The wedding was lovely. It was the first wedding my husband and I had attended since our own, so the nostalgia factor was rather pleasant. But the wedding itself was such a lovely surprise and there were so many people there to cheer them on, such a happy atmosphere in the church, that we left bubbling over with good will.

I first met J. and P. when I started my job as an ensemble manager over ten years ago. J. was my alter ego � he handled the production crew, I handled all the administrative stuff and together we managed everything behind the scenes. In all those years of working closely together, we only fought once (and that fight resulted from something someone else had done to try to break up the alliance). P. was, like J., a longtime member of the performing ensemble, but I also worked with her on the other part of my job � she was one of my teachers for the educational outreach program I ran. At the time the two of them had known each other for years, but weren�t dating. They were both highly skeptical about the idea of romance, and at least one of them had been badly burned before. But eventually they started dating, secretly at first, then publicly. They eventually moved in together and, a year and a half ago, had a baby girl � who was the world�s most adorable flower girl in today�s event. We thought that would be the end of the story. There didn�t seem to be any need to take it further, but J. was after P. to make it official and eventually she agreed. So this afternoon, in front of 100 or so of their friends and relatives, they got married.

It was the first time I�d ever heard anyone use the oldest Episcopal rite with all the bells and whistles � �speak now or forever hold thy peace� (at which point the conductor of the ensemble we both worked for who was conducting the choir in the loft, turned around to glare menacingly at the choir and made a zipping motion across his lips), �love honor and obey� and �plight my troth.� The music was, of course, spectacular, seeing as at least 75% of the attendees, by my informal estimation, were professional musicians.

Afterwards we spilled out into the church courtyard for champagne and strangely elusive appetizers and I got to catch up with many old friends whom I hadn�t seen in a long time and scope out the wedding guests. One one end of the courtyard was one woman in a marvelously large purple hat, whom I believe must be an itinerant wedding guest, as there seems to be a woman in a large hat at every wedding. She was brushing by another woman who had achieved the most frightening level of wardrobe coordination that I have ever witnessed. She wore a lovely dress of navy dotted silk, with shoes and gloves to match. The effect was rather excessive and suggested she might be taking her wardrobe tips from Dr. Seuss. On the far side of the courtyard was another singer of my acquaintance standing next to his wife. The two of them were clearly trying to pretend they weren't having a fight. Across from them was another singer who must have gotten a hold of some extra champagne. We could hear her soprano voice raised above all the hubbub. Eventually we said our goodbyes, and strolled through the Gold Coast in search of sustenance and entertainment. We found both. And also a pair of pants that I recklessly purchased without trying on and that fit me anyway.

We stopped by my mother-in-law�s on the way home to pick up AJ, who showed us his skinned knee and announced that he was not ready to go home yet. So we fed him dinner before bundling him into the car and returning to suburbia once more.

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