wedding bells

On Sat I attended the wedding of my uncle!

My mom is one of 8, and uncle Jim is the last of the 8 to get married, the youngest guy. That being said, he is still in his 40's. It was a really pretty ceremony, though I have to admit I did not pay attention to too much of it because I was cantor. The church was pretty huge and the acoustics crazy. I think you could whisper and be heard across it. They thankfully had a choir loft with and organ and clavichord in it... plus a full mike system... I was so pleased that I did not have to stand and sing in front of everyone.








That being said, the singing part went well, though I was nervous. My family, of course, gushed with compliments. I have to admit that I find it both embarrassing and awkward to accept compliments about singing. I mean yes, I think I did a decent job of it, and I only messed up once on a timing thing, and it went well... but.... I dunno. I just feel like with my family and stuff they are obligated to say something nice to me. Like any time I ran into my cousins or whatever, the first thing they said was WOW you did a GREAT job or something like that... instead of like hi, how are you, how is life? I dunno... I just dont like it. I do not want to seem ungrateful or anything... it just makes me feel really awkward. I dont want them to feel obligated. I dont know if they actually DO feel that way, but maybe its just my insecurity over singing... its easier to accept that they feel obligated than to accept that I really did sound good and deserved the compliments.




Anyway, the ceremony went really well, and I do not think there was a dry eye in the house on the Wolf side. My uncle is paralyzed and basically everyone thought he would never get married. But I think we all knew from the moment he started dating Maureen that things would turn out as they did. It definitely takes a special woman to take on that sort of burden, even if she does love him.




One of my uncle's best friends gave a great toast. He quoted Shakespeare: "Some men are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them". He explained further that anyone in his family knew that Jim was born great.... that his friends know he has achieved greatness.... and anyone looking at Maureen could tell that greatness has certainly been thrust upon him. :)

The only sort of unfortunate thing about the wedding was the guy Jim brought in to sing a special song for Maureen... Lady of Knock. His name is Stan. And he is probably the most pompous guy I have met in a long time. He sang his song... in mostly the right key (cringe)... but then did not walk away from the mike. I was singing some other stuff, and he just sang right along in the mike! And even when we did the Our Father, he started saying the prayer INTO THE MIKE! WTF?! He was a jerk.

Then he sang some more songs at the reception.... yeah... he also brought his wife and MOTHER to the reception. HELLO?! NOT YOUR WEDDING!

HE ALSO CAME TO THE BRUNCH THE NEXT DAY AND SANG THERE!!!!! UGH!

Here is a picture of me and my cousin (who played the organ and clavichord and organized all the music and is so so talented!!!!!!) and.... Stan. Ugh.









Anyway, other than Stan, it went beautifully. Special thanks go out to J, A, J, C, N, and A for singing The Rainsong by the SubDudes. Honestly, my uncle said one of the highlights of his whole day was to hear us singing that and for Maureen to be singing along and how happy and surprised she was that we got it together. :)








It was a great time, lots of dancing and singing. :) J & I came home that night to a wonderfully empty house (everyone else stayed there) and got to enjoy the time alone. It was blissful. :)