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the big fat greek wedding
I usually don’t look forward to going to weddings, but I had high expectations for the one we went to last Saturday. A friend of Vernal’s and mine from the KU days was getting married. This friend of ours is 100% Greek and she was marrying a Greek boy, so I knew we would be in for a treat. 
Vernal got a new ‘hot’ dress to wear to this wedding, so I sported the jacket and double knotted my tie. Good thing, because everyone threw on their best. The people in attendance were mostly Greek with a few of us reserved non-Greek sprinkled in like an olive in a greek salad, only we are not as tasty.
The rumors were true. The ceremony at the Greek Orthodox Church was performed entirely in Greek, mostly sung, and clocked in at nearly an hour. Usually that would drive me nuts – a long ceremony where the couple stares at each other as we have to listen to cheesy Steven Curtis Chapman songs, but not this ceremony. This ceremony was filled with ritualistic traditions and luckily there was and English explanation of the different stages of the ceremony. Everything was done in three’s to represent the Holy Trinity – so that was an easy signal for me to follow the happenings in the programs. My favorite funny part was when the bride and groom along with the priest marched three times around the altar. Another fascinating aspect was that the priest sang the whole ceremony in the traditional catholic sort of manner, but then there were two guys to the left hand side of him who would take turns singing back a response. They manner in which they sang was more of chant with a lot of inflection in their voices – very cool.
After the wedding ceremony, we made our way to the reception at Lake Quivira. We made our way up the stairs, found our nametag with our table assignment, walked across the dance floor and were delighted to see familiar faces at our table. We proceeded over to the buffet tables for appetizers. The appetizers were a selection of traditional Greek foods that were prepared by the mother of the bride and probably a bunch of other women. They were yummy.
I noticed that the band was starting to set up. Not your typical band, these men were in their 50’s and had some strange looking instruments. Surely, they are not going to start playing before dinner. WRONG! What happened next were the traditional bride and groom dance and then the dance with the parents, but then after that the party started. First was the brides dance. The band played a very feminine styled folk song. The bride was in the middle of the floor, alone, and then fatherly type men would come up to her with a wad of dollar bills and throw them up in the air as they showered down on her. This went on for a while, then soon, people started locking hands and created one long spiral that grew layers upon layers with the bride leading the way and going around and around in circles. It would have been fun to join in, but there was some intricate footwork involved that I did not want to attempt. After they jammed on that song for about 10 minutes came the groom’s song. His song was masculine and had a marchy-almost hip-hop feel to it. Basically it was the same dance, a really long circular train, but he led the way this time. The floor is covered in dollar bills and the dancing went on for about an hour.
After dinner and toasts, the dancing started back up again. We slipped back to the dessert tables, again all tradition Greek desserts prepared by the mother of the bride.
I had one of those ‘movie moments’ when I retreated away from the craziness of the party onto the second floor outdoor balcony that overlooked the lake. I joined several other men who were already out there smoking cigars and giving each other big hugs and kisses on the cheek. I found a few guys that I knew. We talked about the joys of the KU football team beating Missouri for the third year in a row and the uncertainty of the upcoming KU basketball season. I eventually met a guy who lives in Portland, we talked about the Northeast and eventually spent a good deal of time talking about music.
I usually don’t look forward to going to weddings, but I had high expectations for the one we went to last Saturday. A friend of Vernal’s and mine from the KU days was getting married. This friend of ours is 100% Greek and she was marrying a Greek boy, so I knew we would be in for a treat.
The rumors were true. The ceremony at the Greek Orthodox Church was performed entirely in Greek, mostly sung, and clocked in at nearly an hour. Usually that would drive me nuts – a long ceremony where the couple stares at each other as we have to listen to cheesy Steven Curtis Chapman songs, but not this ceremony. This ceremony was filled with ritualistic traditions and luckily there was and English explanation of the different stages of the ceremony. Everything was done in three’s to represent the Holy Trinity – so that was an easy signal for me to follow the happenings in the programs. My favorite funny part was when the bride and groom along with the priest marched three times around the altar. Another fascinating aspect was that the priest sang the whole ceremony in the traditional catholic sort of manner, but then there were two guys to the left hand side of him who would take turns singing back a response. They manner in which they sang was more of chant with a lot of inflection in their voices – very cool.
After the wedding ceremony, we made our way to the reception at 
I noticed that the band was starting to set up. Not your typical band, these men were in their 50’s and had some strange looking instruments. Surely, they are not going to start playing before dinner. WRONG! What happened next were the traditional bride and groom dance and then the dance with the parents, but then after that the party started. First was the brides dance. The band played a very feminine styled folk song. The bride was in the middle of the floor, alone, and then fatherly type men would come up to her with a wad of dollar bills and throw them up in the air as they showered down on her. This went on for a while, then soon, people started locking hands and created one long spiral that grew layers upon layers with the bride leading the way and going around and around in circles. It would have been fun to join in, but there was some intricate footwork involved that I did not want to attempt. After they jammed on that song for about 10 minutes came the groom’s song. His song was masculine and had a marchy-almost hip-hop feel to it. Basically it was the same dance, a really long circular train, but he led the way this time. The floor is covered in dollar bills and the dancing went on for about an hour.
After dinner and toasts, the dancing started back up again. We slipped back to the dessert tables, again all tradition Greek desserts prepared by the mother of the bride.
I had one of those ‘movie moments’ when I retreated away from the craziness of the party onto the second floor outdoor balcony that overlooked the lake. I joined several other men who were already out there smoking cigars and giving each other big hugs and kisses on the cheek. I found a few guys that I knew. We talked about the joys of the KU football team beating 
7 comments:
Sounds like an entertaining wedding. What did Vernal's dress look like? Whose feet are those?
I go through a lot of windex over here.
her dress was cool. Do you remeber JLo's green dress that attached at her belly button and showed a lot of clevage? It was nothing like that. It was made of two layers. The under layer was a light skin toned color (khaki)made of shiny satin (or silk) and the outer layer was thick lacy black with a floral pattern.
Those are the feet of many greek women dancing around in circles. Did you see the dollar bills splattered over the floor?
cool. greek people rock.
I'm adopted and don't know my nationality. I'm now declaring myself Greek.
Everything is done in threes? At least Dash would fit in.
Growing up in the Catholic church, you get used to everything in 3s. I can't say I miss the priest singing through the ceremony. I wonder if our pastor would sing through the sermon?
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