Wedding Season

by Erik Hare

June can mean many things.  Father’s Day, lingering evenings, and occasionally some severe weather are part of this first real month of summer in Minnesota.  But if you live in Saint Paul’s Irvine Park, as I do, this is wedding season.

People can rent this Victorian Park for $500 per half-day.  In June, we often run four big shows per weekend with the occasional fiver if someone has a late Friday festival.  For those of us who live in the neighborhood, the small inconvenience is easily worth it for the entertainment that comes with voyeuristically watching the intimate values of a pair of lives reaching out to be one.

The first thing that catches the eye is the theme, if there is one.  There has been a biker wedding, with a row of Harleys forming an aisle, a Civil War wedding, with everyone smartly dressed in blue wool and carrying a saber, and more than one Victorian wedding with top hats and hooped dresses.  These are the most fun, but one a rare few foist all that fuss on their wedding party.

Another key ingredient is entertainment.  I’ve seen the Lake String Quartet out here many times, and I think they are a great addition to any wedding.  Many people go with a harpist to set the mood.  One time, I felt obliged to stop hammering for a moment when the wedding in the park included a strong, clear soprano that rang over the trees singing “Bist Du Bei Mir” by JS Bach.  When I looked over the park to a day even more beautiful than before I noticed that a passing car had stopped to listen, too; this woman had a voice that stopped traffic. 

Some people rate the weddings on the bridesmaid’s dresses.  Personally, I try to be more upbeat about things and just ignore this part of the whole affair. 

What really makes these events special are the many different faiths and ways of expressing themselves in the ceremony.  In just these last two weeks we’ve had a Colombian/American wedding in English and Spanish and a Persian/American one that included the traditional Persian ceremony.  There have been Jewish weddings under an arched canopy, Wiccan weddings among the trees, Catholic weddings with dozens of Priests in attendance, and more than a few civil ceremonies (there weren’t any fights).  One of my favorites was a Dakota ceremony that included hours of dancing and singing in a way that felt as though the whole neighborhood was being purified.

That’s certainly worth a small inconvenience, if it works.

At the end of all of these small events, as the chairs are stacked into the trucks for the rental companies and all the elegantly dressed people are off at a great party, it comes down to the simple joys of an urban life.  To see so many small moments go by as other people have their own parties is to have a continuous party all around you, all the time.  That’s June in Irvine Park, Saint Paul.  I love it.