South Carolina Wedding

I went to a wedding yesterday. Two of my friends from the martial arts club got married.

Because it was two and a half hours away, several of us carpooled.  We ended up getting there 30 minutes early and were the first guests. About 20 minutes before the wedding, they seated us.

I took one of the Bibles in the back of the pew in front of me and started reading the book of Ecclesiastes. Given the occasion, that was probably a mistake. However, I did find a verse that would have made the ceremony better if the pastor had included it:

"Enjoy life with your wife, whom you love, all the days of this meaningless life that God has given you under the sun--all your meaningless days. For this is your lot in life and in your toilsome labor under the sun."
- Ecclesiastes 9:9, New Living Translation

The ceremony itself was rather traditional, much like my cousins' weddings. The most notable thing wad that the wedding vows were long, complicated, and asymmetrical.

I wore my suit and fancy shoes to the church, but for the reception I took off the suit jacket and changed into my Vibrams. I had gotten prior approval from the bride to wear toe shoes to the wedding, and I knew there would be dancing. I got the impression that she wished she could have worn her Vibrams.

She took off her shoes for dancing, like most of the women. But her wedding dress had been measured so it would barely touch the floor while she was wearing her high heels, which meant she had to hold it up the entire time she was dancing.

Our sensei asked the DJ to play "Everybody was kung fu fighting" and all of the martial artists, including the bride and groom, danced one of our katas to it.

On the car ride home, we started talking about how this compared to other weddings we had seen. This was the first white person's wedding that one of my friends had seen. In all of the black weddings that he had been to, there was always a lot more music and a bride and groom usually drove off in a limousine. Also, it is still traditional in the black community to jump over a broom. I always liked that tradition.