Halloween Countdown: October 30 – sometimes it takes a nip at me

Today my wife and I celebrate the second anniversary of our wedding. The event itself was a pretty low-key affair, the five months previous having been entirely taken up with the extended ordeal of buying and refurbishing our house. The logistical nightmare involved in dealing with the affected cluelessness of the previous owners, the abrasive pushiness of the real estate agent (not the woman who showed us the house, who was a total peach, but her superiors in the firm), and the bank (which were hesitant to sink a few hundred thou in a property that was a shade seedier than Ed Gein’s old place), pushed all other concerns to the background for much of the summer of 2004. My future wife refused to even think of planning the wedding until all other issues were resolved.

Even though the wedding and reception plans were cobbled together at a very late date, things went surprisingly well. We booked the Goddard Chapel at Tufts University for the ceremony and found a nice Unitarian minister to officiate over the proceedings. Our original plan for the reception was just to invite folks back to my in-laws’ house for a small party, but my wife’s father generously stepped up and booked us a function room at a classy Italian restaurant in North Cambridge. We made the centerpieces ourselves from skull and pumpkin candle holders and plastic flowers purchased on the cheap at a local craft store. Keeping with the Halloween theme, my wife got Dia de los Muertos bride and groom figurines for our cake topper.

She wore a blue silk Chinese dress with a silver tiara. I wore a black suit with a sombrero, red satin sash, bolo tie, and tanker boots.

I handled the reception music duties, and burned four CD’s of our favorite songs (punk, new wave, oldies, Irish music) to load into the hall’s sound system. (The random playlist kicked off with “Pretty Vacant,” to our mutual amusement and joy.)

While we were too buzzed on the excitement to take it all in, everyone seemed to have a good time. The best comment about the night came from my sister-in-law’s friend who said, “Only and Maura and Andrew’s wedding would the bride dress in Chinese costume and the groom as a mariachi band member, and the reception held in an Italian restaurant with Irish music on the loudspeakers.” We are citizens of the world, my wife and I, though the verdict is still out on which world.

To commemorate that momentous day while meeting my Halloween theme obligations, here is an appropriate track plucked from our reception music playlist:

Sparks – Eaten by the Monster of Love (from Angst in My Pants, 1982) – Wonderful quirky pop from the new wave leg of the Mael Brothers’ ongoing musical odyssey, this song was put to excellent use in 1983’s Valley Girl.