The Party is Over, We are Married Now!

Chappy and I made it to the vestibule with minutes to spare before we had to prepare for photos.  We did not have a receiving line.  Time was very limited.  As soon as the ceremony was over, we had photos to take and then a reception to attend. We jumped in to Tina Marie's new car, a Cutlass convertible that just happened to coordinate with our wedding colors! 

Mr. & Mrs. Schafer

We wanted our photos taken in the back yard of Chappy's childhood home.  They took several pictures, we were gone long enough for our guests to get across to the hall.  We returned to the church for the rest of our photos.

My New Family

Min insisted they go first as they had "guests" to attend to at the hall across the street.  So the photographer took every shot Min wanted.  When we captured every shot of John Boy, Min, Sissy, Wes, Chappy and I, she took off for the hall. Then we had to take photos of the bridal party and finally we got to my family.  Photos of my parents with the bride and groom.  The photographer was able to get one shot of my father and I, one of my mother and I and one of the three of us.  Chappy was standing off talking to his best man and was called up to partake in a photo of the bride, groom and his in-laws.

The one and only of my family

Chicken Dinner? - NOT!

The photographer snapped one photo, Chappy appears to have been surprised, perhaps because he saw his mother coming through the doors demanding the photo shoot be over, "your guests are waiting patiently, people are hungry..." clapping her hands to rush us to make our appearance.  I wanted a few more shots of my parents but Min said there was no time.

Well, shut my mouth, I guess we had time for all your photos and I'm just the bride at your party, how did I forget! I told Chappy I wanted a few more pictures, but he was headed out the door. Mother was calling. We headed over to the hall and I was not surprised to see my "guests" had been shoved in the far corner.  My own parents did not have a table up near the bridal party, they were shoved in the corner by the exit to the restrooms.  I was livid! All the tables up by the bridal table were filled with Min's family.  My parents didn't even have a "reserved" sign on their table! This was definitely Min's party now!

Just One Dance

We followed protocol, headed the line for the buffet, had more pictures taken, had the best man give a toast and then Chappy stood up to toast his parents.  Paying tribute to his mom. You would have thought she had won a Tony award for the production she had orchestrated that day.

After we cut the cake, we did the traditional father/daughter and mother/son dances.  And then it was time to have some fun!  By myself!  It was going on 9:30 by this time and we had two hours before we had to be out of the hall. Min pulled us off to the side to tell us "we" were expected to go to each table and thank everyone for attending our wedding first! I made it through a few tables and then called it quits. This might have been Min's party, but I was going to go to "my people" and enjoy the rest of the evening.

We danced, we enjoyed our selves and Chappy did what his mother had asked him to do.  Chappy had hurt his knee a few weeks earlier in a Gus Macker tournament, so I  understood he may not feel like dancing, but, he could have shown me that night that I was number one, even if only for two hours.

The Schafer's

It was nearing the end of the night and they played a slow song, Chappy came over to get me. We had only danced once and that was when tradition called for it.  I was so looking forward to dancing with my husband.  We weren't even through a minute and Sissy and Wes danced up to us.  I stiffened like a board, knowing what was going to happen, Sissy broke loose from Wes and wanted to dance with her baby brother, which meant, I would have to dance with Wes.  Chappy finally stepped up to the plate and told his sister, "No, I want to dance with my beautiful bride" and whisked me away from her.

Glory of Love

She immediately broke into tears and headed to Min to tell her what had happened.  Min called us over to the side of the floor and told Chappy he had hurt his sister's feelings and needed to dance with her now! You  have got to be kidding me! Sissy went crying to her mother and she had the nerve to tell Chappy to drop and roll!  I walked away and told Chappy I'd see him after the reception.  I realized that again, this wasn't our wedding, this was just a production that we were starring in.

Eleven fifteen soon rolled around and Chappy came to find me, "Let's get out of here, I've had enough."  We said good bye to our immediate families and headed over to Min. He told her we were headed out and the look in her eyes, filled with tears, said it all, this was the moment that she didn't want to face.  She didn't want to cry in front of everyone, but she couldn't help it, she was saying good bye to her baby boy.  I stood by as he comforted her and my heart went out to her.  As she turned to me, I gave her a hug and thanked her from the bottom of my heart for such a wonderful evening.  As if I had been a guest at her party, I thanked her and off we went to start our life together as  one.