Matt and Melany's Wedding:Part 3

New Year’s Eve –Wedding Day-- dawned bright and relatively warm in the low 40’s. We went to breakfast at a nearby diner with Robert, Maeve and Myrna. We asked Billy to come, but he wasn’t ready to get up.

After breakfast, I ran into my sister Marian, her husband Benny, Marian’s twin Margaret and Margaret’s 3-year-old twin granddaughters at the buffet breakfast in the hotel. I went outside to phone my sister Nora, still in the hospital, to let her know that Melany had publicly remembered her the night before. And, because I’m not one to hold things in, I said to Nora,”I can’t believe that [your son] Nick goes to every Dave Matthews Band concert in carnation, but he can’t make it to his cousin’s wedding. It says to me that he has no relationship with his Aunt Mary’s family, and I don’t understand that. You can tell him that.”

I didn’t mean to upset Nora, but I was her birth coach at Nick’s birth. I was the godmother at his baptism. Matt and Nick were together a lot when they were little, because Nora lived with our parents until Nick was 3. And when Nick was older and got into scrapes before he made a success of himself, I proved various kinds of support.

I went back into the hotel and sat with my sisters and family. Within ten minutes, I got a call on my cell phone. It was Nora:”Nick’s coming,” she said. “But he cancelled his hotel room. You’ll have to re-reserve it.”

The week before, we had speculated about what we would do with ourselves in the long period between breakfast and the 7:30 pm ceremony. My sons Matt, Mike, Tom and matron of honor Celeste’s husband John went bowling. Uncle Benny and his son Lou B. –whom Matt had gone to Europe with and whom Matt had lived with in Phoenix after college graduation—went into Manhattan for a quick tour. Jim went back to Mahwah to feed and walk the dogs and to pick up his brother Kevin and Kevin’s fiancée Cindi from New Milford. Uncle Robert, Maeve, Myrna, and I went to a local CVS drug store to get hygiene and grooming supplies; Robert got potato chips and soda. Aunt Jayme and Grandma Betty were having their hair done at their local salon. Aunt Marian got a massage and Aunt Margaret B. got a mani-/pedi.

At about 12:30, bridesmaids and female relatives met up in the bridal suite, where Melany and her mom Susan had slept the night before. The bridal party’s only bridesman – Tony R.—came in his dress socks and hotel bathrobe: He looked very cute. Matron of honor Celeste’s husband John delivered lunch before going to bowling.

There were two hairstylists and two makeup artists Melany and Susan had engaged to give us our makeovers. Maid of honor Jess Zelizo was pouring champagne and mimosas in glasses with plastic ice cubes that lit up.
Cousin Jayme invited bridedsman Tony R. to her room to look at her Spanx—those industrial-strength gut-suppressors. When they returned, I began to sing an alternate rendition of Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets”—“Tony and the Spanx.”

The irrepressible cousin Jayme began regaling us with the story of how she had told her fiancé John that “the candy store would be closed tonight.’ She also told us that Grandma Betty said you could gauge a man’s skills in the bedroom by his performance on the dance floor. Grandpa Jim was an excellent dancer, said Betty. Betty later confirmed to me that she had indeed made this observation. (So what does it mean that my own husband Jim dislikes dancing and –when forced to – does a left-to-right, right-to-left shuffle? And what does it mean that, at every wedding, , my brother-in-law Donny O does the “pretzel dance,” a winding in and out without ever letting go of your partner’s hands?)

By5 pm, the female side of the wedding party was made up and up-do’ed, and headed over to the Crystal Plaza to get dressed. The bridesmaids’ gowns –simple, black and strapless –looked beautiful on all of them. Matt and the groomsmen had taken the shuttle over to the Crystal Plaza around 4:30. Jim and I went over in his car.

We stopped in the foyer of the Crystal Plaza to look at family pictures displayed on the center table: Photos of Jim’s and my wedding, Steven and Susan’s wedding, and shots of Melany and Matt as toddlers and teens. We looked at Melany’s beautiful bouquet, crafted by her fellow teacher Gerry, who has a passion for flowers. The bouquet, which contained white Eskimo roses, pink Sophie roses, and white stephanotis, also had within it Mel’s dad Steven’s wedding yarmulke and some trim from Mel’s mom Susan’s wedding gown. And Susan’s wedding veil hung over the raised platform where Mel and Matt would say their vows.

Melany said Gerry actually worked with Mel’s dad Steven in the Mount Olive school system, and he’s known Melany since she was a little girl.

“Gerry got involved with flowers at a young age,” said Melany. “Gerry liked flowers and would go to wholesalers and watch what they did with them. He even started making corsages and boutonnieres for his classmates who couldn't afford expensive flowers for prom. Years later as an adult, he worked at David's Country Inn (a catering hall in Hackettstown) as a waiter, and that is where he met Monica, who is the owner of the shop where he works now, Fleurs Divine.”

Jim and I walked up the Crystal Plaza’s central staircase, where the groomsmen ( best man and brother Mike McQueeny, Matt’s very hip boss Jig, Matt’s long-time friend Tim G whom he met at the gym, Matt’s high school friend Andrew Firkins, Matt’s childhood friend Tony L. and brother Tom McQueeny) were hanging out, partaking of sandwiches and drinks provided by the Crystal Plaza. Jig told the staff to keep the Jack-and-Cokes coming.

I went over to the bride’s dressing room, where Melany was getting into her dress, with the assistance of her mom Susan, Aunt Jayme, Grandma Betty and Cousin Jay-Jay. Once dressed, Melany was spoon-fed a couple of mouthfuls of fruit by Crystal Plaza staff, so that she wouldn’t spill anything on her dress.

Melany had gotten her dress at Bijou Bridals in Paramus. Designed by Stephan Joli, it was strapless with a sweetheart neckline, mermaid shape with lace flowers and Swarovski crystals all over it. It had a train and it sparkled every way she turned. Melany had gone dress shopping with her mother, grandmother and aunt. The Bijou folks took the dress she ultimately chose off a mannekin for Mel to try on.

Melany wore a fingertip-length veil with lace flowers that matched the flowers on her gown.

“Matt was surprised to find out I was wearing a veil,” Melany said. “I think he pictured a veil to be what women of the Middle East wear.”

Just before the ceremony, Matt got word that his groomsman Matt O would not be there. Matt O Facebooked him, writing: “Dude, it’s not looking good. I’m probably not going to be able [to make] your wedding. It’s a disgrace really but as it stands now, I can’t find any flights because they are either booked, or too late so I’d miss everything. I’m going to stay up for another hour or so to see if I can get anything but it’s not looking good. I can’t apologize enough but ultimately mother nature f…’ed me. I have no idea what to write but call me when ya can. I haven’t slept in 2 days and am frustrated. This sucks.”

Finally, it was nearly 7:30. You could hear the murmur of the crowd behind the doors of the room where the ceremony would take place. The “director” of the event –Crystal Plaza staffer Nella – lined us up in the hallway.

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