Tizmy - Chris Hardy's Memories - Graham & Hillary's wedding

Graham & Hillary's wedding

No comments

By Chris Hardy
19th August 2006

Today my high school friend Graham married Hillary, who he met while he was serving in the US Air Force. We were invited over to the States for the wedding and my friend Ben was the best man while I was a Groomsman, along with Graham's brother Craig and friend Eric.

The day before, we stayed in the 5 Star Norfolk Marriot hotel. Since we'd already had the stag do a few days earlier, that evening we had a meal and entertainment with the bride and groom's friends and family on "The Spirit of Norfolk" - a large yacht that cruises around the Norfolk bay area.

After the meal we took part in one of the great American traditions and took Graham to Hooters for his last night as a free man! We told the waitresses that Graham was getting married the next day, so they made him wear a pair of pants on his head and dance around to some music with a hot-dog in his mouth - something I think he'll never forgive us for!

The big day came and being British, Ben, Jason and I headed down early doors to the hotel bar to finish writing Ben's best man speech. As a sidenote, we didn't get drunk - we were VERY careful to avoid this!

Later on we headed over to the Chrysler Museum of Art where the wedding was being held. Neither Graham or Hillary are religious so it was a civil ceremony, and they couldn't have picked a better place to hold it. The ceremony itself was fairly short - I don't know why but for some reason I expected it to last a lot longer. Everything went pretty much as planned, apart from the happy couple being pronounced Mr and Mrs Johnson, as opposed to Jackson! Thankfully everyone saw the funny side!

After the ceremony the guests were moved to another part of the museum for drinks while the main hall was transformed for the reception. Once everyone was seated, the wedding party came back into the room. Before the bride and groom came out (with an amazing entrance worthy of royalty!), the groomsmen and bridesmaids were introduced into the room over a microphone. It was a strange experience that made us feel like minor celebrities for a few minutes!

For the rest of the evening everybody ate, drank and danced the night away to music provided by an amazing bare-footed Mexican guitarist/singer. Us blokes did the guy thing and went outside to smoke some big fat Cuban cigars, kindly smuggled into the country by one of the ushers! At the end of the night the car was collected to take Graham and Hillary back to the hotel and since it was a wedding we saw fit to Pimp Their Ride and duly covered it in a tasteful array of tissue paper, bottles and makeup!

Back at the hotel and not wanting to let the side down, us Brits upheld our reputation by being the last one's standing at the bar.