a wedding of sorts

This past weekend saw the marriage (falling) of the first of my many engaged and nearly engaged former roommates from the magical house of 14 people. There’s a scene in wedding crashers when the fiancee is talking about the joining of two great american families and Owen Wilson says “and then you can challenge the klingons for interstellar domination”. 

That scene is all i could think about with the marriage between two westlake powers, The Smileys and The Coopers. I am certain that one day this family will be doing something ridiculous, wether it be ending world hunger, planting a church in Antarctica, or whatever that i will be able to one day claim (and if i save the program i took home from the wedding prove) that i was played a small role in THE SMILEY wedding. It’ll be my little ice breaker at dinner parties and black tie events that i’m sure to attend because I feel like houston is that kind of city.

This wedding really seemed to hit the mark, and (no offense to the other weddings i’ve attending, including that of my own sister) was the best wedding so far and has really set the bar high for the other roommates / friends. Namely this wedding had a few certain qualities that i hope to see at the rest of the weddings i attend in my career:

-The boys back together. Earlier today I called this category “Brett Wise” because he is quite the integral part to any weekend of fun. While he did bring the energy and fun to the weekend, I would be selling everyone else short for their contributions. John Hipp, Anthony Odem, John Porter, Tyler Richards, Jake Ashbaucher, Steve Cox, Colin Wood… there’s just a certain dynamic that we enjoy when we’re all together which unfortunately those times are few and far between because of the real world creeping into our lives and moving us to different cities. In fact, anything with that group mentioned above is really fun and i really could stop the list with just this item (we both know i won’t do that).

-A weekend of fun: With everyone getting into town by friday, we had 3 days to hang out and enjoy each other. I couldn’t ask for more.

-The band: There are two trains of thought on this one, DJ or band. Both are acceptable and I can understand why one would choose a DJ over a band (usually cost), but a live band can really step up the energy. The band Sauce strutted their stuff at the Smiley wedding and i was literally amazed, they really jammed out and had the entire screaming for one more song as they ended their set. That’s the first wedding i’ve been to where the dance floor was begging for more after 3 hours and not pleading for the bride and groom to make their exit so they could leave.

-Food: This is sort of a personal preference thing, having worked many weddings i’ve never believed its necessary, but a buffet is always an added bonus, just make sure its a good buffet. I would say the best BBQ in Texas would fall under the “good buffet” category.

-Party Bus: This is the first time i’ve ever experienced a chartered bus to take the wedding party from the ceremony to the reception, genius, absolutely genius.

-Location: This is more of a bride thing and less of necessary component to a perfect wedding. My problem with locations, they eat up a lot of money that could be used elsewhere. Like i mentioned in the first point, when all of us are together we’re bound to have a great time even if the wedding is in a worn out warehouse (actually that might be really cool). If there’s plenty of money to go around, then sure go with a sweet location, but if there’s not spend less money on location and spend more on…

-Free Alcohol: The number one most important thing for a great wedding. Nothing livens up a dance floor, keeps the party going, and breaks down the social barriers like an open bar. A beer and Wine bar is perfect (doesn’t require the use of professional bar tenders or a liquor license) . I was actually quite amazed at the maturity displayed by everyone in not getting stupid drunk even with all the free booze.