Maybe I’m amazed

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So, the wedding.

We got to Erie in the late afternoon on Friday. I checked in and we hit the town. I wanted to go to Romolo’s and we actually got there this time. Then we went out for dinner & to Borders. We watched TV and went to sleep. The next morning we barely made checkout. In the meantime, I discovered that I had bought a black bra thinking my dress straps were black. They were white. So I had to get a new bra. Plus we ate lunch at Wegmans, which took an hour. I do not know why/how. So we got to Buffalo at 3:30 with the wedding gathering to be at 4. I checked in, we dumped bags & freshened up (including getting Holden dressed) and headed for the venue. We got there about 4:10. Not bad.

The wedding itself was lovely. Modern and casual but also very traditional. I thought the ceremony was very moving. What I noticed most was the feeling in the room. I have never been in a place so filled with love. Just pouring out from everyone toward Rand & Erin and filling the space with so much positive energy that it was nearly overwhelming. The room was packed, with everyone at round tables (twenty-something tables of 8 people each, except the “Homer & Marge” table for E&R). It was easy to see & hear everything. It was also a good set-up for the many children who were around. Z&H colored and drew during the ceremony, sometimes actually paying attention.

We were lucky enough to be on the side of the room from which Erin (and her father) made her entrance and through which the couple came together after the wedding:

Then we ate fruit and everyone socialized. Jam took a snapshot of the four of us and look, both kids are looking at the camera AND Hawk is smiling:

I don’t know what was happening with my necklace. It kept migrating up my right shoulder.

And I got to see Jen too:

And I met Jam — yay!

And I met Debbie Ridpath Ohi and just about squeed in her face. And then she knew who I was and hugged me. Then I became a little pile of goo in a red necklace and peeptoe pumps. I was like Fred, the rusty track in Cars: “Debbie Ohi knows my name!”

Then I wanted to thank Erin’s mother in person for the donation she made when I did WalkAmerica and she knew who I was and hugged me too. When that happened, I realized that the reason I felt that warmth and affection that I did during the ceremony was because these are the kind of people who filled the room, friendly, warm, supportive people who wanted to make everyone else feel welcome and part of the family.

It’s still kind of a foreign concept to me about families being loving and supporting of one another and of making a family out of friends. Hey, my side of the church was empty when I got married (save for my friend who was doubling as a photographer) but it didn’t matter to me so much as the person I was marrying. Maybe I didn’t have anyone there behind me but I had someone in front of me and in front of me was the family I would make.

So congratulations to Erin, who is the kind of woman I want my own daughter to grow to be: warm, devoted, intelligent, funny and lovely from the inside out. And congratulations to Rand, the man lucky enough to have found her and smart enough to hold on.

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Filed under Adventure! Excitement!, Deep Thoughts

Tags: erin, erin's wedding, family, me