Wedding in Poughkeepsie

My friend from law school married his childhood love; they met about 12 years ago so perhaps teenage love is a better description. Since I am in between jobs at the moment, I went to Poughkeepsie early to help them with set up for the wedding. The bride works as a theatre director, and is a dancer, so of course there would be a dance number. While the wedding party was rehearsing, I helped assemble lanterns. At one point the entire room was a mess of cardboard, plastic, and other packaging materials as we scrambled to cut the flowers and set up the center pieces before the ceremony. I joked that they picked the wrong person to hang lanterns on the trees--since I'm quite short, we had a bunch of low hanging (though pretty) lanterns along the trees. Later some taller people added more.

I was in charge of the welcome table, along with my other friend. I had taken off my high heels because we had been doing a lot of moving around, and as the guests arrived, I realized that I had lost my shoes! My friend took over the table for me, while I searched frantically for my shoes. As I found them, someone asked me whether the ceremony would start on time, since some people were still walking from the station. I said it wouldn't, since I figured they might still be rehearsing. "But the groom said it would start on time."

"Well he's probably right then, so they should hurry. Anyhow what do I know, I lost my shoes!" 

The ceremony was beautiful, and held outside, overlooking the river and mountains of Poughkeepsie. It really was a gorgeous venue. The groom was so happy that he cried, which was really sweet. The food was particularly good, and there was an open bar. My favorite was the shrimp and coconut panna cotta, and for dinner I had rib eye steak. I hadn't eaten that much meat in a while, so I ended up feeling a bit sick the next day but it was worth it. Of course, the dance party was a lot of fun, since the bride is a dancer and many of her friends are very good dancers too. 

They chartered a bus to take us home, and I passed out and slept the entire way back.