part of the whole evening? My chocolate fountain hardened. The caterer didn’t use enough oil and instead of dipping marshmallows in the chocolate fountain, everyone ended up breaking off chunks of hardened chocolate from the edges of what looked like a tabletop dormant volcano.
The party goers’ favorite part of the evening? That stupid karaoke machine. Everyone had a blast.
