The wedding I did ended up being really cool. Officiating it was definitely a bucket list kinda thing. It was on a hill top where you could see for miles, and about 10-15 feet behind me was a drop off that woulda killed anyone who fell. Cool scenery. Small group, around 80-100 people tops. My 4 year old was watching me get my wireless mic setup and he wanted one too, so the DJ gave him one with the batteries taken out to walk down the aisle with. So he walked down the aisle with my wife (who was a bridesmaid) along with his mic, which made for some cool pictures. Surprisingly nothing went wrong, but after everyone adjourned, and before I could cut my mic off, my son ran up to me and started talking. So "daddy I miss my good girls (our dogs). I have to go poop" got blared over the speakers.
I'm kind of glad the only weddings I have been to have been pretty good save the last one. A hyper-Christian cousin got married and that meant no booze, her fresh out of the joint brother being the officiate and all sorts of cringey stories from relatives and friends of the groom and my cousin the bride. It was about as anti-fun as you could imagine. There was a buffet and soda provided and also there was music, but it was all dull as the glint off of a penny from the 50's.
Got a few good ones in. The bride and I ended up basically doing the whole script because the groom (my brother in law) said he didn’t really care. His mistake. Overall though kept it pretty clean. My wife did the slide show for the rehearsal and had some fun with that.
While my wife and I's wedding/reception went extremely well and the venue was gorgeous...........we really wish that we had been able to do something more lowkey, inexpensive, and/or DIY. Before we got engaged, her dad basically told us "You get X amount of money for wedding planning. And anything you don't spend, you can keep". Which sounded great. My wife and I don't need anything flashy and prefer to keep things lowkey. And then, after getting engaged, we were informed that the venue/ceremony/everything, had to be in downtown Chicago. Effectively rendering her dad's initial statement to be pretty much pointless. During the first few months I asked her parents for rough estimates of what was being spent. And then stopped when I realized we were about 3/4's of the way through it and only a few months in. Her parents were waaaaaaaaaay more fixated on getting certain things for the wedding and if they wanted to splurge on certain things that was up to them. So yeah. If you can go small, go small. Of, if the father of the bride is willing to give a similar (but more realistic) offer similar to my FIL...........Elope and pocket the cash.
FYI, I made some changes to how images are linked here... animated gifs should work, and you should also be able to paste a YouTube video with a specific time reference in it without it stripping it off. https://youtu.be/-egkmhWMLdg?t=34
I made that sangria last night that I posted in the OP, with some adjustments. Used nectarines instead of peaches because the peaches at the store looked terrible. Used raspberry lemonade. Tossed the fruit in more melted butter/cinnamon/sugar than called for before grilling in the pan. And there are no garnishes because I'm a fatass and ate the rest of the pineapple last night. I taste tested after it marinated overnight..it's really fucking good. Can't wait to try a glass this afternoon.
Opted to take tomorrow off... planning on enjoying a nice, impromptu long weekend. I've been "doing" a home office reno for almost a year now, and yeah, it's a wee bit behind schedule. The goal is to focus in on it for the next 3 days to get some progress done. Last weekend I upgraded the cutterhead in my planer so that I could mill down my own hardwood floors more effectively and efficiently, and that starts this weekend. Tonight, though, it's time to sit back and relax and catch up on some TV while enjoying a beverage or 3. For those of you into old race cars, this segment on the last Grand Tour was exceptional: I knew one of the best 917 drivers of all time, Vic Elford. He gifted me a print of the start of the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans, signed by a number of drivers, including a personal inscription from him. He was on the pole, in #25 in that race. It's off at the framer's right now being framed up in the Gulf Livery colours. Here's a pic at the framers from a few weeks ago:
They're really hitting their stride; it might be the pregnancy hormones, but my wife (who isn't really a fan of the Clarkson-Hammond-May trio) has said she's really liked some of the segments this season. I think May's piece a few weeks ago on Neil Armstrong's Corvette is one of the best they've ever done.