Last Saturday Josh and I went to the wedding and reception for his former co-worker. It was a beautiful event downtown and we were planning how to attend for months. The wedding was at 2:30 pm and the black-tie reception was at 6:00 so we had to get babysitting arranged for the daytime as well as the night. Since it was the same day as prom, we got 2 14-year old girls from church to come from 1:30 pm until 11:00. I think they had an experience of a lifetime!
The wedding was held at
St. Matthew's Cathedral in downtown Washington, DC. We'd never been there before and it is gorgeous! I was distracted by all of the mosaic artwork and Josh had to jab me once during the actual vows to pay attention to the wedding instead of the cathedral! I think it's where JFK's funeral was held. The bride arrived in a white Rolls Royce and wore a rented necklace of 20 or more carats of diamonds.
I had been stressing out about what to wear to the reception for months. Black tie in the spring? At a wedding? For a Mormon? I bought 4 things and returned them all. I tried on 8 dresses from friends and settled on one that looked pretty, young, and modest all at once without looking like a prom dress, a mother of the bride dress, or a bridesmaid dress. Josh helped me look for dresses online for hours and finally said, "You are going to look so different from every other woman there. I am so proud of you." That's all I needed to hear to feel good about being the only modest woman at this party. During the wedding ceremony someone read out of Romans about respecting the body and not heeding the dictates of the times'. It was ultimately a passage about love and I would post the reference but it wasn't in the King James Version language so I'm not sure where to find it, but I felt very good about being modest again.
The reception was fun. It was held at the elegant
St. Regis hotel with cocktails in an outdoor courtyard surrounded by azaleas and pink and white blooming dogwood trees. The flowers in the centerpieces alone must have cost thousands of dollars. The bride wanted a "pink explosion" and I think she got one.
We knew a lot of people there that Josh used to work with and we had a nice time. We all left saying we need to get together again soon. Dinner was corn chowder with a miniature crab cake, fois gras with a carmelized mango sauce (disgusting), Chilean sea bass with cream ginger sauce, steamed carrots and asparagus, a small filet mignon with truffles scented mashed potatoes and green beans garnished with tempura scallions. All this is from memory! It was a delicious change from Costco chicken and tuna casserole.
After dinner there was a live 80's band and Josh and I danced for about 15 minutes. This is the first time I've ever actually seen Josh fast dance. He was good and, of course, funny! We had a blast. I fell in love all over again with my 32-year old husband in a tuxedo. When we got married he didn't know how to put on a tux and now he looks so comfortable in one. Never pretentious, he just knows how to be himself.
It took a lot of preparation for us to leave the boys and get dressed up, and it took some time to recover! The boys were very clingy the next couple of days, but it was worth it. I felt like my smile was going to crack my cheeks and that I would start crying tears of love for this man who took me on as a work in progress and has patiently helped me grow up . . . just a little!
Until next time, "Walk Like an Egyptian!"
Michael got through it with a fixed gaze at me or his dad in the mirror the whole time.
While Sam needed the distraction of his favorite toy ever, the Blackberry.
