Statistics
I'm taking advantage of the fact that, for the first time in my entire life, it's Saturday and I don't have a wedding to go to.
- Hugh Grant in "Four Weddings and a Funeral"
This past weekend held the last wedding I'll be attending (I think) of 2010.
This puts me at 30-something weddings attended in the last six years. While I know several people who have been to a lot more than that, it's still a respectable record and it provides a wealth of empirical data.
With this in mind, I started compiling a few statistics.
- Contrary to the "27 Dresses" cliche, none were theme weddings.
- Six were dry weddings. ("Dry" as in there was no official alcohol consumption by the wedding party at any point. At least one had a dry reception followed by drinks at a bar; that one isn't included in this count.)
- The largest wedding party I've seen had seven on each side. Two had no attendants. The average is about four.
- I've seen red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple as wedding colors, along with black, pink, brown, and various colors only found in the larger Crayola collections.
- Three had cookies instead of cake.
- Four had carrot cake as their only option. (Notable because generally I'm not a fan of carrot cake.)
- Seven did not have an after-dinner dance.
- Three were destination/really small weddings where I only attended the receptions.
- Two, I crashed.
- The longest was and an hour and a half long.
- The shortest was eight minutes. (This one broke a 5-year record, a sixteen minute wedding that took place that very first summer.)
- At one, the guests never sat down during the ceremony.
- One was done in two languages.
- The majority were in South Dakota, including two that could very well have been in Texas instead. Six were in Wisconsin, five in Minnesota, two in Iowa, and one in England.
- One wedding had the ceremony in one state and the reception immediately following in a different one.
- Only five have been for family members.
- I have missed something like twelve weddings for which I've received actual (mailed) invitations.
In the meantime, I've been a bridesmaid three times, a personal attendant once, cooked the rehearsal and/or reception dinner for a few (that comes with that job at had at the camp), been a reader, the guestbook girl, the cake cutter, and possibly my favorite random role, the reception hostess. Bachelorette parties have run from a nice dinner with a few girls to go-karting with a small horde, from going to a MLB game to a full weekend in Vegas.
I have never caught the bouquet (okay, I admit -- I have dodged it) and no bride has ever forced me to do the YMCA, although I've joined in willingly a couple of times. Only a couple, though.
Taking a step back to look at all this, it's almost overwhelming. The last six years have been a little nuts.
Then this evening I logged on to Facebook only to find that three more friends got engaged over the weekend. Just when I thought things were starting to slow down, that maybe the wedding phase was starting to wrap up (meaning the baby phase is starting, which alarms me greatly) -- I find out I'm wrong. Heck, these are all friends who are the same age as me. Not younger, not remarrying, but first-timers in their mid-twenties.
And so it continues.
- Hugh Grant in "Four Weddings and a Funeral"
This past weekend held the last wedding I'll be attending (I think) of 2010.
This puts me at 30-something weddings attended in the last six years. While I know several people who have been to a lot more than that, it's still a respectable record and it provides a wealth of empirical data.
With this in mind, I started compiling a few statistics.
- Contrary to the "27 Dresses" cliche, none were theme weddings.
- Six were dry weddings. ("Dry" as in there was no official alcohol consumption by the wedding party at any point. At least one had a dry reception followed by drinks at a bar; that one isn't included in this count.)
- The largest wedding party I've seen had seven on each side. Two had no attendants. The average is about four.
- I've seen red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple as wedding colors, along with black, pink, brown, and various colors only found in the larger Crayola collections.
- Three had cookies instead of cake.
- Four had carrot cake as their only option. (Notable because generally I'm not a fan of carrot cake.)
- Seven did not have an after-dinner dance.
- Three were destination/really small weddings where I only attended the receptions.
- Two, I crashed.
- The longest was and an hour and a half long.
- The shortest was eight minutes. (This one broke a 5-year record, a sixteen minute wedding that took place that very first summer.)
- At one, the guests never sat down during the ceremony.
- One was done in two languages.
- The majority were in South Dakota, including two that could very well have been in Texas instead. Six were in Wisconsin, five in Minnesota, two in Iowa, and one in England.
- One wedding had the ceremony in one state and the reception immediately following in a different one.
- Only five have been for family members.
- I have missed something like twelve weddings for which I've received actual (mailed) invitations.
In the meantime, I've been a bridesmaid three times, a personal attendant once, cooked the rehearsal and/or reception dinner for a few (that comes with that job at had at the camp), been a reader, the guestbook girl, the cake cutter, and possibly my favorite random role, the reception hostess. Bachelorette parties have run from a nice dinner with a few girls to go-karting with a small horde, from going to a MLB game to a full weekend in Vegas.
I have never caught the bouquet (okay, I admit -- I have dodged it) and no bride has ever forced me to do the YMCA, although I've joined in willingly a couple of times. Only a couple, though.
Taking a step back to look at all this, it's almost overwhelming. The last six years have been a little nuts.
Then this evening I logged on to Facebook only to find that three more friends got engaged over the weekend. Just when I thought things were starting to slow down, that maybe the wedding phase was starting to wrap up (meaning the baby phase is starting, which alarms me greatly) -- I find out I'm wrong. Heck, these are all friends who are the same age as me. Not younger, not remarrying, but first-timers in their mid-twenties.
And so it continues.
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