Pookie's Wedding

Before the wedding, I was at my brother's for some pool volleyball. Here is Ethan less than happy after I threw him into the pool with his clothes on.

Here is Jake with a cannonball. On to the wedding. Here is the head table. I have to thank Vanessa for the table assignment. I was at table 4 front and center.
Here are Kelly and Ryan, where else could they be but the bar.Vanessa and Butch with the father daughter dance.Luke with his flowers.Trinity and Harper.T.R. half way through the reception. He opted to lose the shirt and just go with the tie and vest. I thought he looked like the love child of Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze from that Chippendales skit on Saturday Night Live.I had a lot of fun at Vanessa and Al's wedding. But I did have one issue, and that was all of the speeches. Al's son, who is 14, was the best man. He gave the best speech of all of them. The second speech was by Angela, the maid of honor, which was OK, for a speech that wasn't prepared. From there things went off course a bit, Al's brother gave a speech which included 4 separate stories. I knew we were in trouble when he stopped and said, I have only 2 more stories. After Al's brother, his sister gave a speech. The last speech before we could eat was by one of Al's best friends, who gave more of a roast than a speech, which I thought was pretty brutal to sit through and by the end it most of the crowd was visibly uncomfortable. Here is Al's brother's second story. Note how this story has nothing to do with Vanessa. And allow me to quote "I do have to tell a couple quick stories", this one story is nearly 3 minutes. To think I thought listening to Nate was bad.

I have been to many weddings, and I have given a number of speeches. Here are what I believe are the two key things to remember about giving a speech at a wedding. Keep it under 2 minutes, after that you start to lose your audience. Secondly, have what you are going to say memorized. If you can't memorize it, it probably isn't that important. Worst speech ever was at my cousin, Megan's, wedding. I think it was her husband's uncle who had 4 pages of internet jokes to go through.

I wasn't planning on grabbing the microphone while at the reception. But the rule of the reception was to get the new couple to kiss you had to sing a song with the words love or kiss in it. I waited until towards the end of the dinner to step up to the microphone. A lot of people raised their hand and the DJ held the microphone in front of them. Not me, I grabbed the mic and belted out "Brother Love's Traveling Salvation Show". I worked that room, walking from one end to the other and then back to the middle. Of course, I didn't belt out just one verse but two (which netted me a free drink from the bartender later in the evening). I will be the first person to tell you that I can not sing. It is true, I can't, but I can entertain and there isn't much question about that.