Robert and I were staying at the Travelodge in Middletown, but Sarah and Sean were taking the train down from Boston on the day of the wedding, so we picked them up in Kingston at the Amtrak station at 2:46. Since we had a Mini Cooper convertible for the day, we were all mildly squashed, but it wasn't too long of a drive over to Fort Adams, overlooking the water. The wedding wasn't supposed to start until 5:00, so we were pretty early. This let us have plenty of time for primping in the parking lot:
Above
left, Robert plays with Sarah's eyelash curler; Sean puts on his dress shoes;
Sarah applies mascara. Above right, I zoomed in on Robert's lobster tie (as
lobster-y as but more tasteful than the caterers' ties, and purchased specially
for the occasion) after he actually put it on. We got some funny looks in the
parking lot, all right, since there were tourists visiting the fort, dedicated
fishermen with rods and reeds and buckets of bait, and lots of Civil War re-enactors
(who were camping and role-playing at the fort for the weekend) milling around.
At right, you see one of the Civil War re-enactors who apparently didn't mind being anachronistic if it meant getting a frozen lemonade (practically the state drink of Rhode Island). We stood on line ahead of him to get a drink to fortify Robert and Sarah during the preparations.
Robert played around with the video camera (graciously lent by Chris's friend Dave, and delivered to us by Chris the day before we left for Newport) and got it wired into the wedding sound while Sarah practiced delivering her reading from the podium. Sean and I got drafted into helping Turner (Davis's brother) and his wife attach the blue paper cones and flowers to the ends of the aisles. The wind whipping all over the place threw everyone for a loop, but we did the best we could, and most of the cones stayed together throughout the ceremony.
We
took advantage of our early arrival to scope out the bathroom situation (real
bathrooms a trek down the hill at the fort entrance, or port-a-potties close
by) and admire the b
eautiful
table settings. Miriam of course did all the placecards, favors, table cards,
and centerpieces herself, and everything looked absolutely perfect; at left
is a picture of one of the tables under the tent.
We had fun watching the Revolutionary War re-enactors (who would soon be participating in the wedding by walking Miriam from the fort entrance over to the aisle, and then by setting off a cannon when Miriam and Davis were pronunced (respectively) wife and husband) get their cannon set up. They were quite the characters, explaining to us how the cannon was made by Paul Revere ("You've heard of Revere pots?" one asked. "That's him!") and possibly used by George Washington ("Wanna touch it? You've got a one-in-four chance of touching the cannon George Washington fired!" another said). They also started singing Peter, Paul, and Mary songs while hammering something together to get the cannon started. We backed away politely.
Below are just
a couple pictures we took before and immediately after the ceremony (from left
to right: Emil, Meg, Sarah, Sean, Robert, me, Chris, Laurie, me, Robert).
The Rehearsal Party | The Preparations | The Ceremony
The Kiss and the Cannon Salute | The Clambake | The Cocktail Hour | The Reception
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Created: 09/09/07. Last Modified: 09/09/07.