This is a continuation of my Hawaiian Odyssey series, and deals with the main reason I was in Hawaii, the wedding of two of my friends.
First off, I have to admit that I’m not much for weddings. It may just be that I’m a calloused, cynical, guy, but I don’t see the point. I mean, I can understand the love and togetherness and all that Hallmarky crap, but I can’t see what all the pomp and ceremony has to do with it. So my take on the wedding will be different from the “norm.” Like you expected anything less. 
As an example, while the bride was coming down the aisle, I’m sure everyone was thinking how lovely she was.
I, on the other hand, was trying not to laugh because ten minutes earlier there was a gardener outside pulling weeds.
For reasons I can’t put a finger on, I just found that really amusing. Something else I found amusing, but which I could not get a picture of, happened during some solemn moment in the ceremony. Everybody was standing up and I just happened to look over and see that the young girl who was the page turner for the organist was yawning. The freedom of children.
But, let’s back up a bit. Here you can see four of the Philadelphia Five waiting for the bus. It was a rather odd experience. There we were, dressed up for a wedding, while bikini-clad women walked by heading for the beach which was literally a stone’s throw away.
After “The Bus” ride, we arrived at the church.
As you can see, we were all bursting with anticipation.
After the ceremony there was the obligatory half-hour photo shoot. Here you can see the entire Philadelphia Five in all our glory. Or whatever you call it.
But of course, the real reason people go to weddings is the reception. Their’s was held at The Bayer Estate. Here’s the view of the backyard. It’s kinda small, but you have to admit, it has a nice view.
The two main things people do at a reception are eat and take pictures. This can lead to some interesting combinations.
The Philadelphia Five sat at what we began to call the “Ghetto Table.” Here you can see the progression of destruction, although the pictures can’t truly convey the carnage.
The food was great and the staff even seemed to enjoy coming to our table.
Even when we gave them more work.
At other weddings the bride throws her bouquet and the groom throws the garter belt. But this couple did something different. I don’t know if it is just because we were in Hawaii, or if they were being lazy, but they only threw one thing: a lei. Here is the moment after the toss.
And here we see the poor sucker … I mean, yeah, the poor sucker who caught it.
Since I can’t really think of other things to write about, I’ll just show some of the other photos I took, except for the last one, which somebody else took.
I’ll end this with one of the joys of having a digital camera. With film cameras, you pose, and wait for the right moment because you don’t want to waste the film. But with digital cameras, you can take a hundred photos and later go through them at your leisure and pick out the one or two that are actually good. But not all of the other pictures are bad. By chance – when taking so many photos – you can catch something extremely amusing that you never noticed happened. As an example, I took five or six photos of the happy couple cutting the cake. What I did not realize, until I was home in Pennsylvania and had downloaded my pictures, was that I had managed by sheer chance to catch a very special moment. It is something I’m sure every guy has gone through. It’s when the woman in his life holds out her hand and says, “Just give me that. I’ll do it.”
