Henry Griggs Rambling Home Home Photo Gallery Recent Topics Visit to Australia 2002 Sydney house 2002 Circular Quay 2004 Circular Quay 2002 Centrepoint Tower 2004 Oz Birds 2004 Oz Birds 2002 Bridge Climb 2002 Popular Topics Gallbladder removal Photo of the day HP Calculators Linux/Slackware notes Ripping/burning CDROMs Geek Alaska 2003 UK in 2003 Geek Caribbean 2002 Main Topics Anne Anne's Crafts Blog Cats Collecting Commentary Credits Events Films Links Linux Michelle Miscellaneous Me Photo Galleries Photo Of The Day Rachael Site Index Travel Us Want List Work Navigation Site Map Contact Email Me Search Advanced search Related Sites Hampton Road Events Henry's Notes Anne's Site Hampton Roads Aussies Juniper Rowing Club Great Dismal Regatta Virginia Beach Belles Virginia Beach Rowing Club Williamsburg Boat Club

Debbie's Wedding 7th October 2000 Almost a year ago, Debbie and Joe got married and invited Anne and me along to have fun with them. Joe was my host on the trip to the USS Bataan earlier this year. I enjoy going to weddings here. It's interesting to see the different churches and services and the habits at the receptions. Joe and Debbie's wedding was fun. The church service was very nice, the reception was alcoholic and we had a ball. The reception featured a whole baked salmon. Anne and I returned to the salmon again and again, getting as much as we could. We are salmon-addicts. Put salmon near us and we will trample you underfoot to get at it. The Church I'm interested in the churches here. I only go into them very occasionally, for family ceremonies like weddings and christenings. Debbie and Joe's wedding was at Oceana Naval base. The church looked like a military church. At the very front of the church, above the altar, it had stained glass panels that looked like military decorations. You can't see them in the photo but you can see the beams of light coming through them. I asked one of the ministers after the ceremony if the stained glass was supposed to look like military decorations, and he had to look at the stained glass to see what they looked like before he said no. It was tall and bright and airy and a very nice looking church. The Married Couple This is the happy couple, Joe and Debbie, at the reception. Here, they are both relaxed and happy. But this is about to change ... Now things are getting suspicious. Joe is trapped between Joy and Debbie. Joe is in shock because of what just happened. Debbie is questioning him about it. Joy is laughing because she KNOWS what happened. The situation gets clearer. Look at those muscles. Debbie takes any opportunity to flex, even holding the bouquet. Now we get a glimmering as to why Joe was in shock. Reception Formalities They hold to the old traditions here. Here is Joe, digging for the garter. I cannot remember why he is doing this. Was it something to do with "old, new, borrowed, blue" or was he just impatient? I thought it was the best man who threw the garter? We see Debbie's organisational skills again. "Do this. Stand there. Wait." It's not Joe this time. Here, she's bossing the women who are going to grab for that bouquet in Debbie's hands. And she tosses the bouquet. That's it in mid-flight. Some of the women are ready for it, but the one on the very left doesn't seem to want to catch it. Sensible girl. There's lots more life to be lived before you settle down with just one person. Another fine old wedding tradition. Here, the best man has spent some time groping the thigh of the bridesmaid for another garter, and is now finally removing it. The Master Of Ceremonies has wowed us with a saucy commentary and the bridesmaid is looking at him in disbelief. I had several photos of the garter ceremony to choose from, so I chose the one that was most revealing. The wedding cake. I like to take photos of wedding cakes. Many wedding photographers forget the cake. Someone slaved for days to create this masterpiece, and then it comes to the wedding and gets torn apart and eaten. I like to preserve the pristine image of the cake. The Guests The group photo. Some other photographer managed to get all the guests together for this shot, and I took advantage of it to do the same, despite the fact that I was dipsomaniacally weaving by this part of the evening. There's three people in this photo. Jim, who used to work with us, and Bronwyn and Rachael. Rachael isn't quite ready for the public yet, but she did appear a couple of weeks later. Anne and Katherine. Katherine and Jim were married the year before and we went to their wedding too. MAP's Terrible Two and their wives. On the left is Matt and Amber and we went to their wedding the year before. On the right is Kevin and Lori, and they were married before we arrived in the country so there's no photos of their wedding. Around The Bar As the evening developed and the guests grew very drunk, mischief was in the air. Groups of people from MAP congregated in the side bar and talked and drank and fell down. Brian wants to get up to some devilment, but Matt is struggling to hold him back. Karen is telling the group a dirty story, while Matt shows his appreciation of bawdy tales by going red. We've reached the stage of inebriation when everything seems incredibly funny. Someone has just told a joke and Debbie and Matt are having trouble containing their mirth. There's trouble brewing here. Look at that gleam of mischief in Matt's eyes. Look at Debbie puckering up. Who's she teasing? What's happening here? Very few can remember what was happening at this stage of the night. I was impressed with the decor of the bar. The bar tables were all decorated with bullets. It was very impressive and very attractive. Reminded me of the weaponry ornaments at Colonial Williamsburg. The reception ended on a grand note, and we drunkenly spilled out into the night. After all the alcohol, I needed something to sop it up, so on the way home we staggered into a Kentucky Fried Chicken place. Anne was in her best, and I was in a suit, and when we staggered in the door, the place went quiet and all the chicken-munchers stopped and stared at us. I ordered something and waved a credit card at them and was told that they didn't take credit cards. Cash only. We fumbled through our finery and came up with enough cash to pay for the bucket of chicken and grease. I wobbled out of the place, drunkenly maintaining my dignity, and then we went home, got into our grease-splattering clothes and went to work on the fried chicken. And thus ended another great wedding in the USA.