The wedding rehearsal

The wedding rehearsal was everything – and nothing – I hoped it would be.

I’d half expected mint juleps being sipped by elegant Southern belles, what I got was a friendly, down-home feast.

Held on a ramshackle wharf called Crosby’s Dock, there was a vat of vodka and mint infused punch, endless cans of beer and an enormous tub of shrimp boil with corn bread.

(A Southern speciality of boiled shrimp, smoked sausage and corn with garlic, onions, crab boil seasonings, cayenne pepper, hot sauce, salt, lemons, and bay leaf.)

Star of the show wasn’t the bride or groom – as lovely as they were – but a friend of the family called Donnie. Donnie cheerily announced to everyone, between hearty swigs of something from a bottle in a brown paper bag, that he was officiating at the wedding ceremony as long as he “wasn’t in booty jail”, that he’d made the fetta for the salad himself from his own goats AND that he’d baked the bread and butter pudding (not from his own goats, I hope).

He’s promising to give a very entertaining speech at the wedding tonight.

I love speeches at weddings and you get to enjoy lots of extra ones at the wedding rehearsal. The mother of the groom, sister of the groom, brother of the bride and best friend of the bride all gave tear-inducing ones.

Later, there were hugs all round as we caught up with old friends. Wow a lot happens in four years, especially when you’ve been a bit slack about keeping in touch.

Aside from the impending nuptials there’d been a wedding, a divorce, a baby, a health crisis and a surprise pregnancy since we last met.

As we waited for cabs to take us to the next venue, a bar called The Royal American, the rain started sheeting down, flash flood style (quite common in the South apparently).

Even The Royal American – a chaotic, colorful place redolent with the scent of hot dogs, that wasn’t at all – didn’t seem quite prepared for the ferocity of the downpour. Rain dripped off the light fittings, shorting the electricity.

One of our old friends is dating a soap opera actress from Columbia – as you do – who suggested the happy couple try something her director does when it rains on the set: something to do with a mirror with two knives crossed over it. She swears it works a treat in Bogota.

Hopefully the rain holds off for the wedding today. The skies are grey, the air has a chill in it, but no downpours so far.

Bring on the yard games!