The Wedding Reception
It was late summer when we had had an invitation to the evening reception of a friend of the misses', sisters daughter was getting married (do you follow). We did not know who she was marrying and had not seen the bride since she was six years old.
We got suitably togged up with a present in a fancy presentation box and set off. On arrival we realised it was a big wedding with, could be hundred and fifty guests, all dancing a square dance to noticeable Scottish music, some of the lads including the bride groom were in kilts. We peeped round the door to see if we could see Misses friend, and then we were ushered in by a waitress, who duly parted us from the present we had brought, for it to be add it to all the other presents on a long table on show near the stage.
We sat down trying to see who we knew, well that looks a bit like so and so, and that could easily be sister to our friend, it's a good likeness but could not be sure enough to approach the person. The waitress came round with drinks in fancy glasses and pointed out where the refreshment were, but still after over an hour could not see the friend. As happens at weddings the bride's guests do not know any of the bridegroom's relatives and vice versa, so as folk walked by us they naturally thought we belonged to the other side.
After another half hour the waitress came around with more drinks, and we plucked up courage and asked for the bride's mother by surname, only to be told we had been at the wrong wedding. On divulging our embarrassment to the waitress she said do you want your present back, and luckily it was the same one who had parted us from it when we arrived so she knew what to snaffle back from the table in front of all the guests. This was achieved sneakily with a cloth draped over the box and brought to us in the front porch.
Red with embarrassment and sweating from the tension, we headed to another hotel on the other side of town, where there turned out to be no weddings that day at all. We had three hours away from home, been fed and wined at someone's wedding, we never found out who's it was, did not see a sole that we knew. Later we sat in the chairs at home totally exhausted, and had a good laugh at the fact that we had gate crashed a wedding that we had not been invited to, and no one was ever the wiser for knowing who we were.
Plus as a bonus we still got our present back.
PS The wedding had been the day before, and the present sent on, somewhat late, to the bride's new home.
Marriage. It's like a cultural-handrail. It links folks to the past and guides them to the future.
Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider