Cynically Optimistic

Saturday was the only really interesting bit. I was a "+1" to a wedding in Great Neck, which is just outside of Queens. It was a very interesting time. The church was really nice. Big, open brick building, with a big booming ceremony focusing a lot on procreation and the pursuit of "romantic love". Then we had 2.5 hours to kill until the doors open at the reception.

We had a little to eat and a drink at a bar and wandered the town of Great Neck. Nice little town, pretty similar to the rest of the little villages on the north shore.

Reception time! The building is huge. It's 3 floors and can do 4 events simultaneously. The place was decorated in marble columns, gold accents, gaudy wallpaper, overbearing chandeliers, classic French and Italian paintings in gold frames. A tad overbearing for my taste. You can check out the photos for yourself.

Cocktail hour was a lot of fun. The appetizers were delicious and so were the drinks (even though I had to take it easy since I was driving). You picked up your name card and then got to sit anywhere for the cocktail hour (since the tables were not numbered), which was a little odd, but professional wedding attenders were on hand to direct me. They had neat cards where you were supposed to draw a picture of yourself and the bride/groom with little fill-in-the-blank places which was really a neat idea. Then we were ushered into the dining/dancing hall.

Dinner: even more mirrors! Now we had table numbers, yay organization. There was even a band which turned out to be really awesome. The lady emcee was great, too. They did things a little differently with the dancing and eating. We had our first course and salad, and they took our main course orders. And now we DANCE! The band never missed a beat. The songs didn't end. It was just a giant medley and we were ordered to dance. We had to work for our dinner. Then we finally got to eat, and I was not impressed. Should have filled up with appetizers. During the dancing they the wedding coordinator passed out sunglasses and leis. Everybody loves props.

Then we had dinner. Then we were ordered to dance again! DANCE I SAY! More props, this time glow sticks. It was kinda like a trance party only with a crowd of Phillipino, German, and Arab-Israeli relatives. I think I am losing my touch since I did not manage to dance with the mother of either the bride or groom. Probably because I was driving.