Wedding at the graveyard.

Yesterday, one of my oldest friends got married. I have known Eric for about 13 years, we're not always in close contact, but I look forward to our chances to catch up.

Eric was a mortician for a few years. One year, at a funeral industry convention, met a lovely lady, Alicia, also a mortician (funeral director?) and, well, you know how it goes from there.

Their wedding, on 9/10/11, was amazing. It all started a few months ago, when I got an invitation in the mail. It was adorable, the two of them, holding hands, lying atop a couple of graves - blissful, eternal and loving. I instantly knew the wedding would be equally awesome.

Finally, the day arrived. Ruth and I got dressed up in black and headed to the mortuary where the service would be. Besides being an old friend's wedding, it would be a day where I was sure to run into old friends whom I hadn't seen in around 10 years.

We got to the location about 45 minutes before the ceremony, and walked into the chapel we assumed would be used. A few ladies in dark clothing looked up at us with confusion. Afraid we had interrupted a funeral, we quickly turned around and walked to another building where we found Eric taking photos with the wedding party. He assured us we were originally in the right place and we went back to wait a short while before being seated in the chapel.

The place was decorated in red and black, a few flowers, not many. Severed hands and feet decorated the pews, adding to the graveyard ambiance. Soon, the assembly got quiet, Eric came out, swaggered down the aisle, and broke the tension with a quick "wassup y'all, welcome to the wedding" as he made his way to the front. A few flower girls, then the glowing bride.

As her father handed Alicia off to Eric, I noticed the person officiating the wedding was one of Eric's favorite types of people; he was, without a doubt, a midget. I should have expected nothing... more(?). Eric had written the ceremony and did a fantastic job making it personal, sweet, and catered to who they were as individuals. It eschewed the typical boring religious and traditional ceremonies and invoked laughter, and heart-warming "awww" moments, culminating in the midget declaring: "By the power of Greyskull, I pronounce you Man and Wife".

The deed was done. Beautifully. The new couple walked out of the chapel, followed by the wedding party, then the guests.

After the ceremony, I caught up with a few faces from my past, and before long got in the car to go to the reception. When we got to the community center, we found toe-tags with our names that gave us our table assignment. I was glad to find we had been seated with the couples co-workers. We got an earful of hilarious mortician stories; gruesome, dark and twisted, I love the sense of humor that people in their field develop.

The midget pastor had now changed outfits. He was dressed as a young Elvis, giving us quick shakes of his hips and a kingly sneer. He was onto his second act, DJing. Eric explained to me, "the midget is great, he does twice the work for half the pay!"
Midget Elvis DJ (oh, and karaoke singer) this wedding had everything!!

Some delicious eats from The House of Chicken and Ribs, a quick speech from Eric's brother Jason, as best man, and a fast but sweet 1st dance. The whole of the wedding was quick, painless and to the point. There was a fun table with weird costumes set out, people were dressing up and having the wedding photogs take their picture. All in all it was a fun, memorable, lovely wedding. I had a great time, was glad both to see some old friends and to be able to be there for the union of a great couple. I wish Eric and Alicia the best in the future and look forward to their return from the honeymoon, and our next round of catching up.