The Wedding Reception, Part 2
Since Paige and I have been together she has taken me to two O'Brien family weddings. I didn’t depict either of them because I knew that eventually I would be writing an installment about our wedding reception, and O'Brien weddings are things that you can only write about one time. I walked out onto the dance floor, and began to dance with everybody. Now what was really cool about this dance floor was that we had hung up a “Disco Pig” above the floor from one of Dad's projects. Yes, I said Disco Pig, and yes it is exactly what you are imagining. A few of my family members, not to mention my new wife, asked me why my shoes were off, and I explained that they had been hurting my feet.
Our bartender was a woman named Ammy, her business is called Balila y Bebe. Our specialty drink was a Moscow Mule, but we called it “The Ulibrien.” I went to the bar and got a couple of Ulibriens, and the Andersons, Elena and her sister Jenna, and I took a shot.
During the night I danced with Paige obviously, Kid, Aspen, and Arden, Elena and Jenna, my cousins the Mitreys and my brothers (specifically to TNT), Noah, my cousin Cameron, Dad's high school best friend Martin, my coworkers Elizabeth Lexi, and Greg, and my former coworkers, Clo, Carly, Violet, Emma, Mac and her girlfriend Savannah, Nicole, her fiance Carson, and Paige’s other friend Miranda, as well as my childhood neighbors on the other side of me from the Andersons, Greg Parker, his sister Melody and her husband Rob. While the night was full of dancing and fun, there were two major set pieces of the night (besides Cousin Simple’s performance), both of which have their roots in Paige's parents, and my parents’ respective weddings. Let's start with Paige's parents as that happened first.
Paige's dad is one of 11, and her mom is one of 6. At their wedding all of her dad's siblings built a pyramid in the middle of the dance floor and her mom laid down in front for a picture. I went to the bathroom really quickly and when I came back, the O'Brien side of the family was in the middle of the dance floor building a pyramid. Paige and I were supposed to be at the top. I ended up getting on top of Paige's brother Ryan, and as she was getting on top next to me, her uncles couldn't handle it anymore, (they had been down there for at least 5 minutes), and the pyramid collapsed!
When I was growing up, my aunts and Mom would sing Paradise by the Dashboard Light, almost any chance they got. Martin had been Dad’s best man at my parents' wedding. Mom and Dad's reception was held at the Ohio Theater. They had the venue from 3:30-9:30. When they were booking the venue, Mom asked, what if they wanted to stay longer and the event coordinator said just to tell them they would like to extend the time by an hour. So about a half hour before the reception ended, Mom and my Grandpa went up to the bartender and told him they wanted another hour. The bartender said, “That’s fine but we've already started shutting down the bar, so there will be no more alcohol.”
“That's fine,” Mom said, “everyone has had enough to drink.”
Unfortunately my Uncle Andy, who was just a boyfriend at this point, wanted another drink. He decided that the best course of action was to go downstairs, and buy a case of beer, and bring it back up to the reception. So there's a video of Mom and Martin in the middle of the dance floor singing Paradise by the Dashboard Light at each other, and the song gets cut off midway because they got kicked out. When Paradise by the Dashboard Light came on, Mom and Martin were finally able to finish their duet 33 years later.
To Be Continued…
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