You knew this was coming, right?
The setting was the Mount Vernon Inn on the estate of our founding father and first President, George Washington. The occasion: a blogger getting married. The ceremony was held outside under a cloudless sky and in exhilarating air on the Inn’s patio, with the reception inside among a number of well appointed rooms. For seemingly any set of bethrothed such conditions would have been idyllic in late September.
- Two words: Open Bar (all night)
- In stark contrast with Verizon Center, seating was at a premium with building management scrambling for more chairs for the nuptials.
- The pre-ceremony and processional music was provided by a classical acoustic guitarist. While Pachebel’s “Canon in D Major“ is never a bad choice, it was noted that “Closer to the Heart“ would be just as nice and perhaps more fitting.
- The groom adorned every reception table with hockey infraction themes illustrated by a referee-uniformed Elvis (the bride’s weakness). Gustafsson and Empty Maybe and their better halfs were seated at the “Elbowing” table. Pucksandbooks, the lone bachelor remaining in OFB, was consigned to the “Roughing” table.
- Best line of the night by a guest came from a woman in a beautiful blue dress when asked which table she was assigned. “Thank God . . . not hooking.”
- Highlights: a stirring poem penned by the mother of the bride, who due to illness was unable to travel cross-country from California and instead viewed the proceedings via webcast. Also, the best man hit the perfect pitch in delivering remarks that were poignant, uproarious, and economical. Lastly, the toast of the evening came from pucksandbooks, who, suffused with cocktail hour two-fistedness, rose in front an entire room and cried out, “Let’s out-drink every other room.”
- It was a joyous and spirited time for a too infrequent gathering of the original OFB team. Thoughts on the arena: The Mount Vernon Inn is a cozy, dignified, and novel venue with good sight lines. Most importantly: Beer lines were short.
- A capacity crowd was on-hand, and they were heavily in favor of the marriage.
- The filet mignon, part of a scrumptuous surf-and-turf plate, was a solid “two-holes on your belt” adjustingly good.
- Considering the grace with which they pulled off the First Dance, OrderedChaos and Mrs. OrderedChaos might do well to audition for work on the Caps’ power play.
- Tier I DJ: You can’t go wrong with Sinatra on a Saturday night in a room full of snazzy suits and well-dressed dames, folks.
21 Comments
Requests to live blog the honeymoon were rejected.
Congrats to you OC.
Indeed, top notch entrees and an open bar are solid foundations on which great receptions are built.
And I never fail to appreciate a Rush reference.
Damn you, I now have that stupid Rush song in my head. And you know how I feel about Rush.
Is anyone surprised that pucksandbooks would exhort his room to out-drink all the others?
Some knee-jerks of my own (please forgive any repetition):
First and foremost, an awesome party…well worth the trip to DC. The hockey theme injected something that is missing from all too many weddings…FUN! Yeah, weddings should be taken seriously, but good-natured playfulness done in good taste like that should never be discouraged. Very, very well done.
It was an honour to meet the OFB team. I will be in DC again before long, and I you need to show me the town through the bottom of a few pint glasses.
Food and venue were both awesome. Period, end of story.
Beer: short line, and WOW, was that Old Dominion stout ever frickin’ good. If anyone would care to FedEx a case to me here in Toronto, they will have my eternal gratitude.
To DC Sports Chick: Well, at least its a Rush reference from the time when Rush was still writing good music, as opposed to the towering wall of poo that came later!
Congrats, OC and the lovely Mrs. OC.
A gentle reminder that excepting the newest member of the OFB team, who merely affirms her gender’s general distate for hard prog rock of a durable nature, we are a distinctly pro Rush blog:
http://www.onfrozenblog.com/2007/03/31/for-those-about-to-rock-ofb-salutes-you/
Would that some other (all) icons of the rarefied ’70s rock scene have aged as well as this trio. The Stones come immediately to mind.
Incidently, the CBC has an engrossing list of the 100 most popular Canadians of all time up this fall. Geddy Lee is lodged at no. 96.
htt://www.cbc.ca/greatest/greatcanadians/
“her gender‚Äôs general distate for hard prog rock of a durable nature”
I guess my wife is an outlier; she likes Rush a lot. We even saw them at Nissan Pavilion once.
“as opposed to the towering wall of poo that came later!”
You don’t like Ghost Rider?
‚Äúher gender‚Äôs general distate for hard prog rock of a durable nature‚Ä?
Sweeping generalizations? That’s so like a man!
Ruh-roh, Raggy! I think I kicked over a hornet’s nest here!
Lest anyone think that I’m anti-Rush, let me state for the record that I saw Geddy, Alex and Neil on two separate occasions at the old Maple Leaf Gardens. (But please, no discussions of back-in-the-day hairstyles. My hair and I parted ways a while back, and the memories are too painful.) I was a Rush fan back in those days, but I think the shark was well and truly jumped somewhere around “Presto”.
Lets bring it back to hockey: have you ever heard any Rush song later than, say, “Tom Sawyer” played in your local rink?
I’m just sayin’.
It looks like OC got hosed on his choice of wedding photographer. Or perhaps there were too many trips to the open bar.
In any event, congratulations!
And Geddy is ranked far too low. Incredible bassist.
Not to worry Maruk — that photo was taken by Gustafsson, not the photog we hired.
Thanks for the congrats everyone!
Um yeah, I was kinda making a joke there. But like most of the Caps here lately, my shot didn’t even make it to the net, much less dent the twine.
Pucksandbooks, would you say that we succeeded in outdrinking the other rooms?
Judging by the fact that my head hurt a wee bit on Sunday morning, I’d say we at least made a dent in the project.
Old Dominion is ridiculously tasty.
Reminds me of College @ William and Mary!
Great Recap – Glad you all enjoyed the party. A great send-off to a wonderful couple.
I agree – it was well worth the trip to DC!
You forgot to mention:
-the guest appearance by the two cats during the ceremony;
-the hockey-themed cakes (which were mighty tasty);
-the cookie bar (yay cookies!);
-the Star Wars music that accompanied the entry of the newly married couple;
-and that as soon as we entered the reception area, there was a server asking if we wanted any mixed drinks. Uh, OK, twist my arm…
TG,
All fine additions. We, however, missed the cats. Perhaps it was because our ceremony seating was strategically placed in the last row right next to the steps, which afforded us the first opportunity to partake of the offerings just inside the door of the reception area. That, along with the waiters and waitresses in period costume who would not let your wine glass get below 1/3 full, was certainly a highlight we should have had mentioned in the jerks. Thanks for the reminder.
Congrats everyone! It looked like a beautiful, blurry wedding. Sinatra is always a good choice.
I purposely used a blurry image (you know.. digital camera zoomed in with it held above your head since you didn’t have a good camera view) to protect the innocent. Mrs. OC is now guilty by marriage, but didn’t want to blow her cover with a non-blurry image.
Been a fan of Rush for many a year but I must admit I don’t think I have ever encountered someone from the fairer sex that was a fan of Rush. Seriously!
“OrderedChaos”–congrats man! Still make it out to RFD with JR for happy hour? Will have to buy you a beer to toast the new couple!
Post a Comment