The Wedding, Part 3?

Well I had planned on posting some pictures from the wedding, but I haven't been able to hook up with my dad to get a copy of them, and he is leaving town at the end of this week so it may yet be a while.

The Wedding, Part 2

Once the actual wedding ceremony took place I was ready. Like I mentioned previously it was taking place outdoors. I waited until the last possible moment to put my suit coat on and go outside. It was still pretty damn hot. Mercifully, the ceremony was short. It was performed by Jenny’s (my dad’s new wife) friends from Kansas. It was decidedly non-traditional. These two people are very much into New Age ideas and religious concepts. We weren’t quite praying to the “Earth Mother”, but it wasn’t to the God I was raised with either. Like I said though it was a nice ceremony, and the vows they said were very sweet.

After the wedding, you are supposed to pose for pictures, naturally. We move the flowers in place and we are going to take the pictures around the garden in the back yard. Being so hot people grab some drinks like tea or wine, whatever. I am standing there, and I wait…and wait…and wait. It has been over half and hour, and I say, “Hey, its getting pretty hot here lets get these pictures taken.” Someone tells me to take my jacket off until we do take the pictures. I tell them “no” explaining that if I take it off I will cool down, and then it will seem even hotter when I put it back on. Finally, the pictures get taken, and I am able to cool down.

Cool down I did. I had brought a change of clothes with me, so I stripped down to a t-shirt and short. I didn’t bring a change of clothes though, so the decision was between wearing my dress shoes or going barefoot. I chose barefoot.

Before I forget: the cake. It was great. Two of Jenny’s co-workers offered to make the cake for her. It was a three-tiered cake. Alternating layers of strawberry and lemon filling, the lemon filling for my brother who hates strawberries. It was freaking fantastic though. I had like 3 pieces there and I took some home as well.

The great part was about it is that people were using their digital cameras. When everything was wrapping up we gathered on the deck to watch the pictures that were taken on a laptop computer as music played in the background. After that we moved the air-conditioned house and chitchatted for a couple of hours.

Next some of my final thoughts…

The Wedding, Part 1

May 31^st was my dad’s wedding, and I will break it down into different parts. This one will address the meal we had before the ceremony. The initial plan was to have the ceremony first and then to go eat. Realizing how blazing hot it would be at around 3-4PM in Texas at the end of May, the decision was wisely made to push the ceremony back to early evening when it would be a bit cooler.

Off we go to the restaurant Marlo’s House in the great city of Garland, TX. The sign outside says “Authentic Mennonite Cuisine”.

“I don’t know what ‘Mennonite Cuisine’ is”, one of my dining companions says

“I don’t either,” I reply. “So, how would we know if it is authentic or not? Could any of us here be able to tell if they are lying or not?”

We squeeze the tables in the tiny restaurant around so that we are all sitting “together” and the tables kind of spiral around. Somehow we get our party of 14 into the dining room.

Since we have such a large party and only one cook there were a few items we were discouraged from ordering, so that we could eat in a timely manner. The dish I got, which I can’t spell so I won’t even try. What it was though: egg noodles topped with a cream sauce and sautéed onions, a side of homemade sausage, coleslaw, and a slice of rye bread. The noodles, sausage, sauce, coleslaw and bread are all homemade in-house. For the most part it was great. The noodles were awesome, but the sauce could have used some seasoning. The coleslaw was better than I expected. It had slices of apple in it, and I am not fond of fruit in my vegetable salads for the most part. This was pretty good though. My favorite part was the sausage without a doubt. I wish I had more than just the one link. I inhaled my food, and I was soooo stuffed afterwards.

I love that it is very informal there. The waiter/co-owner hands me a pitcher of tea, as I am pretty central to, so that I can refill glasses. When another party arrives, he is sitting at the table talking to them. Really gives it a nice homey feel. I was surprised to see they are only open three days a week. I guess they have other jobs the rest of the time.

The most shocking/awesome part though: The chef cooks all the meals on a four-burner stove. When I learned that I was truly amazed. She prepared all those different dishes, for 14 people in a very reasonable amount of time. Wow.