I was at a wedding this weekend and it was a strange, but nice experience. I went to the island of Samsø Friday by myself and ended up at the place we were supposed to stay around 6 PM. It was a place, which is normally used to house schoolchildren visiting the island, so it's like a camp or something. So there were dormitories with bunk beds, which was a little odd, but not that odd, when you're used to travelling and staying in youth hostels. An hour later we went to pick up my friend, who was also invited to the wedding, which made me a lot more comfortable. To explain the situation I'll just mention that the groom started at university with my friend and I and we were the only university friends, who were invited. This also means that I don't know any of his other friends that well. I met a lot of them at the bachelor party, but I don't feel like I really know them. So after my friend got settled we ditched the others and went to get dinner and beer. When we got back we sat in the sofas in the dining room, while the others sat in the kitchen. Some drifted back and forth and talked to us, but mainly we were just the two of us. I don't think we intentionally wanted to be asocial, but we felt comfortable just being the two of us and not sitting in the kitchen, where people were smoking and playing cards. So we sat around drinking beer and listened to The Pixies, Manu Chao (a big hit with this crowd), and New Order until around 2 AM, when it was time to hit the sack.

Saturday morning was spent getting ready and watching a bit of Wimbledon before leaving for the wedding. My friend and I wore similar shirts by Danish designer Mads Nørgaard that are reversed in colour. So mine is white with light-blue ruffles and his is the opposite. We didn't wear jackets, so people thought we were a bit strange. Everyone else wore suits you could as easily have worn at a funeral (except the best man who wore a beige jacket and clown pants. Honest!), so we thought we'd do something different. A girl, who by the way wore a completely see-trough dress, mentioned that we looked like those two guys from Dumb & Dumber and realizing she'd just called us dumb pointed out that she meant because of the shirts. Ha ha! Very funny. At least my underwear wasn't showing.

We walked to the church, which was located on the top of a hill with a very picturesque view of the island. It was quite windy, but other than that it was a nice day and the setting for the wedding couldn’t have been better. Inside were about 60 people and after a few minutes the bride arrived dressed in peach coloured dress. The actual wedding lasted 35 minutes, which I thought was extremely swift. We sang three hymns and there was an exchange of vows and rings, but what took up most of the time was the sermon. The priest had known the bride’s family for a long time, so he was able to add a personal touch, which was nice. But the gist of the speech reminded me of a cross between John Donne’s No Man is an Island and Hedwig’s The Origin of Love just to give you an idea of my frame of reference.

After the ceremony and having waited for the newlyweds to drive away we wandered down to the restaurant. My friend and I have travelled together quite a bit, so at this point we should know that we are disorganized idiots. Everybody else drove, but we wandered into the town only to realize we had no idea what the restaurant was called or where it was located. We walked by two restaurants we were sure weren't the right ones, then wandered back a bit only to change our minds and wander back the other way again. We finally noticed the priest drive by us and followed him until we found the restaurant. This led us to champagne, hors d’oeuvres, and watching the happy couple unpack a barrage of presents. The rest of the evening consisted of fantastic food and wine, a lot of songs and even more speeches, and drinking until 6 in the morning.

I won’t go into details about what happened at the party, but I have to mention this old guy, who made the remark of the evening. I’d noticed him early on, because he had a cigar hanging on his lower lip like a dopey Clint Eastwood. But it was the hearing aids, which really made me notice him. They were huge and grey with big plastic things going into his ears. Now I don’t want to make fun of the disabled, but I thought it was funny that he had those bad boys turned up so loud that the feedback they created distracted the chef twice, while he was presenting the menu. I didn’t sit near him, but I was later told that he had rambled incoherently throughout most of the night not even stopping while people were giving their speeches. But he really through in a zinger as the sister of the groom was rapping up her speech and people were getting on their feet to toast the happy couple. She said that she’d end her speech with asking people to join her in a toast and in a second of complete silence the old guy says “Thankfully! Now we don’t have to listen to more of her babble!”. The women next to him grabbed his arm and undoubtfully told him to can it, while the rest of us made the toast. And immediately after dinner he was escorted out and driven home. It was pretty embarrasing, but also really funny.

Sunday we had brunch in the bride’s parents’ summer house, where we also watched the World Cup final. I didn’t feel too hung over, but in the car down to the ferry and especially standing in line I got a bit queasy and the foul stench of seaweed didn’t make things any better. But I made it home alright and spent the rest of the night in front of the television.

To wrap this wedding thing up I’d like to add that I thought we had an excellent time this weekend. The party was arranged to perfection and I got to talk to a lot of nice people. I was fun telling the groom’s parents about some of the things we’d done together and it was nice to see the bride and groom so happy. It was a unique experience and something I won’t forget for a long time.

Today has been spent sleeping, watching Henman fumble his way through his fourth game, and packing. I’m leaving for the festival tomorrow at 8 in the morning, so I need to get all my gear ready. I’ve been listening to Rival Schools all night and I’m really looking forward to seeing them on Wednesday. I have no idea what we’re going to be doing at the festival yet, but I guess we’ll have a meeting tomorrow to sort things out. I’ll do my best to update about my musical adventures and maybe I’ll even be able to link to some photos and interviews. I’m sure it’ll be an awesome week. Good things are indeed coming our way.