Activities of the past couple of weeks have centered around preparing for and celebrating the marriage of my son Patrick and my new daughter-in-law Erin. The wedding took place yesterday at the Edgefield, about 20 minutes east of Portland. Erin has no local family – she’s from Arizona – so Robin took on a combination of roles including adviser, consultant, organizer, planner, hostess, seamstress, flower arranger, and and anything else she was inclined to do to help ensure things went smoothly.
Although I stayed safely on the periphery of activity, helping only when asked, this was the first wedding I’d attended where my involvement was more than just showing up on time. A wedding really is an ordeal, and one that takes on a life of its own. It’s an event that requires the coordination of many thing. It also requires notable amounts of patience and tolerance.
By some standards, this one was a relatively small (a guest list of 120) event with simple appointments. Instead of hiring a florist, the girls drove out to Swan Island Dahlias a few weeks ago and placed an order directly from the source. One of my jobs was to pick up the flowers Wednesday afternoon. I delivered them back home where a small band of family and guests began arranging them in vases.
We hosted the rehearsal dinner Wednesday evening, for which we prepared way too much food – ten people didn’t show up. They had their reasons, but there were several in the wedding party who didn’t know what was expected of them until the ceremony itself.
The Edgefield is a complex of historic buildings that have been renovated into a hotel, restaurants, pubs, a brewery, and halls for activities like weddings and receptions. There also is an outdoor concert area. The wedding ceremony took place outside during the enforced quite hour between 5:00 and 6:00. It took a while to get everyone seated, and we were pushing against 6:00 when Patrick and Erin recited their vows. A few minutes later, the concert started with Taj Mahal as lead in to Bonnie Raitt playing in the background.
Officiating at the wedding was Joy, a friend of ours who also performed Robin’s and my wedding ceremony a year ago. It was a delight to have her involved.
2 Comments
Congrats Paul on successfully navigating such an event, and with aplomb at that. Gwen and I were wedded at McMenamin’s Grand Lodge, and we celebrate our anniversary by vacationing there every year. Your son and DIL make a beautiful couple…great photo.
Thanks, James. The McMenamin brothers have created something truly remarkable, don’t you think? A Thursday evening isn’t the ideal time for a wedding, given traffic and people’s work schedules. But all went well. We’re glad it’s over, though, and it seems to have been the transitional event between summer and fall.