morsla | Surprise!

Sometimes, back-to-front is the best way of doing things. Things like eating icecream before dinner, bridesmen and groomswomen, and celebrating a wedding at your engagement party...

Yesterday was the wedding of my closest and dearest friend. This came as something of a surprise to most of the guests, as it had been advertised as a family picnic to precede the evening's engagement party... although some may have wondered why a few additional friends had tagged along for the afternoon. After sneaking away to scatter petals and prepare their chosen spot,

jilavre and

qwade led their guests to a lookout over the river, and stepped straight into their wedding ceremony.

One by one, the audience realised that the ceremony seemed a little formal for an engagement ritual.

moniemonstar-the-groom produced the rings, and as bridesmaid I carried

jilavre's flowers. Cameras were pointed at the grinning couple, tears were shed, rings and vows were exchanged. Later, two somewhat shell-shocked families returned to the picnic spot as the events of the afternoon began to sink in. And that, as historians may later note, was how things started - in a style and structure that others might think odd, but that suited the couple in question perfectly :)

aeliel and I headed over to Suede to help set up the 'engagement' party, and the other guests slowly trickled in past some telltale notices in the stairwell. If you ever see an 'engagement party this way' sign with accompanying fine print, remember to read it carefully before heading down to the basement...

The ~~enga~~reception went well, with all the things that should have been there - lots of friends and family, free-flowing drinks and cupcakes of brightly-coloured doom. I caught up with people I've missed for years, and nobody seemed too shocked by the news that they'd missed the wedding. The party survived a power failure, and random conversations even survived the lights coming back on again.

So: lots of love to the happy couple, and thanks for letting me be a part of it all. No engagement party will ever go unsuspected, ever again...