Daily Office:
Friday
(Held Over)

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Mr & Mrs Ryan O’Neill

Matins: It’s a little late for research, but anyone who wants to follow along with this morning’s festive ceremony can read the manual. If you think I’m going to look at it, you’re crazy. I’d flip out over my own misinterpretation of a (to me) unexpected term, and I wouldn’t be able to enjoy the wedding breakfast.

Vespers: What a lovely day! From breakfast at ten — meeting Ryan’s delightful parents was nicer than anything on Balthazar’s boffo menu — to getting married at, gee, I don’t know, about one in the afternoon? And then walking down Broadway on the most radiant spring afternoon and having a nice long lunch under umbrellas overlooking New York Harbor (Statue of Liberty included). Home just before seven!

Mr & Mrs Ryan O’Neill….

Oremus…

§ Matins. Wedding breakfasts are supposed to follow weddings, not precede them, but tomorrow’s affair is a get-acquainted affair: we’re going to meet Ryan’s parents. There’s a movie in this, but I don’t want to think about it. A mashup of The Inlaws and 16 Blocks, in which we all end up on a bus hijacked to Atlantic City. Hey, I’ll be dressed!

§ Vespers.

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Truth to tell, this is a pre-marital shot. Later, the same day…

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It may have been the most photographed wedding in the history of April in Manhattan. (Can you believe that big obnoxious boat blocking the Statue of Liberty? I guess you can’t have everything.) There were at least three, and sometimes as many as five, clicking cameras  — but with no designated photographer, we never got a truly comprehensive picture of everybody. Someone at Gigino’s, the restaurant in Robert Wagner Park, might have been persuaded to take a group photograph, but we were all as frisky and “self-directed” as kindergartners, and could not possibly have been rounded up.

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Mr & Mrs O’Neill (Mike and Fran) with Mr & Mrs O’Neill (Ryan and Megan).

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Fossil Darling confronts an Innocent Bystander.

The Young People:

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And, finally (at least for the moment), the usual suspects:

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All flowers by Flowers by Philip.

No father of the bride was ever happier or prouder than I.

7 Responses to “Daily Office:
Friday
(Held Over)

  1. Tony says:

    The bride looks radiant, the groom looks appropriately shell shocked and the father of the bride is also looking quite spiffy. I’m very happy to hear that it was such a successful day and that you all had such a great time! Congratulations all round once again.

  2. Jean Ruaud says:

    Congratulations to the happy couple and the happy parents of the bride! (and everybody else). Everybody looks magnificent!

  3. carol koepke says:

    Megan and Ryan congratulations to both of you on your wonderful wedding day. Rob called me last night to inform me my little niece had gotten married and I am so glad you have found such a wonderful man. Your father is so happy and was still on cloud nine when we chatted about your grand day ! You have grown into a beautiful woman and I wish you only the best.
    Enjoy Africa and I do hope you make Europe also, who knows what the future might bring ….. Grandpa Rob, I can’t wait !!!
    Stephanie and I send our love to both of you.
    Aunt Carol

  4. Fossil Darling says:

    The description “perfect day” does not begin to describe the experience : the happy couple, the beaming parents, the proud “uncles” and friends, it was a day of joy, the weather complementing the occasion. LXIV and I will always retain this day as a special one in our memory banks….I was thinking as I walked towards my home how happy I was to be alive and to have had that rarity, a “perfect day.”

  5. Michael says:

    What a truly outstanding day starting with meeting you & Kathleen, Michael and Walter. Fran and I thank you for your beautiful writing of the events. We’re blessed that Ryan found such a wonderful wife and look forward to being in your company soon.

  6. LXIV says:

    A perfect day, and as Megan so aptly put it (and I paraphrase), “Had we tried to plan things by setting times for people to be in certain places at certain times, etc., it never would have worked out so well.” The saying goes, “Man plans and God laughs” so I guess in this case, man’s minimal planning made God smile. Everyone was wonderful, relaxed, pleasant, interesting and happy – even the clerk at the municipal bridal chapel was moved – who could ask for anything more.

  7. 1904 says:

    You restore my faith in man’s ability to do good and be good and look good doing it too. Congratulations all round.