2 Down, 2 To Go

Another wedding, my friends! Last week I was lucky enough to attend the wedding ceremony of Craig and Erin Toomey (formally McGee). Craig was the other singer/guitarist in the band that I was in last year, Five Too Many. I was honored to be the singer/cantor (Catholic ceremony) of their wedding. Due to some miscommunication and honest mistakes, I ended up sight reading 95% of the music I sang during the ceremony. For those of you who aren't familiar with that term, it means I was singing music I had never seen before. And since the string quartet and I were using the half hour we had before the wedding to figure out when to play/sing what where, we had no rehearsal either. We didn't have enough sheet music, so I was reading over the shoulder of the violinist. At one point, I was completely off from the quartet because the music they were given had a measure of rest that mine didn't have (another music reference...let's just say our music was different and that makes it impossible to stay together). I also had to turn on my own mic and mix my own sound at the last minute when I realized no one was going to do it for me. Oh, I was sweating up there in the choir loft. Thank goodness the ladies and gentlemen in the quartet were phenomenal; jovial, light-hearted, quick on their feet, and calm in a crisis. We worked it out...and no one could tell the difference (except that perhaps my first song was a tad loud, before I got the hang of the sound system...but not too bad!). All in all, the ceremony was beautiful, and I received many genuine and heart-felt compliments on the music from people at the reception that evening. I was thankful that, regardless of the stressful sittuation we were presented with, we were able to pull it off...here's to a degree in music and years of experience in the sponateous nature of live theater :).

Here are some pictures from the wedding day. It was in a city in Pennsylvania just outside of Philly...

In the limo bus before the wedding, riding over to the church with the groomsmen. Craig looks cool, calm, and collected! And all the men look great in their Coast Guard whites!



At the reception, where we were all finally able to relax. Here, Craig and I are motioning to Erin to come get in the picture...



And here we are! Craig, me, and the beautiful Erin.



Another action shot. Here, I have no idea what's going on...but clearly it's humorous.



More discussion...



Me, Bill (also from Five Too Many, and my date for the evening), Craig, and Erin.

The Mummers.

About two hours into the dinner/reception, the sound of drums filled the air outside of the ballroom. Music could also be heard...it sounded like a marching band directly outside the ballroom, but come on, why would a marching band be in a hotel during a wedding reception. The doors burst open, and in came about 30 people dressed in outrageous neon outfits. At this point you were either one of two kinds of people in the room; if you happened to be from DC (like me), you were thinking "What the heck is going on? Can someone tell me what's going on?" and if you happened to be a Philadelphia native, as half of the attendants were, you were hooting and hollering and thinking, "Yay! The mummers are here! I didn't know the mummers were coming!" The two groups quickly became one as the Philadelphians clued in the Washingtonians, and soon everyone was cheering and flapping their arms like a chicken (a typical mummer dance).

The mummers are a Philadelphia tradition, going back to the 1700s and the Swedish who settled outside of Philly. For more information, including all the info on the annual Mummer's Parade, pictures, and a brief history, check out www.mummers.com. Here are some of my own pictures of the mummers at Craig and Erin's reception!

Here is Mr. Hardy Cash...also formally of Five Too Many. Bass player extraodinaire and a white man who can DANCE! Get it, Hardy!




I just love this picture I took of Erin. She looked so beautiful, and was clearly so happy. Here she is dancing and talking to guests, enjoying the day she had worked so hard to put together.

Thank you, Erin and Craig, for asking me to be a part of your very special and beautiful day.

Two down, two to go!