The Nuptials, continued

Dave and Dawn had perhaps the most relaxed time frame of any wedding I have ever attended. It was a rainy Saturday on August 11th. It was cold and just sort of autumn-like, all of a sudden. We slept in because our bodies were grateful to be clutching for covers after braving the weeks of sweaty 80+ degree nights without even a sheet. It was, in a word, heaven to have the weather break. We had no plan for Dave and Dawn's wedding either. We hadn't shopped for a gift; although Sylvia was to be the flower girl, we had no idea what she should wear. We had no idea what to wear. The cool weather provided another blessing in that we could dip into our wardrobes and find some of the fall stuff (it's never too far buried in Minnesota!) -- woolens, long sleeves, etc. We showed up 35 minutes late but it didn't seem we were late at all.


The wedding took place in the WA Frost building in St Paul. This building is a magnificent historic structure that houses a swanky restaurant, a bar and a paper/gift shop. The presence of these three things along with the architecture/decor of the place, spoke to my soul. I have a thing for turn of the century (19th to 20th, that is) architecture, dress and way of life. Who knew? Anyhow, I didn't take many pictures. I'm going to blame this on two things: my Nikon Coolpix L3 seems to behave terribly when asked to photograph low-light indoor photos. The shutter/flash delay guarantees I will end up with something I didn't plan to shoot; and, the WA Frost building was so overrun with rampant spirits of days gone by that I couldn't have gotten a clear photo had I tried. Those ghosts were busy invading the pixels. Those are my excuses and I'm sticking to them.


It was a wonderful day though. Friends' weddings are always a beautiful occasion and this was a perfect instance of such beauty.

Due to the rain, the wedding (which had been slated for outdoors) was moved to the basement of WA Frost. This place was stylish and terribly, wonderfully retro. I was ready to doff the tweed and tamp a bowl on my favorite pipe to discuss the foibles of imperial politics and watch the rain pelt the panes. I must say, however, in a most gentlemanly way, that Dawn's dress was simply smashing.

We all look like shape-shifters in these images. Here Maui has just put Reid in his place at the dinner table. Or maybe he found a fake eye floating in his water glass. (Wonder who could have put that there?)

Two faces of the groom overshadowed by some long-dead cardinal or bishop or hell ... I don't know. But a very awe-inspiring canvas nonetheless. And Dave wasn't bad either in the tux. It was hard to place him without the orange Ortlieb Messenger backpack strapped to his torso.

Sylvia got the royal treatment. Not only did she get a gift of markers, art supplies and a coloring book, but the wait staff offered to bring her a free bowl of ice cream. I suppose that helped offset the price of my $7 pint of Surly Furious.

Well, more friends getting hitched. That can only mean one thing -- pretty soon those friends will eventually be getting saddled with offspring. Fatherly commiseration, shared babysitting ... they're all right around the corner! Oh, and I did take a spin through the paper/pen store. Although I was tempted, I didn't buy a thing. That was hard because cool weather and tweed jackets (plus, don't forget a fine fedora) always make me think of being indoors and writing. Ahh, writing ... ahh, fall!