How to Have a Successful Wedding Rehearsal Dinner
Author Ellistrations
One of the moist important things that occur before a wedding is the rehearsal dinner. What most people do not consider (unless you are a wedding planner) is that the rehearsal and dinner must be planned just like you would do for the rest of the wedding. So, here are a couple of ideas and tips that will enable you to have a successful wedding dinner and get it planned so that it runs smoothly.
Pick a Theme
Just like your wedding and reception, you should plan a theme for the event and try to integrate it into the event. Since the rehearsal is less formal than the wedding itself, you can make the theme of the event and attire more fun and light. You could have a Celtic theme wherein the wedding party wears colors or pieces of clothing that relates to that type of venue. You could also have a Wild West theme where everyone in the wedding party is encouraged to wear cowboy hats and boots. If you set your mind to it, the possibilities are limitless. Just remember, your wedding party has probably spent some good money up to this point to participate in your wedding, so don’t over burden them with requiring them to buy something else for the them, just make it a fun option.
Make a Slide Presentation
A wedding rehearsal is supposed to be a fun and light event, so when you go to the rehearsal, try to have something that will make your party laugh and have a good time. One of the best ways to do that is to have a slide presentation of the two of you. The slide presentation will really be more meaningful and fun if you have a chronological set of pictures ranging from baby pictures to the present. There is just something funny about being able to look back at old pictures and it also is a nice way to take a walk down memory lane with family and friends.
Have the Guests Deliver Toasts
Now would be a good time to get many of the toasts out of the way. If you think about it, when you have your main reception toasts are usually made by the really important stake holders like family members and very close friends. If you have the wedding reception toasts given by everyone you have invited to the wedding, then it could get really boring. However, you can have the guests at your wedding rehearsal deliver their toasts at this point so that they will not feel left out during the actual reception.
You don’t have to go the Expensive Route
Wedding party rehearsals don’t have to be at expensive restaurants. There are plenty of medium priced restaurants that will easily fill the bill. A nice, classy pizza parlor or Italian restaurant or a Chinese buffet for that matter can easily fill the bill. As a matter of fact, a cheaper venue will probably allow your wedding party let their hair down a bit and have more fun.
Wedding Trends that can Help You Save All Kinds of Money
Author Ellistrations
At a time when the economy isn’t doing so hot, it is always a good idea to figure out how to be thrifty and save some money. These are current
trends that will help you keep your wedding within a budget that you will find to be affordable. Now, bear in mind that these tips aren’t for everyone and if you want to have a traditional wedding with all of the usual bells and whistles, then you can use some of these tips. The main thing to remember is to sort through ideas that you can use, discard or revise if you are on a budget.
These are current trends that will help you keep your wedding within a budget that you will find to be affordable.
Mismatched Bridesmaids Dresses
The way to do this is to pick a group of colors (such as pastels) and have the bridesmaids pick the style of dress within these color choices that you have. For one thing, the bridesmaids can pick affordable dresses that will save them some money while no having to worry about a specific dress. Also, if it is a dress that they like, then they can wear it again for another dress and they can express their own individual style at your wedding.
Cowboy Boots or Colorful Shoes
If you want, you can wear ladies cowboy boots. A lot of weddings do this lately and it may not be your particular style, but in many parts of America it is considered a really cool thing to do. Also, the bride and groom can wear regular shoes to the ceremony and then change into cowboy boots at the reception. If you don’t like that idea, you can find a particular style of shoe and get them in different colors for the bridesmaids. These types of shoes make for real fun and interesting wedding pictures and add a splash of color to your event.
Brooch Bouquets
Have your bridesmaids make one of these out of costume brooches that they may want to give to you. These are bouquets that are made of a cluster of brooches for the bride to carry instead of flowers. Of course, the upside to this is the fact that you can keep this bouquet of brooches as a memento of your wedding, and you won’t have to worry about them wilting like you would if they were flowers!
Flower Headbands and Headpieces
If you do like flowers, you can have them crafted into headbands and veiled headpieces. Remember, you don’t have to wear real flowers in this situation because you can just as easily make them out of synthetic or silk flowers that will last forever. The benefit to the silk flower arrangement is because once again, you will not have to worry about them wilting and you can keep them as a memento of your wedding as well.
How to Use Small Video Cameras to Record Your Wedding
Author Ellistrations
One of the big problems with hiring a professional videographer is the fact that even though he is a professional and has high-grade professional video equipment there is still the chance that it might not work. There is no way that any videographer can guarantee that his camera will not malfunction during a wedding ceremony. Usually, a videographer well bring an extra camera that is smaller to the event as a backup. However, if you are afraid that something might go wrong then you may want to bring your own video camera. Most people believe that if they have a video camera that they bought at the store it will not be as good as the one’s that the videographer will be using. Contrary to popular belief, you can do much of the same work with a standard camera that you bought at a store like Best Buy that a high-grade video camera from a videographer will have. Usually, the reason a videographer uses such a large camera with all the bells and whistles on it, is because that is what most clients expect to see.
Usually, the reason a videographer uses such a large camera with all the bells and whistles on it, is because that is what most clients expect to see.
You Can Take Good Video as a Backup
Believe it or not, a good high definition video camera that is handheld can do just about the same quality of work that the videographer can make for you. Where the main production actually comes into play is in the editing room, where most of the videographers will have high quality software that they can use to edit, add music, place effects, and a host of other things that will make your wedding video look great. Not only that, but a good videographer knows how to capture the moment much better than a novice will.
Having said all of that, if you want to have a good backup system that perhaps you or a relative could manipulate, then there are a host of high quality video cameras on the market right now that can get you the quality that you would like to see. There’s nothing wrong with having a small tripod with a handheld camera like a Sony Handy Cam high definition video camera as a backup to the videographer’s system. These cameras are great because anybody setting up in a pew at church can easily take a good clear video of you coming down the aisle. Not only that, but a cheap, small tripod will also work wonders and not be obtrusive enough to bother you as you come down the aisle. These types of cameras are very 
easy to learn how to operate and they give you peace of mind if you want to make sure that a good video gets taken and you and your special day.
The Sony Handy Cam High Definition Video Camera
This is a great little camera that can get you a full high definition video and it operates excellently in low light areas where there’s not a lot of direct lighting. There is also a 42X extended zoom lens which will allow you to get as close as you want to the ceremony even if the operator is sitting a few rows back. Not only that, but you get 16 GB of embedded flash memory which will give you a load of memory the story your video on. Having a digital high-definition camera is particularly important when you decide to upload your video to your computer. Many videographers use a tape system which takes a little bit of time for the videographer to transfer the digital video file into their computer. However, with a totally digital camera it can be done in a matter of seconds.
The Olympus Stylus Tough Camera
This is a digital camera that also has video capabilities. Usually, it is great for hiking and carrying around when you are out in the great outdoors because it is shockproof and it also can go underwater and take video footage up to about 7 feet deep. This is a particular favorite with me because I use the video capabilities of it all the time. It is so simple to use and the camera is about the size of a credit card in circumference and about as wide as a thin wallet. It is so easy to take video with this camera that you wouldn’t believe it and because of the fact that it is so small it will hardly be noticed that somebody decided to take video footage of you from the first or second row of pews in the church. I highly recommend getting this camera, because it can also double as a good one to take on your honeymoon especially if you are into hiking or doing anything outdoors.
These were just two cameras of many that you could purchase on the market for your wedding or for other uses well. I wanted to highlight these two cameras because I use both of them extensively and they are outstanding in their value and highly worth purchasing. One other thing I want to mention is the fact that if you do get one of these cameras try to buy a set of microphones for them. Even if you don’t use them for your wedding and your videographer probably already has them, you will probably want to use them later on as it will give you crystal-clear sound of what a person is saying when you are using it to record with.
The Worst Wedding Pictures Ever
Author Ellistrations
I’m sure you have heard the phrase, “I thought I saw everything!” Well, after today you probably can see that again. Today I have decided to post some wedding pictures that I find extraordinarily weird. I have always been a bit skeptical about people that decide to jump out of an airplane when they get married or get married underwater with scuba gear on, because I think you should take it pretty serious. After all, we are talking very serious commitment here, aren’t we? However, this goes way beyond anything like that as you will see in the following photos.
Picture #1- May the Fish Be with You
Okay, I’ve seen all kinds of marriages, after all, we live in the 21st century. However, what’s up with all the Star Wars junk? I mean, you really want to be married to a fish? Now, I understand that the fish creature which is some sort of Admiral from Return of the Jedi (his breath must really stink) and the Princess Leia outfit (which really doesn’t look that attractive on the woman on the left. If I remember, Carrie Fisher was in pretty good shape when she wore that outfit and didn’t have pounds of flab hanging over parts of her loincloth or whatever.) But I don’t understand what part of the Star Wars universe the bride on the right is wearing. Actually, that’s the closest thing to a normal dress and the whole scene and it still looks kind of weird, but it doesn’t really fit Star Wars genre from what I understand. I guess they will be serving shrimp or worms as hors d’oeuvres!
Picture #2 Mommy, I Have To Pee
This must be one of those spur of the moment photographs that captures just the right moment. There are all sorts of things you can say about this picture, which has more than 1000 words, if you ask my opinion. It looks like the groom is having a hard time zipping up his pants for whatever reason. It’s either that or he is really having a hard time holding his water before he hits the road on his honeymoon. I guess he had just a little bit too much champagne.
Picture #3 Elvis in Space
Here we have a handsome and dashing Capt. of the USS Booby Prize getting married to his lovely bride from the planet Earth and as an officiant we have Elvis who was probably singing them their vows. Yes, no Star Trek wedding is complete without Elvis, and not just Elvis, but the fat Elvis from when he was older. He is probably telling them that they are going to have a “hunka-hunka burnin’ love in the final frontier.” Set phasers to dumb.
Picture #4 Head Over Heels in Love
There are some brides that will do anything for their new husbands. What says “I love you” more than trying to suck down beer from a keg through a tube while suspended head over heels just to keep the oxygen out of the picture so you can get a real buzz! Wow, if that isn’t love, then what the *%$^@ is? Yep, love means never having to say you’re sorry after puking all over your new spouse on your wedding night after binge drinking. Bottoms up!
DIY Wedding Projects Made Easy
Author Ellistrations
In this blog posting, I’m going to show you how to get special projects for your wedding so that you can come in under budget. You may want to do some of these ideas, and some of them you probably want to discard, but I found them interesting and easy to do so I decided to post them in this episode. Even though time is very important to somebody planning a wedding, if you know what materials that you need and how to do the project you will be able to knock it out in a fairly decent amount of time. So, this is a post of some really good projects I found throughout the Internet and I will leave you the links to them inside of each post.
Bath Fizzies
These are the little cakes that you put in the bath with you that can make you smell better and feel a lot cleaner. You usually see these types of items around special holidays like Christmas, Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. However, they are fairly easy to create and all you have to do is follow some simple instructions and you can make them look rather artistic so that you can have them out for your wedding as favors. These bath fizzies are relatively cheap to make and you can wrap them up in some cellophane to make them look really nice, and then hand them out at your wedding. You can actually dress up the packaging and those and you can even make the fizzies themselves color-coordinated with your wedding theme. It really is an easy way to give everybody a little something to take home while keeping it in style with your special day. I actually got this set of instructions from a website called DIY wedding which is a website about how to make all kinds of things for your wedding by yourself. Not only are there ideas for bath fizzies there, but I also saw centerpieces, appetizers, other types of party favors, and invitations that you could make yourself there as well. It really is a great resource site for anyone having a wedding.
Strawberry Centerpiece
If you want a really beautiful tender piece that you can make yourself, here is a website will help you out with this project. Basically, you will be using wreaths and a lot of ribbon to create this beautiful centerpiece and I found this article on another outstanding site called DIY Bride. This is a website that’s loaded down with all sorts of do-it-yourself wedding projects and it has tons of beautiful pictures and ideas for you to look at. As a matter of fact, the whole entire first page is a cornucopia of photographs from weddings that have used a lot of these projects in a very fanciful way to create a beautiful wedding theme. At this website, I saw a lot of really good creative ideas that can be easily used for any wedding in created by you, provided you have the time. Actually, the pictures are a little deceiving because even though they look like they would be very hard to create website give you such good instructions on how to create them that it takes a lot of the complications out of the process.
A Ton of Ideas
My D I Y wedding day is another site to have a lot of really good and creative ideas for you to utilize. This is more of a resource site that you can get a lot of really good material from and implement in your wedding if you want to save some money. On this site I saw some very creative ideas like burlap bottles that had been subpoenaed onto them, feather earrings to give out to your guests, Polaroid magnets for people to put on their refrigerators, and a host of other great ideas. Just to give you an idea of how well the site can show you ideas on how to create different items, here is a page that shows you how to make thank you cards.
Make Your Own Do It Yourself Wedding Favors
Author Ellistrations
During this time of economic downturn (to put it mildly) you may want to try to find different ways to make your wedding a little cheaper. Let’s face it, in any economic climate it is always a good idea to keep your costs down, especially when you’re getting married. If there are any tasks that you can do on your own, or have the talent to do on your own then you may want to consider putting a little time into certain projects so that you can save some money. When you think about it, would you rather spend more money on your honeymoon or a new house rather than your actual wedding? Especially when you can make a lot of these smaller items yourself and actually have some fun doing them.
The Reasons to make Your Own Party Favors
One of the great ways that you can save money on your wedding is to actually make your own wedding favors. This is really smart for two reasons; one, if you really like doing projects of this nature it’s a lot of fun, and two you can actually design your party favors to your own personal tastes or match into the theme that you are trying to create for your wedding. Not only will you be able to save some money, have some fun and tailor these wedding favors to your big day, that you will also be able to brag to your friends about the fact that you made these great party favors! (We always have to figure in the ego factor here!)
Before you start making your party favors you need to consider a couple things:
- What kind of theme are you trying to create for your wedding?
- Is your wedding going to take place during a certain holiday or time of year?
- Can you match your party favors to you and your fiancé’s personalities?
- What kind of reception are you going to have? Is it going to be real formal or lighthearted and fun?
- Can you match your party favors the some sort of hobby that you really like to do?
Not only should you consider these possibilities, but you may want to look through all sorts of craft and wedding magazines, especially old ones that you can click pictures out of, and start collecting ideas. You can go to bookstores, and libraries and find all kinds of craft books the will give you ideas as well. However, the best source of material for these types of projects are craft magazines, wedding magazines as well as family magazines. Many times, couples that are getting married begin to worry about whether or not they are going to please their guests. Much to your surprise however, having handmade wedding favors are almost always a big hit and people will be really impressed with what you come up with. As a matter of fact, it is almost always more impressionable to people that you created something on your own rather than buying something in bulk and handing it out to them.
Goodies!!!
The number one party favor that everybody likes to give out his food of some sort, especially candy. As you know, Candy comes in all sorts of shapes and sizes as well as colors that you can use which will match your wedding theme. Here are a couple of ideas that you may not usually think of:
CDs of your favorite music burned to disc for your wedding favors.
You can get small boxes and can craft ribbons and other items onto the boxes with either cookies or candy in them.
You can also give out candles, pictures or other mementos that you are able to produce rather easily. Many of these items can be produced on a computer.
Silk flowers are always a nice touch as well.
When you start going through a lot of magazines and getting ideas you will see that there are tons and tons of ideas that you can use. Don’t forget to go out and check places that sell items in bulk and also check effort vendors on the Internet. Usually you can find all kinds of ideas, and bulk items that you can give away. The only other piece of advice I can give you about this is to make sure that you start planning this early and you know exactly how much time you will need to make your wedding favors. As usual, being proactive helped you in the long run.
Green Wedding Shoes – A Great Resource Site to Get Ideas for Your Wedding
Author Ellistrations
One of the best things you can do if you are getting married is to gather resource material for your wedding. If you have read previous posts on this web site you probably will notice that I advocate reading and using all sorts of resource material. If you can get your hands on magazines like Good Housekeeping or Wedding Style Magazine, you will be able to clip or copy articles, pictures and other items that will give you great ideas for your wedding.
On the Internet, needless to say, there is a plethora of websites that are about wedding ideas, venues and vendors and you could literally spend hours looking through just a small sampling of them. However, if you really want to look at a couple of exceptional websites that will get your creative juices flowing then you’ve come to the right blog, because we try to showcase the best we can find.
On this posting, we would like to highlight an innovative website called Green Wedding Shoes, which is a California based site owned and operated by Jen Campbell.
This is a website dedicated to weddings that not only has great information and ideas, but it also has a beautiful graphic style that makes the site very pleasing to the eye. As a matter of fact Ms. Campbell has designed the website so that it is very graphically oriented rather than making you read tons of material. If you start looking through the pages of outstanding material, you will notice right away that pictures are worth thousands of words, and in this case, ideas.
One of my favorite sections of this website is the DIY (Do It Yourself) section where you will be treated to a wide range of money saving ideas that will help you make your big day absolutely stunning. Just like the rest of the site, Green Wedding Shoes uses professional graphics and high quality photographs to give you tips and tricks on all sorts of wedding related projects. Using a magazine style venue to explain and show you how to create decorations and other ideas for your wedding, you will be taken by the hand and shown step by step how to create beautiful projects that is related to your business.
When I researched the Green Wedding Shoes website, I was really impressed with the beautiful candle holders that were demonstrated in the Do It Yourself section. Ms. Campbell takes great pains to show you how to create one of these wonderful decorations that you can easily implement for your wedding. Each picture that instructs you looks very clean and professional and it actually makes your learning experience fun and entertaining.
Another great thing about this wedding resource website is the fact that it was designed to break through the normal and traditional styles and formalities of weddings, to give you fresh ideas that will make your wedding look unique. Usually, whenever I hear a business or resource tell me that, I see the same old stuff with text that merely tells me that the website is different. With Green Wedding Shoes, not only do they tell you their ideas are unique, they also show it and demonstrate it.
Bad Wedding Dresses You’ve Just Gotta See
Author Ellistrations
One of the fun parts about writing a blog of this nature is that you can deviate off of stuff that is logical and common sense and move into the realm of the weird and bizarre. As a matter of fact, the weird and bizarre will probably get more attention than stuff that you really need to know, but that’s human nature. This time around, I would like to take a look at wedding dresses that went wrong just so you won’t make the same mistake and wear something like this ( As if I really needed to tell you.)
The Cocoon
Here is a stunning example of a wedding dress by the fashion giant Yves St Laurent. I like to refer to it as the “Cocoon Wedding Dress”. This would be the type of dress you would wear if you were Japanese and going to marry or be sacrificed to the giant monster called Mothra. You have to admire the fact that the fashionistas at Yves St Laurent kept the art of macramé in style by crafting this out of at least 20 or so shawls woven together by bored grandmothers. I guess it wouldn’t be too big of a stretch of the imagination to wonder if her perfume didn’t smell like Raid or moth balls.
This Wedding Dress is for the Birds
All this dress needs to add even more realism to the design would be to add 
yellowish splotches to the dress itself. The bride could then make comments about how she hopes her future husband will treat her better than her parents. Hey, if you wanted to really bump this theme up a notch, you could have the groom dress in a hunting outfit, escorted by a trained bird dog that points to the bride as she comes down the aisle. How Romantic!! However, there is one caveat to wearing a dress of this “nature” because it will definitely get you into character when you do the bird dance at your reception.
Conspiracy Wedding Dress
Deep into the underground bowels of Area 51 is a conspiracy so large and insidious that it has been referred to as the Super High Itemized Technology (You figure out the acronym) project. This is a project that is so secret Washington D.C. decided that it should never be talked about until everyone is dead on the planet. However, after viewing this dress, you will probably want to be dead anyway. In order to make this theme the groom is dressed as a green alien complete with a bubble helmet on his head for realism. I guess on their honeymoon they will have a close encounter.
The only thing worse than an ugly wedding dress is not being able to get out of one…..
Make Your Big Day Great with the Early Wedding Planning Checklist
Author Ellistrations
If you want to make your wedding really spectacular, then you will need to plan well ahead of time. The best way to tackle any type of a project is to be pro active and plan as far in advance as you possibly can. Most people procrastinate or put things off, and considering the logistics of the wedding, you will need to get a jump on the tasks and planning that you will have ahead of you. As anyone can tell you, setting up a wedding is no easy task. It requires diligence, planning, reliance on others, and a host of other factors that you probably won’t consider until you actually start doing some research and activity preparing for this event.
Early Preparation
One of the first things that you should do, is you should start keeping track of everything in a folder or binder. What many people do, is they will begin to collect information and place it into a book so that they can flip through it and see exactly what they want for their wedding. For example, if you want to hire a cake designer, go through wedding magazines that are older, or other types of magazines that are related, and clip out pictures of cakes that you are impressed with. You can also go to your library and use books there that are related to wedding events and begin to copy pictures from books to find their if you have a home with a scanner on it. At any rate, you should begin to copy, clip and save any articles or pictures that you want into a binder so that you will have a handy reference for yourself as you go through this process.
Budgeting
You will need to sit down and determine how much money you are willing to spend on a wedding. One of the easiest ways that you can save money preparing for a wedding is to hire a wedding planner or consultant. The reason that this is going to save you money, is because these people know exactly who to contact and what you will need. If you have a good wedding planner you can easily sit down and tell them what your budget is and he or she can help you work within the constraints of your budget. Anyway you look at it, you need to determine how much money you’re willing to spend on your wedding and you will have to work within those parameters. So, this is a first step in planning your wedding.
The Important Players
The next most important thing you should do, is to begin to enlist your wedding party, officiant, and guest list. It won’t be very long after you make the announcement that you are engaged that the people that you know will want to know if they are invited to your wedding or not. Remember, these people have lives just like you, and they cannot make important plans to attend your wedding less they have notice enough in advance. So this is one of the first tasks that you should take, letting people know when your wedding is going to be and if they are invited. You will need to get the officiant as soon as possible because they usually have a busy schedule especially during the spring months. You may want to keep a database of everyone that you will want to have on your guest list, provided that you are consulting your budget as well. There are a host of free databases that you can use on the Internet, but the one I like to use the most is Google Docs. This will help you to create a database of names, addresses and phone numbers and you can back up the file and keep it on your own personal hard drive which is what I would recommend.
Hiring the Help
About six to eight months out from your wedding, you will want to hire a photographer and wedding videographer. Just like your officiant, you will need to ladies people on for your wedding because they are also very busy during the spring months. You’ll also want to get your disc jockey or band, florists and caterers lined up at this point. If you can, try to attend bridal shows in your area because these shows can really help you see exactly what you are hiring. We recently had a bridal show in Lexington, and you would not believe all of the samples of things that you could look at, taste, and wedding professionals that you could talk to. So, this is a very good way of seeing exactly who you are hiring if you can attend one of these shows.
This would also be a good time for you to start looking at wedding dresses and getting one you want ready for the wedding.
Plan Your Honeymoon
At about 5 to 6 month out you should be planning your honeymoon and getting all your reservations ready for your destination and at this point, you should be looking at bridesmaid dresses for your wedding as well.
Now, this is just a preliminary planning schedule that you can use. Of course, as you get closer to your big day, you will want to plan out your catering, and other important facets of your wedding that will make it outstanding. As I said before, consulting a wedding planner is a real good idea because not only will it save you time and hassle of doing this yourself, but will also save you money in the long run.
Don’t Hire This Vidographer for Your Wedding!!!
Author Ellistrations
Ok, so you need a videographer for your wedding and you remember that your Uncle Winkledinklle has a Whizbang 2000 video camera with all of the latest and greatest features on it. 
You call your Uncle to see if he wouldn’t mind taking a video of your wedding and he says he’ll do it since your mother is his sister and he was wondering when she was going to give back his Crockpot that she borrowed a year ago.
Thanking God that you hired a professional photographer for the wedding, everyone shows up at the rehearsal on time except
You tell Winkledinkle that you are thrilled that he wants to make a video of your wedding and you’ll talk to your mom about the Crockpot. By the way, you nervously ask him, would you mind making the rehearsal which is several days before the wedding? Well, “sure” he tells you, but he’s not too sure how long he can stay since it’s his bowling night and he promised all the guys on his team that he would bring cocktail weenies’ to the match. Oh, and by the way, can you get the Crockpot to him before the team meets on Friday?
You add to your list of things to do before the wedding to get the Crockpot to Uncle Winklledinkle before Friday
The Rehearsal
Thanking God that you hired a professional photographer for the wedding, everyone shows up at the rehearsal on time except Uncle Winkledinkle. The professional photographer, showed up because he wanted to see how he was going to be able to photograph the event and actually see and talk to you and the minister about the logistics of the event. Dubiously taking all kinds of notes and asking questions, the professional photographer irons out many of the problems before the rehearsal actually begins. Unlike Uncle Winkledinkle, even though you killed yourself driving through traffic to get the Crockpot to his house and then had to wait for 35 minutes for him to show up, he still shows up late to your rehearsal.
When he gets there he tells you that he forgot that the rehearsal was today and that he can’t stay for the entire rehearsal because he has another bowling match tonight and he needs to get some beer and pretzels for an after game function. When you ask him if he is going to be able to video the reception, he tells you that his camera, the Whizbang 2000 hasn’t been working properly lately and that he may not get all of the video he originally planned. Of course, he mentions that he is doing all of this for free and just to help out, which in his estimation is better than nothing.
When you introduce your Uncle to the photographer, Winkledinkle belches and jokingly tells the photographer to make sure he stays out of the way while he is using his Whizbang 2000. You let out an audible sigh as you hide your face.
The Wedding
The day is a complete blur, even though you have everything covered and everybody shows up on time (even your Uncle) you still feel like you are under a lot of pressure. As you pass by and acknowledge Winkledinkle’s presence, you notice that his Whizbang 2000 is a rather small looking unit with a big blaring light on the top that looks like the torch from the Statue of Liberty. You wonder how that small of a camera can power something that lets out a glare of that magnitude. (For that matter, you wonder how your Uncle’s brain can actually power his legs.) Your photographer timidly smiles and asks you if your uncle Winkledinkle if going to be using that bright of a light in the area that he is working in, because it will probably throw the balance of the pictures off. You try to run interference between the two as you get ready for your ceremony.
Going down the aisle, you notice that Winkle the Dinkle is everywhere. He’s in the ceremony aisle, he’s standing on the pews, he squats right in front of your grandmother placing his buttocks mere inches from her face, as he tries to “capture” the moment. However, you force all of this out of your mind as you try to focus on your “big day”.
As you and your wedding party pose after the ceremony, you pray that there is another bowling match for Winkledinkle to go to. He has been a royal pain the in the neck. Not only has he managed to foil most of your beautiful; ceremony with his large buns and obnoxious camera, but he has managed to jump right in front of your photographer at every opportunity. Thank goodness he has to leave right after the ceremony.
The Aftermath
Two months after the wedding, you finally make it over to Winkledinkle’s house with your newly acquired spouse to view your uncle’s “masterpiece”. After offering you some beer and cocktail wieners from the Crockpot, he finally starts trying to figure out how to plug his Whizbang 2000 camera into his TV set. (He couldn’t figure out how to get the film transferred onto DVD for you, but he has a friend in the bowling league that can help him with this next week.) The result reminds you of a fight scene from the Bourne Identity. Rolling and bouncing camera shots, a brief shot of Mildred Bladdebaugher picking her nose on the 3rd row of pews, not to mention the fact that Uncle Winkledinkle wanted to get fancy with several shots and tried to get a “surreal” look to several of them.
After you leave your uncle’s house, you once again thank God that you didn’t hire your Aunt Beatrice to do the catering.