Lena and I set out to get married oh, fives months ago. I could honestly say we're a lot closer. Our reception for our parents was a lot of fun. September 20th will live forever in my mind as the day I danced as Hector Lavoe, the famous Puerto Rican salsa virtuoso, in front of my parents. Yes, friends. It was quite an event.
The entire point was to give my extended family a chance to celebrate the marriage. And celebrate they did. I still have the pony keg I picked up with my uncle Lanny that morning. It's squatting in the work room, probably totally foam.
Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning, Katy, mom, Sara, Bina, Mindy, Deivis, Pat and Lena brought baskets of food and transformed our modest apartment all-electric wannabe kitchen into a living thing that ate flour and spit out delicious treats.
The food was better than good. It was made by the hands of the people who love us. And everyone pitched in to make the evening entertaining. Our friend Deivis brought his Venezuelan cuatro and my dad brought his guitar. They tried to strike a deal between the harp-like four-string cuatro and the deep, slow pluck of the guitar, but in the end they parted amiably and played samples from both American and Venezuelan traditions. Deivis had the benefit of a choir of female tenors (Linda, Lena, Liz Beth and Sandy) singing along all their might. Dad had me, and I had been drinking. Still, we managed to pull off The Boxer and Bob Dylan's dream, my personal favorite.
The Boxer is special, too, as that was the song dad tried to teach me back in high school. I can still remember a few chords.
One of my best friends, Josh, jumped into his truck in The far northwest corner of Georgia and rocketed into the night with his girlfriend just to be there. My friends Bina and Sarah Epting showed up and kept themselves entertained by marveling at how fast Bina and my sisters' fruit tarts got snarfed. Jennifer took control of the video camera and made history. BTW, she is also a master of dog hair removal, treasure hunting, rollerblading, tropical flower cultiviation and, in case you aren't sold, she gives life-altering back massages. Do I have good friends or what?
Lena's friends added their spice and charisma to the party. Rosario and Jeff sat stylishly on the couch while Liz Beth and her beau chatted in the sofa adjacent. My uncle Lanny grabbed a scotch and joked around with anyone who sat on his arm rest. My engaging, wise aunt Katy met and proceeded to know everyone and like everyone and they all liked her, too. Lena kept the music distinctly mixed, and when some tambore began to play, she encouraged everyone to shake their ass, including me.
Shake I did. I need to learn. The next party is in Venezuela and could last a long time and involve a lot more gluteal input. So I need to practice. I'm getting ready like Rocky. I wake and I practice Spanish every mañana, 7AM via my Rosetta Stone software. I now know EXACTLY what a montaña is and EXACTLY how to wear it, thank you very much. I've also been taking careful notes about Venezuelan culture and slang. I'm up to date on the political state of the country, it's relations to the U.S., Russia and itself. Mr. Chavez, I beg to differ: Shankees are NOT mierrrrrrrrrrda!
Anyway, the party was starting to die down a little, and there was still a lot of food to eat, and I needed people to stay and eat it. so I took action. I jumped into a white nylon suit with a rainbow big-collar suit adorned in gold chains and leapt into the party as a strutting, microphone-wielding Hector Lavoe (special thanks go to my cousin Chad Maness for providing the John Ra-volta costume). It worked. And although now I feel my strategy a little extreme and just slightly embarrassing, for some reason it worked perfectly and no one batted an eye. I love my family.
Ah, the next day...
NOTE: To all prospective brides in the middle of planning your wedding, the true purpose of catoring isn't the food. Anyone can or has family who can cook. It's the fact that the caterer also cleans and packs up everything and takes it away. Another lesson learned the hard way.
So here we are, Lena and I, swimming in the roiling economic seas. We still have work coming in, but there have been cancelations, too. Luckily, we've booked three weddings already for 2009 with a few more decisions in the air. Good times or bad, love reigns, people fall in love and some marry under the warm smiles of the ones they love. I know, it's happened to me. Twice. We enjoy making photographs for these happy people. If you are once of them, please give us a call. www.saldiviajones.com or 404.228.9739. Peace.
Notes
1 comment:
That suit is awesome.
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