Matt and Bonnie became Mr. and Mrs. Tesch this weekend. It was a lovely, simple ceremony with plenty of light moments, like when the soon-to-be-newlyweds spontaneously hugged during the reading of ecclesiastes 3 ("for everything there is a season" - Bonnie's uncle had just reached "a time to embrace"). Handkerchiefs were flying out of pockets; I don't think I've seen so many people simultaneously chuckling and crying before.
I was able to contribute a brief arrangement of "Finite Simple Group (Of Order Two)" just before the vows (I heard later that giant grins spread across the Olin section of the chapel as recognition dawned) and a reasonably decent rendition of "Linus and Lucy" as the exit song, even though I was so excited for the happy couple that my hands were shaking during the latter. Many thanks to Greg for the keyboard loan that enabled me to practice in my hotel room in Raleigh all last week, and to the Charles family for their hospitality and endurance of my late-night frantic "this is the first time that I've seen this sheet music and why are all the chords modulating now?!?!" practice session Friday night, and to Matt and Bonnie for allowing me to play for them.
The reception at the Charles house was awesome, even if the stuffed lizard with the mariachi guitar had been hidden away as "insufficiently dignified," despite repeated attempts to bring him out. There was a Tower of Pudding in lieu of a wedding cake, their first dance was to the soundtrack of Juno (then the lot of us took over the dance floor as Daft Punk, "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy," and the very occasional vaguely-romantic song started pounding out), and when Erin and Eric gave their bridesmaid/best-man speeches, the waves of laughter and the tears started to flow again. It was a very Matt-and-Bonnie wedding.
It wasn't long until we were all sprawled on the couch in jeans and t-shirts and (pirate-themed) pajama pants, wolfing down pasta and giving each other backrubs and debating various ways to attack RFC 1149. (My favorites: "pigeon-spoofing" - and even more simply, "hawk.") Good friends, good times, and it's going to be odd getting used to Bonnie's new last name - even more so because, due to the prevalence of "Matt"s at Olin, we called Tesch by his last name, so when we say "Bonnie Tesch," it sounds to us like we're calling both their first names in succession - but hey, we'll adjust.
Also, I'm used to seeing my friends happy, but there's this peculiar sort of happiness that comes when they're in love - and it's particularly apparent at their weddings. It was like that with Amanda last month (the first wedding-of-a-friend I ever attended) - she was just glowing. And this weekend, Matt and Bonnie were giving off these radioactive waves of happiness!!! that made you melt just being near them. It's wonderful to see.
I wish them all the happiness in the world.