On Saturday, July 10, 1999, Lauchie and I attended the wedding of one of my best friends, Wayne, and his fiancee, Brandy. I took some pictures with our digital camera, but most of them did not turn out that great. I decided to use the ones that were semi-okay and create a page for them in honor of their wedding and in celebration of them and their relationship. Keep going for the full story of the wedding day...minus a few details, of course!

In spite of everyone's prayers, it was raining quite heavily by 3:00, the time of the wedding. I complained about the rain to my mother, who said "Happy is the bride the rain falls on"...and I stopped complaining. It was rather cold for a July day at first, but by the end of the night, it was mild and muggy. The wedding itself was held in a community close to my hometown, near where both Wayne and Brandy live. I had taken quite a few pictures during and just after the wedding, but unfortunately, many of them did not turn out right, and so I can't use them here. However, I do have a couple to put here, and I'm hoping the pictures Rachel (she's Brandy's cousin and a friend of mine) took turned out good and that I can get copies of some of them from her.

This is a picture of Wayne and Brandy at the altar, lighting a candle which signifies their union. At the beginning of the ceremony, their mothers lit two candles, one for Wayne and one for Brandy. The union candle was lit using the light from the other two candles.

A little while later, Wayne, Brandy and their two senior attendants (Wayne's best man, his brother-in-law, Jamie, and Brandy's sister Carrie, her maid-of-honor) witnessed by the priest and their other attendants, signed the registry.

After the ceremony came the walk out of the church by the wedding party. First, of course, came the bride and groom. After them came the adorable ringbearer and flowergirl, Tyler and Shelby (Shelby is Wayne's niece, and I think Tyler is either a cousin of Brandy, or the son of friends, I can't remember).

Right after the ceremony, everyone got to greet the bride and groom, as well as their families and attendants. I managed to get this picture of Wayne and Brandy (and Wayne, I am really sorry for cutting off your head! I had no idea!) Brandy's dress was really a dream, with a bodice covered in beads. She told me later at the reception that she had bought the fake tiara-type thing, and her mother made the veil to attach to it. It was beautiful!

The buffet dinner and reception dance (more about THAT later) was held at a hall about ten minutes from the church. That's a picture of part of the head table and the decorations on the wall behind it. I couldn't resist taking a picture of it. And of course, everyone was taking pictures of the cake! No one ate it, but they did have cake for us, a delicious lemon flavored cake...and Wayne and Brandy handed out the pieces to their guests! I had a really wonderful picture of Wayne holding a tray of cake, but it didn't turn out right, so, as much as I'd love to include it, I can't.

I had pictures of most of the attendants, but none of them turned out. However, I am going to include this picture of groomsman Nathaniel, who is a very good friend of both Wayne's and mine, at the reception, mainly because it's a cool picture. And no, you don't want to know what Nat's reaching for inside his tux (although you can probably guess!) The other two groomsmen were Wayne's best friend Mark, and another mutual friend, Jon. I can't remember who the bridesmaids were, except there were two Amandas. Cousins and friends of Brandy's. Oh well.

After dinner, part of the hall was cleared out and a DJ from a local radio station set up to get the dance going. The first dance was just the bride and groom, sharing their very first dance together as a married couple. Then they asked all their bridal party to join them, and no one could resist taking pictures as the two little ones, Tyler and Shelby, decided they HAD to be part of the dancing! And the third dance of the night was very touching. Wayne danced with his mother and Brandy danced with her father. I didn't get a picture of that one, though. After that, the turned the lights off on the floor and turned up the colored lights and the music.

In keeping with what now seems to be tradition (who knows?) in order to get the bride and groom to kiss during the dinner, someone had to get up and sing a song that had the word "love" in it somewhere. The biggest song spectacle of the night was when groomsmen Jon and Nat got up and, rather than doing what everyone else was doing (staying at their seats and singing), they went to the podium and the microphone and sang...the theme song to "The Love Boat"! Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera out and turned on, the boys were on their way back to their seats, so I didn't get a picture.

People were also incouraged to come forward and tell stories of Wayne and Brandy, and I would have, but I couldn't think of a single thing to say. Oh well. Both Jon and Nat got up and recounted funny stories of Wayne. In fact, after Nat sat down, Wayne himself had to get up and redeem himself! It was hilarious! Speeches were also made by the groom's father and the bride's father, and by the best man.

The dance, which took place from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m., was probably the best evening I've spent in a long time. From the slow songs to the fast ones, the music kept everyone either dancing or, if that wasn't what they wanted to do, singing along in their seats. Brandy led a huge conga line around the hall to "The Loco-Motion", and a huge crowd got up and did the "Y.M.C.A." just to name two of the songs. From rock and roll to country to celtic step-dancing, it was a good time had by all.

Quite a few people were invited back to Brandy's parents' house after the dance, which is where we crashed for the night. Yes, there were designated drivers, including my friends Blaine and Sheri, so no one drove drunk. I have a feeling there were quite a few people with hangovers this morning!

At any rate, this concludes my page dedicated to Wayne and Brandy. Between myself, Lauchie and all their family and friends, we wish them all the best...but we know they'll be just fine. Everyone saw this coming from a mile away!