Don't You Step On My Blue Suede Barter System

If our wedding goes anything like Emily & Michael's wedding, we shall count ourselves lucky.

This past weekend, we traveled to Massachusetts to attend-slash-be-part-of a wedding and generally rock out.  We did some of the former and a ton of the latter.  

My official bridesmaid title read something like "Fellow Antisocially Snarky Grad Student and Always Dependable Provider of Four Beers."  I'd like to think that I lived up only to those specific expectations of what kind of bridesmaid I would be.  I knew the bride (Emily) for a much shorter time than the other bridesmaids, so I guess it wasn't surprising when I wasn't around for a lot of things.  I went to the bar to get beer for the bride at the rehearsal dinner, and I showed up a half hour before the wedding with a few Blue Moons, insisting that she have her picture taken while drinking a beer in her wedding gown.  

Mission accomplished.  There is much wedded bliss.

I think my absolute favorite part of the ceremony was NOT the prisoners shouting obscenities at the wedding party from the top floor of the nearby courthouse (although that was pretty hysterical).  It also was NOT the fact that a woman  -- or man? I couldn't tell from where I stood -- strolled through the ceremony with a baby carriage... to which the officiant said, "That's what we call FORESHADOWING."  

My favorite part of the wedding ceremony was this:  As Emily lined up with her parents to be escorted down the aisle, the music (they were using a cleverly hidden iPod -- INGENIOUS!) suddenly changed to Elvis Presley's "Blue Suede Shoes."  Michael (the groom) ran over to the iPod and quickly shut it off and set it up for the next track.  However, this left Emily with no music for her procession.  Some clever wedding guest began to whistle a familiar processional softly and the crowd joined in with a chorus of "ba ba ba ba ba ba's."  It was only when Emily said, laughing as she got to the end of the aisle, "I'm not graduating!" that I realized that what we had been singing was "Pomp and Circumstance."

I went to Vegas once and Emily asked me to bring back Elvis.

Like I said, if our wedding goes anything like this, we will be tickled pink.  

In definitely unrelated and yet completely awesome news, we've had some developments in the wedding fund!   Thanks go out to Matt's cousin, Sandy, and my future mother-in-law for their wonderful contributions to our wedding fund!  We'll break that thermometer over there yet!

Neither of these lovely ladies asked for any ad space, so I'm going to post a link here and in the sidebar to something that I'm almost certain is near and dear to both of them.

...because it WAS another country...

Those Texans really do love to brag on their state.  Come vacation here and hear all about it.

Also in wedding news, my lovely and super-cool mother has arranged -- via a clever barter -- for homemade wine to be served at our wedding!  

I love the barter system.  I highly recommend it.  Was there anything that you felt immensely clever about bartering for at your wedding?  What was it?  Did it work out the way you'd hoped?

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