The end of one era, the beginning of another
That's right. On Friday, I still lived in a world where all my close friends were unmarried.
This is no longer the case. Yesterday, Chris and Christine officially tied the knot. And for some reason, after many many months completely devoid of any real actual updates to this journal whatsoever, I felt the need to write about it.
Why is this an important change, you ask? I mean, it wasn't ME getting married, and I certainly don't feel any different than I did...
But that single event held in its balance a tiny shred of my "youth". This wedding was a reminder that my friends and I are actually growing up. Getting older. Getting married. Moving on with our lives. It's a somewhat sobering realization, even though I know it's an inevitability.
At any rate, regardless of all the growing up nonsense, it was nice to be around the Pseudosuite again, and engaged in our normal tomfoolery. It's always nice to know that even though we may be growing up, we can still get away with having a watergun fight in an indoor mall or setting up in the OSH Patio Furniture section for a game of poker. On a related note, Chris is almost too big to fit in the tunnel thingies at the McDonald's Playplace. Hahahah fun times...
So on to the wedding: It was f*$!ing amazing. Here's my laundry list of things about that wedding that were unforgettably awesome, in no particular order of importance:
-The Bachelor Party: should be self explanatory
-Christine looked absolutely gorgeous, and I was amazed at how composed she was leading up to everything.
-Chris looked crazy good- handsome, elegant, mature, even badass... ha hah ah a
-the bridesmaids all looked beautiful- the dresses worked out amazingly well
-the groomsmen all looked incredibly handsome
-in fact, the wedding party on the whole was pretty damn fine. ;-)
-the color scheme of the wedding party- the dresses, tuxes, and boquets worked out really well. Everything was surprisingly coordinated and very pleasing to look at. It's decidedly uncool when the colors don't work out at a wedding, and it felt good knowing that I made a positive contribution to that aspect of CCC(C)C's special day.
-the ceremony itself: The decor was nice, Chris and Christine looked beautiful together, and not a single cell phone went off during the entire ceremony (and with 150+ people at the ceremony, that's pretty amazing). Except the coin bearer was scared to death of me, which led to his mom having to escort him on to the stage instead of me.
-how easy everyone made my best-man duties. Even though there was a noticeable lack of punctuality when it came to a lot of things, not once did I ever feel rushed for anything. The other guys were all pretty quick to help out when I needed it, too.
-Michelle's Maid of Honor toast. She wanted to deliver something organic and from the heart, so she didn't plan anything. She ended up talking about the first time she heard about Chris and the first time she met him, and it turned out to be a really good speech. It also transitioned into mine very nicely.
-My Best Man toast. I know it was extraordinarily dorky and a lot of people groaned with every analogy I made, but it was short, to the point, and it embodied the respective personalities of Chris and Christine, and also the personality of their relationship. Plus it made Christine cry, and Chris gave me a high-five. And Blake gave me a thumbs-up.
-Nick's toast. Even though it was three and a half pages of single-spaced text, it was incredibly moving, and it reminded me of why I hold my relationships with my siblings in such high regard.
-The wedding entertainment. He was a pretty funny guy.
-Chris and his general awesomeness during the reception. I always knew he was an entertaining guy, but to pull that uproariously hilarious garter-belt removal performance out of his ass in front of 300 people he didn't know and is now related to took a talent I didn't know he had. And some pretty big balls (which I also didn't know he had).
-How seamless everything went. Maybe I don't know the half of things that went on behind the scenes, but usually at a wedding with ~350 guests and 16 people in the wedding party (including the bride and groom), SOMETHING is going to go wrong. But from my vantage point, nothing did. At least nothing that couldn't be fixed quickly and easily without hassle.
-What a good mood everybody was in. Normally there's always at least one sour person who manages to spread their disposition, at least a little bit, but this time it seemed like EVERYONE was walking on air the whole time.
There's definitely more to that list, but you probably haven't even gotten this far anyway, and even if you did, you'd prefer the list to be over... hah ah aha.
So about the relationship in general:
When I dropped Chris and Christine off at Christine's parents' house today before taking off back to LA (they're not going on their honeymoon until October), Chris gave me a big hug and said "Thanks. We made a good choice." Of course being the arrogant guy that I am, I knew he was referring to my performance as the Best Man. But I thought more about his comment as I was driving back to LA, and it goes so much deeper than that.
I think of all the ridiculous analogies I made in my toast, the most fitting one was the CsF one: "Chris, or in this context Cesium, and Christine, or in this context Flourine, may the force of your attraction never diminish, and may the strength of your bond provide the foundation for a very long and happy marraige".
It works well on a topical level- Chris is really tall (Cesium is really big) and Christine is pretty small (like Flourine), the elements are on opposite corners of the periodic table and Chris and Christine have many opposing personality traits that compliment each other well, and both work just fine on their own in their own separate contexts.
But it goes deeper than that: Cesium is highly electropositive (right word?) and Flourine is highly electronegative, which means that the closer the ions get to one another, the stronger the force of the attraction between them- and seeing the two look at each other this weekend, it was apparent that they are both very attracted to each other on many levels.
Also, Cesium-Flouride is the strongest ionic bond in the periodic table, and having witnessed the whole progression of Chris and Christine's relationship from the time they met to the time they married, and all the ups and downs that went along with it, they must have built an extraordinarily strong bond by now. I believe that if they could get through the past five years together, then they can get through the next five hundred.
So yes- they DID make a good choice. In fact, I believe they both made EXCELLENT choices- Chris for choosing Christine, and Christine for choosing Chris. The fact that they chose me to be an integral part in their union was both an honor and a privelage.