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Memories

Moments from our wedding day that stood out or stuck with us.
The tables arrived late and the guests (including the ladies in their heels) helped roll them down the hill to get them set up in time.

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Emily was waiting upstairs in Emel House. Frances came up and asked when she was coming down. Emily said that it would be about ten minutes, but all of the people needed to sit down first. Emily asked Frances to tell her dad to ask people to sit. Frances seriously replied, "I will tell the man in the forest," and walked out, taking it upon herself to tell everyone to sit down. (The man in the forest turned out to be Marc, who had been sent to wait in a clump of trees so he wouldn't see Emily in her bridal gown; after fifteen minutes of waiting it had become clear that everyone had forgotten him, and in desperation he had grabbed Frances as she ran by and asked her to find out if Emily was safely upstairs yet.)

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Emily had a great time leaning out of the upstairs window and waving before the ceremony (while Marc was wandering in the forest).

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Liana, who had for more than a year been excitedly looking forward to being the flower girl and dropping petals, veered off course on her way to the center aisle. She plunged between seats, forging grimly ahead as folks scuttled their chairs out of her way. Halfway to the front she decided to make her way over to the aisle, stepping over various feet and legs, then slowly walked a yard or so down the aisle and stopped, clutching her basket of petals, her eyes on the ground. Marc (who was already at the front) crouched down and gestured her over. Liana hurried into his outstretched arms and sadly explained, "I did not want to drop the flowers." Marc said, "That's okay, Pumpkin.  You can drop them here if you like." Liana brightened a bit and dropped three handfuls of petals at their feet, noted "There is one left," dropped the final petal, and turned to wait for the rest of the procession.

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Emily couldn't resist kissing Marc in the middle of the ceremony.. When the officiant objected that it wasn't time for the kiss yet, Emily explained, "I've never looked at him for so long without kissing him."

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Pete acted like a gorilla so that Liana would smile while the family posed for pictures. When Marc went behind the camera and did essentially the same thing, Liana looked over at Pete and asked, "What is Frances's dad doing?"

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When Scotty mentioned in his toast that he had occasionally bypassed the hand-me-down process and taken the clothes directly out of his brother's closet, Marc interrupted and asked if Scotty had his red sweater. The red sweater became a running joke that day.

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During Scotty's toast, Frances came through the door behind him, raised her arms, and announced to the crowd, "Here we are!", then launched into a story about Liana sweeping the porch.

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After introducing himself as Marc's dad to Emily's grandmothers, Bill (a big genealogy buff) sat down, said "Now let me see," and proceeded to tell them everything about their own family histories.

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While playing football, Django lunged heroically to catch a long pass, only to be brought down by Tom Jay's unexpected flying tackle.

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To the stunned silence of relatives, Marc and Scotty broke into an impromptu and nonregulation round of Throttle (a very silly and somewhat vicious game they'd invented years earlier).  The match was a draw.

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Frances and Liana announced that they were getting married and asked Emily to be their flower girl.

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After finally seeing Emily's dress, Marc pointed out that the climbing flower vines on it are lianas. When Emily told Matthew (the dressmaker), he decided to rename the dress. The style is now called the "Liana."

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Frances and Liana decorated their faces with war paint (actually magic marker).

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When nearly everyone had left and it was getting dark, Marc (who is famously uninterested in sports) got drafted into a volleyball game, did fairly well, and shouted at a passing Eli, "Don't tell Emily!"
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