Wedding Whoops!

My cousin's wedding was one for the record books. There were three wedding receptions - two intentional, the third - not so much! We attended the wedding ceremony, two wedding receptions, and the rehearsal dinner that was hosted by our grandmother. It was quite a busy weekend.

The wedding was a formal afternoon affair with the bride in a floor-length wedding gown, cathedral train and veil. She looked stunning and happy.

The first wedding reception was at the church, where everyone was served champagne or non-alcoholic punch, wedding cake, and desserts. It was a lovely reception that really came in handy when faced with the rest of the day.

While many guests were attending only the church wedding reception, there was another wedding reception planned for family and friends at the bride’s parent’s home. When we arrived, there was a lovely dance floor set up in a huge tent in the backyard. A band was playing music and folks were standing around with drinks in their hands munching on potato chips.

Sadly, the wedding caterers never showed up, so the only food available was in the form of some frozen Swedish meatballs that the bride's mother thawed and cooked! Many of us rushed to the store and bought as much prepared food as we could find - sheet pizzas for appetizers, prepared orders of chicken, beef, fish, potatoes, rice and vegetables - anything. We set everything out in serving dishes and the 100 or so guests were happy and didn't know that anything untoward had occurred. (Here is a cute article about other wedding woes.)

There was one small problem: there wasn't enough food for the family and bridal party! Because of this, my grandmother insisted we all go back to our house after the wedding reception - the exhausted parents of the bride, the out-of-town relatives and the bridal party.

We called our favorite restaurant and ordered 75 hamburgers, fries, and sodas to go. Then we all took off our shoes and relaxed, munching on burgers and fries and drinking wine and sodas. Finally we put on music and began dancing. This third party went on well into the night.

For years now we still remember fondly the day of three wedding receptions. As for the wedding caterers, they had the date wrong and showed up the next morning. The moral of this story is this: always check your wedding vendors and make sure they know when and where to be!