now accepting applications for single friends

Well, we got our single friends married this weekend at the Memphis Zoo. No, our single friends are not animals (although the groom does a very believable ape call). They wanted an oriental wedding in honor of the bride's Japanese heritage, so they chose to book the China exhibit at the zoo as their venue. I'm sure it was a lovely affair from the outside looking in. But for those of us privy to all the behind the scenes details...well, let's just say, at the end of the day, they were married. So it was a success.

I think I may have angered the Chinese dragon in charge of weather. Unintentionally, of course. I have nothing but respect for this dragon, especially with the placement of his claw being as it is. I simply made the observation that his facial expression matched that of a character in the Scary Movie movies. See what I mean?

Anyway, Saturday ended up being the coldest day in April in Memphis in over a hundred years or something. My bad. But I am not responsible for everything that went wrong. No, the party rental company holds some responsibility. It's their fault that the tents were muddy on the inside and not up until past time for guest to be seated. It's their fault that the groomsmen and ushers had to set out all the chairs after the bride's family paid for setup. It's their fault that the grandmothers were rained on in the middle of the ceremony, because they didn't put the gutters on the tents. And then guess who didn't show up on time to clean up afterward? Yeah, same company. Trust me, there is nothing scarier than an angry Japanese woman looking for a sword. That would be the mother of the bride.

But it wasn't all bad. The pandas were adorably entertaining, the cake was excellent, and the carousel ride was definitely unique in my book of wedding experiences. So what if the wind and the rain blew the unity candle tapers out 3 or 4 times before that part of the ceremony came around? As long as an usher fixes the problem before the bride or groom is aware of it, it doesn't count as a bad omen, right?