Wedding and Wondering no more

Preparations and anticipation can’t prepare one for the unknown; the weekend to celebrate a marriage between your nephew and his future bride. For all the agonizing we exerted Thursday night to get everything ready and packed; well we didn’t pack until the next morning. We spent all day Thursday running errands, running back to get the wedding gift after spending an hour in Toys-r-Us buying for others, (Can’t spoil Christmas can we?). Getting dinner and then running to various stores looking for stockings we thought we needed for this weekend, (didn’t even open package). We awoke early, at least for us, to have a nice leisurely drive down to Mexico Beach, Fl., the Christmas gift we bought for someone was picked up on time and we left about when we planned to leave.
Stopping in Tallahassee to look in the good book stores for a certain book for Kay we arrived at Mexico Beach at a decent time and spent a few minutes on the beach before we checked into our rooms on the Air Force Base. We had been given a time that the rehearsal dinner was suppose to start and since it only took 30 minutes or so to drive from the AF Base we left a hour early to get us there in plenty of time to mingle with the other guest before we sat down to eat. We arrived about 20 minutes before 7 pm and saw a room full of people eating already. After being seated by the Hostess, the waitress took our order for salads; they already had finished with pre stuff and had already given orders for the meals.
Being the last two seated, we took the two empty seats at the back table and had pleasant conversations with everyone. We were seated with the photographer, the Minister and his wife and the father of the Groom and his older brother. Quite and interesting evening followed, pleasant dinner talk with the father and had to listen to the photographer babble on about his camera and flash and how study on how to take good head shots, and so on and so on…. Kay told me later that he kept bumping her leg with his knee, not sure if he was flirting or what was going on; but his social skill were lacking a little bit………..
At the end of the dinner my youngest sister came over and sat down with us to chat for a little while asking about health, our families how we were doing. That was the first time I had seen or talked to my little sister since the family had gathered for my Mother’s birthday party, and I happened to still be ‘John’. My mother sat down with us and since the photographer had left earlier his dessert was sitting at his place; not remembering that she had eaten her dessert earlier she ate the one that was before her, but who cares.
The afternoon of the wedding we arrived about 15 min. early to chat and mingle with the other guests. When we arrived, mother and my sisters had seated themselves in the first row of chairs and sat there, never walking around and mixing with Nicole’s family or friends. Kay and I thought they looked like big birds sitting on a wire, all in a row not moving. The wedding was simple and Nicole was beautiful. During the picture taking, after all the required photos of the bride and grooms family, they wanted a group picture with William’s family; I hesitated but Nicole wave for me to join them. As I joined the group at the opposite end where the William’s mother stood, I detected a sneer and a look that would seriously hurt someone.
But the most blatant act of hate came when after sitting at another table and waiting to be asked to sit with my sisters and mother; we took our drinks and approached their table to sit with and across from my mother. Now there were two reserved tables seated for 10 to sit both families. The table for the brides table was full but the other table only had the 5 people with my family without Kay and I. As we approached the table, my sister very firmly and viciously said, “No thank you!!”, we were dumbstruck with her comment and after looking at each other, we went back to our table to sit with the Father of the groom and the photographer. Not at all what I expected but wasn’t surprised too much at her bad behavior toward us. It's sad to think that the table was only so empty and what kind of message that said about my sister and her relationships or lack of friends or family to those who came to celebrate Nicole and William's marriage. Kay had wanted to get to know my sister better and after this weekend she got a good idea of who she is. I had the feeling that she was controlling so much with who got close to my mother or sisters; or they were not will to put up a fight to do anything to upset her. It was sad to see my mother give pleading waves and glances our way as if to suggest she wanted to do anything that would free from the clutches of my sister.