A close friend is (finally) getting married to his girlfriend of many years. This friend was married before, but his previous wife died in a tragic car crash ten years ago. So when he decided to get married again, he asked me to serve as a groomsman in his wedding. I don’t know what I was thinking when I said “yes” — well, perhaps I was thinking the wedding would be informal.

At our age if a wedding occurs, especially a second wedding, it is usually much less formal. But both the groom and the bride have both sets of parents and grandparents still living, and their expectations are for a very fancy and formal wedding. The bride’s parents are loaded–so all the trappings of a big wedding are expected.

I generally avoid weddings, but was considering participating as requested for the sake of my friend (and his fiancee who is really sweet). However, when I happened to be at my friend’s mother’s house last week (doing a minor plumbing repair), she said…
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