Hey everyone, it's time for another wedding in my family, this time it's MMT to Cowboy. The last time on this side of the family it was going to Tanman's wedding, but I never finished writing that one, so here's the link to turtlegirl's wedding. Mskate didn't join us for this one, she was busy at friends for life, but it was alright since my family is a little wild for her, and when I'm with her at FFL I guess I stress her out, so it was all great on both ends. Since I've done wedding videos for other cousins, I offered to do it for MMT as a wedding gift, and she wasn't really planning on having a videographer so she welcomed my offer. I was special, I had a job to do in the wedding. The first day wasn't all that special, vikingpolak and I both worked half a day and then drove down together, him picking me up on the way down and then alternating between drivers on the way, listening to ALT2K on the satellite radio and reliving our high school days. We got there around 7PM their time (8PM our time), which meant we missed the kickback at the hotel, but mom saved us food.
Before getting into the stories, I just want to remind everyone of who everyone is and some new names.
- vikingpolak is my brother
- everyone past this is my second cousin once removed, or whatever it is where you share great grandparents and your grandma's are sisters; my only first cousin on this side of the family is tanman and he didn't come because he's busy with his new daughter flower
- my oldest cousin is MMT, she is getting married to Cowboy
- my second oldest cousin is pepperBC, and she is now in a serious relationship with who I will now call pepperAD, and is first cousins with MMT
- my next cousin is turtlegirl, who is married to who I will now call turtleboy, and is first cousins with MMT
- my youngest cousin is MMT's brother, who I've struggled to find a name for (I've called him "R" and "boy cousin" in the past), but now that he has a defined mullet I will be calling him "mullet," and he's engaged to someone I don't have a name for yet (hopefully I'll figure out something by the time I go to their wedding next year).
We didn't get to visit with our cousins since they had all left for the night, but we did get to see our aunts and uncles who were still there and hanging out in the conference room. Once we got there I started my video duties and got everyone to with MMT and Cowboy a happy wedding. While we were all visiting mskate called and I put her on speaker phone so the whole family could say hello. Once that was all over and we were saying out goodbyes, I told my great uncle "I want to see the 25 diamond ring my great grandpa got for not having an accident in 25 years of trucking." At first he didn't know what I was talking about, but then he picked up on what I was talking about and said he'll look for it (I'll give more details when I get to that part of the trip). Mom heard Mullet was thinking about doing something with everyone before the end of the night (probably bowling), but when I texted him he said MMT was really tired so we didn't go out. Before the end of the night turtlegirl came up to the hotel and visited. It was pretty fun seeing her, and telling her about how at my grandma's 85th birthday I wished she was there to break the tie in what we would do. I also told her the story of the ring, something she hadn't heard before (I guess my great aunt wasn't as much of a story teller as my grandma). I started the story with "our great grandpa," and my mom interjected "not just your great grandpa, he's her great grandpa too" and I said "I know, I said 'our' which includes [turtlegirl]."
Our first day in started pretty crazy. We were going to have a pretty calm day before the rehearsal and set-up, and that's how it started with breakfast at the hotel, but then mom came into the room saying "get ready, MMT thinks she has bead bugs, we need to go over there to check now." Back in 2013, or whatever the summer after my sophomore year of college was, my family got bed bugs, and so we know what dealing with bedbugs is really like. We drove over to her and Cowboy's apartment, which wasn't all that far from the hotel, and inspected. Yeah, it was bed bugs, so mom and I start frantically packing up their entire bedroom in thick garbage bags and storing it in the bedroom. Cowboy was helping me put the clothes in the garbage bags, and this was the first time I really spent time with him (I didn't have a lot of time with him at the fall festival, and I wasn't at my grandma's 90th birthday since I was in Hawaii for my oldest cousin's wedding), so I jokingly introduced myself and he got a laugh. Funny thing happened next (that I can laugh about now), the apartment called an exterminator and he was supposed to call MMT to give further directions, but he had the wrong number and called an ornery guy who was all "I don't know who the *** you are, but I don't want to hear about no *** bed bugs, never call me again." Turns out that since the infestation wasn't that large, the exterminator could have just bug bombed the room as is and not have to put everything in garbage bags, and if he could have gotten ahold of us he would have told us to wait. Whoops, but we were just going off our experience with a really bad infestation. We sprayed ourselves down with 91% isopropal alcohol, and I told mullet "if you can't breath for 2 seconds because the alcohol is so strong, you know you've done it right." When that was all over, we went back to the hotel and took a little rest.
For lunch dad, vikingpolak, and I went to the Hilltop Inn for lunch, where I had a brain sandwich, like I do every time I go to Evansville. I love those things, and took a little video of me eating it. Dad had a burger and vikingpolak had chicken fingers. Well, chicken fingers is an understatement, these were so large they were more like "chicken hands." He had a 4 piece, and there was so much that he had some left overs.
After lunch we went to see my great uncle at his house. This is when we got to see the pin. When I was young, my grandma told me about how her dad was a great truck driver, and because he had 25 years without an accident he got a ring with 25 small diamonds in it, 1 for each year of no accidents, and it was entrusted to her brother (my great uncle) after my great grandma died. Now that my grandma is gone I had to see it. It actually wasn't a ring, it was a lapel pin, and it wasn't 25 diamonds, it was 17. Regardless, it was an award for great truck driving. The way that the pin was, it could have been turned into a ring; it was a small circular pendant, that is about the same size as the stone in my grandpa's ring, and when I pointed that out my great uncle pulled a tie tack he had made into a ring that he had on a shelf. In addition to the pin, he had a trophy for being trucker of the year, that my great uncle pulled out to show us. This award never came up in the past; maybe it's just because "diamonds are a girl's best friend" or my great grandpa wore that pin on special occasions whereas the trophy just stayed somewhere else, but my grandma never talked about the solid brass trophy when talking about her dad, so that was a really cool addition to "look at what my dad, your great grandpa, achieved," and I could tell my great uncle really appreciated having someone appreciate it. I took pictures and sent them to both my mom (who heard the story of the ring/pin), and turtlegirl (who never heard of it until the night before). Both of them were really excited to see the pictures. Such a great bit of family history that was finally truly shared with other generations.
After that visit we went to the reception venue where we did some set-up. As the videographer I took video of all the decorations while there weren't a lot of people in the way. The reception venue was looking pretty good. After that we had the wedding rehearsal where my main job was figuring out where to best set-up my camera. I ended up being pretty limited in where I could set-up because it was an old church without a lot of power outlets. I brought 2 extension chords and a power strip with a long chord, so I had a fair amount of reach, but I still could only set-up on the side with the piano since that's where the power outlet was. I was able to note where to set-up by noting which Station of the Cross I could stand by (#10, Jesus is Stripped of His Garments).
The rehearsal dinner was fun. It was catered pasta from Olive Garden in the cafeteria of the school Aunt G and Uncle D work in. This is where the pokematic fun begins. I pulled out my pink wig (because I had pink hair at Aunt A's wedding back in college) and put it on. MMT laughed, Cowboy laughed, everyone laughed and had a lot of fun. I took pictures with Aunt A and turtlegirl since they had the pink hair for their weddings. I had pepperBC take my picture with turtlegirl and turtleboy, and turtleboy said "you need to get your picture with [pepperBC]" since she and pepperAD were sitting across from them, but I told him "no, this is just for those that have had the pink wig at their wedding, and she hasn't had her turn yet." Dinner was olive garden pasta. I had spaghetti with meat sauce and Italian sausage, and the other options was Alfredo sauce or tomato sauce, and meat balls. I saved some sausages and meat balls for the reception the next day, because dinner was chicken and I don't like chicken. The rest of the night was pretty calm before bed, just everyone getting ready for the big day.
OK, it is now wedding day. We had breakfast at the hotel and saved some for later. I had waffles and breakfast potatoes, and saved some waffles for later. Around 11 I got dressed in my suit and got the camera equipment all packed up. Vikingpolak pulled up to the hotel to pick me up and we went to the church. As we were going down to the car, something pretty wild happened. In the lobby there was someone sitting with a big German Shepheard "service dog." I was dropping a plate off in the dining area and as I was walking past the dog jumped at me and grabbed onto my suit jacket in a very agressive way; it had all the mannerisms of a guard dog on the attack. The owner called her off like 1 second later and no damage done, but I was almost mauled by a dog. When we got to the church I set-up all my gear and gave some directions to my dad on what I wanted him to do from his seat (because he brought his video camera), and had vikingpolak tape down the extension cords since that's the responsible thing to do. We just waited for people to show up, and I took some pictures and video of things beforehand. My great aunt looked very regal, kind of like Queen Elisabeth. The ceremony was really good. My aunts did the music and did a phenomenal job. Filming the wedding was rather challenging. When I filmed the other weddings I was just holding the camera from my seat, whereas with this one I had a tripod off to the side, and 2 of the guests were kind of in my viewing angle, so I had to zoom around them for some of the things, and at one point I just picked up the tripod and moved it. My 10th grade video production teacher would have been rather angry and taken points off, but I did what I had to do and it turned out well. Once the ceremony was over we all gathered outside and blew bubbles at them as they left the church, which I also got on video.
Now it's time for the reception. We arrived relatively early, enough for us to get our seats. I brought in the camera, took some B-roll of the hall all ready for the night, put on my second pokemon tie (because dad got us clip on bowties with pikachu or eevee), and was ready for the night of fun. Where I happened to be seated ended up being the perfect place to watch the grand entrance, so I got all the video of that. After the grand entrance there was a little confusion as to who was going to say grace. MMT and Cowboy invited the priests who officiated to come to the reception, but it wasn't certain if either would make it, so they asked vikingpolak to say grace if needed. Here's the funny thing, the priest that did come has a name very similar to vikingpolak's real name, so when the DJ said "will [vikingpolak] come up to say grace" he got up to do it but then the priest also got up, so it was some funny confusion, but no problems. Dinner was really good, because they had southern green beans. It's green beans with bacon and what I think was molasses, and it is SOOOOO good. I had a big plate of those with some macaroni and cheese, and then my meatballs from the previous night. I was up with pepperad, and warned him not to get the green beans since they weren't vegetarian (he's vegetarian). As I'm walking back to the table Aunt T asked if I was vegetarian now too, and I said "no I just don't like chicken, don't you remember," and she was like "...yes, I just didn't know you were still like that." I'm not sure exactly where in the events this happened, but at some point around here the bride and groom cut the cake, and everyone was allowed to come take pictures (or in my case, video) so long as they didn't interfere with the professional photographer. I videoed the whole thing, including MMT's little dance at the end. Aunt G asked me if I got that on video because she wasn't fast enough, and I confirmed that I did.
Once dinner was over the real fun started. First we had the maid/matron of honor speeches (because MMT had 2 I guess), and the best man speech. Unfortunately cowpoke as junior best man didn't give a speech (to which cowboy later told me he was hoping he would), but oh well. The speeches were great, very flattering with a hint of roasting, like all good wedding speeches are. After those they did "the shoe game," where the bride and groom sit back to back each with one of each other's shoes, the DJ asks questions about who is more likely to do what, and they raise the shoe of who they think most fits that. It was good light hearted fun, and everyone had a lot of fun with it, and I got it on video. After that was the bouquet toss (just bouquet, no garter). Because MMT and cowboy are "on the older side" (early 30s), there weren't a lot of single women at the reception. This is where it was fun though, my aunts (and some general guests) convinced my great aunt who's 89 years old and has been a widow for at least 50 years to stand with the single women. That was fun.
Now it's time for the dancing. MMT and Cowboy had their first dance, followed by MMT having the father daughter dance, with cowboy having his mother son dance, and because it's a southern wedding, the dollar dance. For those who don't know, the dollar dance is a novelty dance where wedding guests can pay a dollar to ensure they get to dance with the bride or groom. At turtlegirl's wedding someone paid to have great aunt dance with turtleboy, and I tried to do the same thing this time with cowboy, but she was all "no I'm too old now." Before the general dancing started, the photagrapher wanted to get a picture of everyone, so we're all trying to figure out how to best organize ourselves so everyone can be seen. I'm on the taller side so I'm in the back, and I see 2 boys kind of trying to figure out where to go while on the head table stage, and I said "young bloods, you got to get up to the front." Right after the picture was taken the DJ started playing Cha Cha Slide, and we broke into dance.
The dancing was great, a good mix of slow songs, fast songs, hip hop, rock, and country, and I got msot of it on video. I've found a good technique for taking video on the dance floor, there's some moving to give the impression of dancing but not so much as to be jarring. After a bit of warm up with the cha cha slide and a slow dance, we did the anniversary dance where married couples dance and leave once the DJ says "only couples who've been married X years now" as we see who in the crowd has been married the longest. At turtlegirl's wedding it was my grandparents who just had 60, and this time it was a tie between my great uncle and someone on cowboy's side who both had 46 years. I gotta say, I was missing mskate with these. However, she's not too much for the wild and the goofy, so some events to come would have not worked well for her. Since my wedding was a covid wedding and my mom and I didn't get to have a "real mother son dance," we said "when there's a slow song and not a lot of people on the dance floor, we're having an unofficial mother son dance." Thankfully that came up pretty quickly, I noticed and said "now's our time, [vikingpolak] take the video," and we had our dance. We didn't dance the entire song, in part because pepperad, turtleboy, and mullet decided to start dancing together, arms on each other's shoulders swaying to the music, and mom said "go join your cousins" and I did, with vikingpolak joining in shortly after, and then not to be left out Aunt A, Aunt K, and turtlegirl started doing the same, all of which made it on video. Speaking of pepperad, he got pepperbc to do some dancing; not much, just waved her arms some while standing there, but it's a lot more than we got her to do at other weddings. One really fun thing was one of cowboy's groomsmen had a baby and he brought the baby out on the dance floor in a baby Bjorn and was really getting into the music while decked out in his denim and big cowboy hat (he was "cowdad") and stole the show when he was out there. I made sure to get some video of that. The only other "noteworthy dance story" was when some guests started doing the rockytop, and the DJ started playing rockytop so we could really do it, but it only ended up being the 5 of us no one else wanted to join in. It's too bad because at Aunt A's wedding we had a big rockytop group going. I guess the other noteworthy story was when I got the DJ to play Grillz, a song that we liked to have dance parties with back when we were pre-teens. Unfortunately I didn't get all the cousins out to have a big dance party like when we were young (it was kind of late in the evening), but the rest of the guests had a lot of fun with it. Also, here's a picture of me from the photo booth.
After about 3 hours MMT and cowboy had the last dance of the night and then it was time to pack it all up. Because we were still there at the end of the night, we helped with the clean up and pack up that we had to get done before midnight. Gathering up all the table settings, packing up all the decorations, cleaning up the spilled drinks and outside mess, and similar. Mullet and some guys were watching the Connor McGregor fight since I guess he was fighting that night, and he apparently went down like a punk in the first 5 minutes (they were not too happy). Pepperad and turtleboy were going around "peddling rolls" trying to get people to eat a left over roll and butter. I had one because they made me a great offer, the low low price of free and butter included. While cleaning up we found a sparkly pair of women's shoes, and no one knew whose they were. I said "I thought only the bride was allowed to wear sparkly shoes to a wedding," and MMT and aunt G thought that was funny. We packed them up in a bin saying "someone will say 'where are my shoes' and will come get them." Everything was going to MMT's and cowboy's appartment, and had to go in someone's car. We were able to get it all packed up with like 10 minutes to spare. This is where things get funny though, aunt A said "where are my shoes, I left them right here, they're silver sparkly heels," and MMT and I are like "those are packed deep in a car, we didn't know whose they were so we just said 'someone will contact me tomorrow.'" Luckily she's the same size as mullet's girlfriend so she wore her extra pair of sandals. We got them home and MMT is like "I'm starving, I didn't get to eat my plate, I want some of this food from the wedding," so she made herself a plate before bed. I got back to the hotel at like 1AM and just passed out tired after showering.
Sunday was pretty low key, had breakfast with the family at the hotel, and after saying goodbyes to those who were awake (because all of my cousins were still asleep) vikingpolak and I went home. It was an 8 hour drive, pretty uneventful, but we did see a Mennonite group at the taco bell we stopped at. I unloaded my stuff, watched sunday night cartoons on FOX like I do every week, and then watched mass on youtube before going to bed. I took Monday off so I didn't have to worry about being too tired, and so I could do the editing for the video. I spent basically all day pulling together the videos and pictures I took, organizing it in the editing software, and then cutting it together in a good way. There were some set-up and rehearsal stuff, but it mostly ended up being the wedding ceremony and reception. There ended up being some "slide show over music" like other videos I did since my aunts were very proud of their singing before the ceremony, and cowboy jokingly asked for a sing-along like I did for my grandma's video, so I sang some songs from our youth while putting pictures and b-roll video over it. As I was putting it together, I realized just how "millennial" it ended up being; a lot of people were pointing at the camera and making faces when we were dancing, others were lip syncing in a funny way, and while I was doing the ending song compellation there were some clips where it was "person talking over their shoulder, but they're muted because of the music" that was common in like all the millennial video yearbooks. Because the video was so long it took 2 hours to render, and after I finished rendering it and did some review of the footage I realized I left a clip on the timeline I didn't want to have on it, so I went back, removed it, and then spent another 2 hours rendering. I was able to get it uploaded to google drive before going to bed, so I was able to share it with everyone who needed it (MMT, Aunt G, Aunt A, Aunt K, my mom, and Mullet), after clearing it with MMT. It was a great weekend, great seeing everyone again, and another family wedding. This has been Pokematic, signing off, and bu-bye.
