Wedding in Cleveland :: Teej McBrideGroom

My brother got married. My brother got married! And they are driving to their honeymoon after setting up and taking down their entire wedding, which included setting up and taking down folding chairs and tables, splicing Chinese lanterns across a Gatsby-ish lawn, arranging and placing floral center pieces, scattering bags of mother-of-the-bride's dried roses down the wedding isle, picking up and dropping off out of town bridal party members, and more and more and more.

Their theme was Blue Moon (for the actual blue moon on Saturday night) and their wedding song My Funny Valentine sung by a sultry jazz singer from London who was the maid of honor. In fact, my own brother sang a song of his own to his bride - We've Only Just Begun, by the Carpenters - of which he actually did quite well! It was all quite a performance under many electric blue moons that were the Chinese lanterns that my brother had set up earlier that day.

The self-proclaimed McBrideGroom at their Bachelor/Bachelorette party at NightTown, sharing a love bite over a burger. We had burgers, not strippers.



At the rehearsal dinner, TJ and Lily were doing Lily's patented dance move from her last show, SPLIT.



Teej McBrideGroom and his trusty assistant/college friend planning how they would hang the Chinese lanterns that would all look like blue moons.



Lily aka The Bride in her Gatsby backyard of Hawken school, which is where this wedding took place.



The band practicing, which consisted of the bride's dad, brother, maid of honor, and a mystery piano player who I do not know at this minute.



The maid of honor who also provided the vocals for the band later on. Lily's dress was a stiff and crinkled fabric that I just don't know the name of. Chime in in Comments if you do. So pretty. Kept its shape all night.



The Groomsmen in an attempted GQ pose.



Shoes and yellow socks of the bride and groom.



The ladies.



The granddaughters of my grampa. Girls are in charge in this family. This is the James of Katie James. All of the bright dresses in the middle are my grandmother's Lily dresses (now vintage) that the girls had fitted so that they could bring Grandy to the wedding.



The band tuning everything before entertaining everyone.



Teej McBridGroom dancing with my sister, a bridesmaid.




TJ and Lily taking a moment to sit and enjoy the music and their wedding.



The time now finds me still in Cleveland, choosing to stay in the breezes and work from here. It's also a test to see how I can do being "in the country," and I must admit, I grew a little antsy at 6:00pm when no one who lived within 15 minutes could see a movie who was not otherwise engaged in baby baths and other things. Highlights from the trip, and what people do in "the country" (unless you live in Brooklyn):
  • Watering flowers in the garden (I've been wanting to say: "I've been working in the garden" for SO long now!)
  • Itching sun poisoning because it's been so long since my skin has been kissed by the sun
  • Sunning my right arm because my left arm is the most exposed when Gerdy and I take drives to weddings or to see the Apple iPhone
  • Investigating the Movie section of iTunes because my mom fired her cable and I only thought of Blockbuster just now (I'm so dependent on Netflix) but I don't think we have a Blockbuster membership anymore
  • Taking walks with Gerdy and Bailey's Irish Cream. It was either that or drive into town for chocolate ice-cream at the local ice-cream parlor, The Popcorn Shop (oh lord, please ignore the pictures of George Bush visiting the shop on there)
  • Going out to dinner before 8:30pm because that's when things close, apparently, on Sundays
  • Hosing Gerdy off from her daily, stinky mud baths