Wine and the Wedding

I was too tired last night to blog after we got back from the wedding, so here's a quick rundown of our weekend:

We spent some time yesterday morning driving around and looking for a local winery in the middle of nowhere. Despite our usual navigation misadventure, we found the place and were able to sample several wines and a couple of liquors. We bought six bottles, and Eugene signed up for the mailing list. There were a couple of other wineries in the area, but we had time to visit only one. Besides, it wouldn't do to sample too much wine before the wedding. ;)

After lunch, we changed and rode a specially chartered bus to a 19th-century church. It held over 260 people, and the place was packed. No wedding is perfect, and the ceremony had a couple of glitches: for reasons unknown, it started 18 minutes late (the priest pointed out in his homily that this was a church record), and a couple of the readers flubbed their lines. During the prayers for the faithful, the readers said that the bride's grandparents were no longer alive when they were very much alive; the audience laughed. The important thing, however, was that the couple did get married successfully , and they seemed quite happy. The bride beamed during the entire ceremony. This is the first wedding Eugene and I have been to since our marriage, so the vow exchange was quite meaningful to us. That didn't keep Eugene from asking someone with ESPN on his cellphone about the U.S.-Italy soccer game during the ceremony. Ah, I rib him, but I expect no less of my soccer fanatic. ;)

After the bride and groom rode off in a horse-drawn carriage, we took the bus to the reception, which was held at the bride's parent's summer home on a lake where the bride and groom got engaged. It was outdoors under a tent. Despite the predicted heat, it wasn't that bad, though the gnats did get annoying. The caterers did a great job. We wound up leaving early since Eugene's shoulder was bothering him. There was a post-wedding brunch this morning, though, so we got to spend a little more time with the bride, a mutual friend of Eugene and the bride, and some other Chicago-area guests. (I should also correct a previous blog entry: Eugene didn't meet the bride in vet school; they met during an internship he did at a surgical clinic. If I still didn't get that right, Eugene, feel free to explain it.)

We stopped to have a late lunch with Eugene's family before we made it home. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to see my own dad today, so I called him instead. Hopefully soon we can treat him to dinner to make up for it.

I didn't get much writing done over the weekend, but I reviewed Sue's latest chapter tonight and went through some of Lennon's Line. Since Eugene did all the driving this weekend, I managed to read three novels this weekend--not that it makes much of a dent in my "to-read" stacks.

I'll post pictures tomorrow; I'm too lazy to upload mine right now, and Eugene's turned out better anyway.