Because I'll Never Tell a Lie and Hurt You

Last Saturday, my friend/sister/brother/former intern/mini-me Kristyn got married. Actually, she celebrated her marriage to Daniel, to whom she has been married for about a year and a half. Theirs is a story of love and war, of marriage in the face of deployment, and of patience. At their first wedding in St. Louis at the courthouse, their immediate families got to share in their joy. Last weekend, the rest of their family and many friends got to revel with them. And they even had a surprise celebrity guest.

 

I have to admit that I was excited for the wedding--neither Alec nor I had to do anything but show up and enjoy. Cross Timbers Winery in Grapevine was the cute, cozy, and relaxed backdrop for the Brigance's very personal ceremony and reception full of games, wine, barbecue, and photoboothing. The grandparents and parents walked in to "Accidentally in Love" and the bride and groom walked themselves down the aisle to "Crazy Little Thing Called Love." The bride had made provisions for live-tweeting the event in the program, designating the hashtag #danielandkristyn for the event. I took advantage and posted lots and lots of tweets, since she and a few others live-tweeted my ceremony almost a year ago. Because they were already married, they did not need a member of the clergy or an "official" to perform the ceremony, so they had their mutual friend who introduced them lead the service. He told the story of their love, "shameless and obvious" from the moment they met, and did a handfasting instead of traditional vows. They then had one of our other sorority sisters and her husband give them a Polish blessing of bread, salt, and wine. And as the beautiful couple walked themselves back up the aisle, I pulled out the surprise I had carefully planned and brought with me from home.

 

When Kristyn was an intern at the Historical Society, we had an ongoing joke about Rick Astley. Much Rickrolling occurred. So, I made a Rick Astley fan and Rickroll'd her walk back up the aisle. One side had his photo and said, "Rick Astley says Daniel's never going to give Kristyn up, etc." and the other side had his photo and said "Rick Astley wants to run around and dessert you--with wedding cake." It caught her eye and she laughed. It was awesome.

 

After that, we grabbed some local wine, took Rick Astley to the photo booth, ate some delicious barbecue and cake (lower layer was spice cake!), tried to play giant Jenga but never got the chance, watched other people play the various lawn games set up for the game theme, talked and laughed, enjoyed the gorgeous weather, and danced on the grass like no one was watching. We hung out with future senator/night Viking Joe Hunt, talked with a lovely older couple who happened to be an engineer and wife who had known Kristyn since before she could talk (like that's possible!), and all in all had a fantastic time. We sat around with Lindsay and caught marshmallows on fire while discussing the greatness of Ben Folds coming to the OKC Philharmonic. We talked to The Aunts and Mama Wagner. We generally relaxed. And then Rick Astley felt like he needed to go home with Daniel and Kristyn, so we put him in their present.

 

Such a great, relaxing evening :-)