{"id":1365,"date":"2014-06-28T05:30:46","date_gmt":"2014-06-28T10:30:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.reddickfamily.com\/home\/?p=1365"},"modified":"2017-04-24T04:41:30","modified_gmt":"2017-04-24T09:41:30","slug":"wedding-of-families","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/2014\/wedding-of-families\/","title":{"rendered":"The wedding party"},"content":{"rendered":"

We gained a new appreciation for the expression “wedding party” during a late June visit to California for a family event. What a wonderful experience! Grandma and I went to extend well wishes to \u00a0nephew Tony and his bride, and we came back much richer. \u00a0The ceremony and reception took place at Hummingbird Ranch in Simi Valley, just a mile\u00a0from where we last lived before returning to Lubbock in 2003. It was a beautiful, wooded setting for a late afternoon event that went well into the night.<\/p>\n

\"Tony<\/a>
Father of the groom, Ray, stands watching (far left) while Tony and Kristine dance (center) dance to the cheers and approbation of family.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tony not only married Kristine Bagramyan, but embraced\u00a0a large, traditional Armenian family; and the gathering after the wedding ceremony bore wonderful testimony\u00a0to the ideas of weddings as celebration and of the uniting of families.<\/p>\n

The wedding ceremony (on the lawn) was short, sweet, and direct, and participants sat facing north, toward the villa, which was uphill, \u00a0on the other side of \u00a0a brook and small pond. \u00a0Following the ceremony, there were light hors d’oeuvres and drinks around a swimming pool before the group gathered for dinner and the real party.<\/p>\n

What a spread!<\/p>\n

\"Bride<\/a>
Tony and Kristine Franco<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

All were\u00a0\u00a0directed to assigned tables\u00a0\u2013 10 people each at 14 tables. As we entered the dining courtyard, each table contained a variety of salads, many representing one\u00a0corner of the world or another. Each table likewise was generously provided with whiskey, wine, and soft drinks.<\/p>\n

After about 45 minutes of eating or so, the music started. The bride and groom took the floor. Then others joined, and\u00a0the pace increased. Soon the courtyard dance floor contained dozens who waved, clapped hands, talked, laughed, shouted, tried various steps, and carried on\u00a0\u2013 for another 45 minutes. Then we resumed eating, and they brought in different courses. In three quarters of an hour, the call to dance rang out\u00a0again as the pace and the volume of the music increased.<\/p>\n

And so it went, well into the night. Somebody pulled Nancy onto the floor. Finally, I joined the dance long enough, evidently, to be noticed. The father of the groom (“my English is broke”) came over and shook my hand. Tony came over to our table and pronounced “a successful party” because “you got up and danced.” It’s difficult to argue with that reasoning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We gained a new appreciation for the expression “wedding party” during a late June visit to California for a family event. What a wonderful experience! Grandma and I went to extend well wishes to \u00a0nephew Tony and his bride, and we came back much richer. \u00a0The ceremony and reception took place at Hummingbird Ranch in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40983,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,76],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1365","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-family","8":"category-featured","9":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1365"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40971,"href":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1365\/revisions\/40971"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reddickfamily.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}