Wedding Blog

No, not those wedding crashers… (Image courtesy of New Line Cinema)

These wedding crashers! (At a wedding to which we were invited, thank you very much….)

Yes, both Mr. Tulip and I have been known to crash wedding receptions…. My own story is not so exciting. A few days after I moved to Rotterdam, some new friends invited me to join them at a wedding. I barely remember the event, as I was still jet-lagged and a bit dazed by my new surroundings, and I didn’t understand a word — for some odd reason, my “Intro to Dutch” tape didn’t cover weddings. What I remember most was the awkward moment when, in the receiving line, I introduced myself to the bride as a total stranger, and then proceeded to move one spot down and do the same with the groom! To this day, I still don’t know whether the friends committed some terrible faux-pas in bringing me along. (Did I mention they were guys in their early 20s? We’re not talking Emily Post and her escort, Miss Manners.)

Mr. Tulip’s crashing story is more remarkable, because it’s how we met! Back in 2003, some friends from law school celebrated a small, family wedding in Washington, DC amidst the famously blooming cherry blossoms. A week or two later, they threw a larger reception party at their home. Thrilled to see them together, I traveled down from New Jersey to help the happy couple celebrate.

After assisting the set-up and bartending duties, I ended up talking to one particular fellow for most of the night. One of the first topics of conversation, of course, was “How do you know Margaret and Steve?”

“Know who?”, he asked, looking blank.

“The BRIDE and GROOM — you know, whose wedding party this is?!?”

To be fair, the friends who brought him to the party (co-workers of the groom) somehow never thought to mention the nature of the event. But when people ask how we met, I love to tell the story of how it was at a wedding that he crashed. He gets all cute and sputter-y about defending himself….

As it turned out, the timing of our first meeting was rather awful. I was at the beginning of the end of a four-year relationship. And I lived in another state. But it’s rare to hit it off with another person as thoroughly and easily as Mr. T. and I did, and I hoped we could somehow start a friendship. We emailed one or two times, but then drifted off. There seemed no real point.

But then I got a government job and moved to DC. And my breakup was eventually, finally final. And I asked my friend Margaret to work the mutual-friend grapevine to look up that handsome guy from her wedding reception. And there was a rather embarrassing birthday party where the whole room knew a girl and a guy were intended to meet; and the girl gave the guy her phone number (to a general whisper around the room of, “Paper! Someone’s asking for paper! I think she’s giving him her number!”). And the rest, as they say, is history!

Small postscript: Margaret used to promise in school that she would find me a boyfriend. Being an especially fabulous friend, she wasn’t going to grab just any guy — she took orders! So I asked for a tall Asian man (I’ve always found them attractive). Which, she pointed out, is not exactly the easiest order. (Especially as we lived in North Carolina at the time!) But Mr. Tulip, whom I met at her wedding party? Is Taiwanese and 6’2”. Well done, Margaret!

Anyway, I can’t imagine anyone would have reason to crash our own wedding, but given our “history,” I don’t see that we have much cause to complain. What about you? Have you ever crashed a wedding? Can you imagine it happening at yours?