Cheap weddings and bad reception food

Well, my niece's wedding has come and gone.  The weather was beautiful, unfortunately I couldn't be outside doing all of the yard work which needs to be done.  Instead I had to sit in a church and endure an hour long ceremony.  That's right, 60 minutes (actually 62, but who's counting).  I tell people about the length and they ask if I'm Catholic, the answer to that question is 'no.'  The couple decided to have a lot of 'add-on's, like an intercessory prayer.  That's right, if you were a guest, or a member of the wedding party, or just some stranger walking down the street outside, you could go up front, lay your hands on the bride and groom and join in their prayer for a happy, successful marriage.  Other then the members of the wedding party, only 4 people went front and laid hands on them.  This is not a good ratio when you consider there were 125 guests in the church, but it did take up time.  Then there was the 10 minute homily on how holy marriage was and that it was between a man and a woman.  Eighteen times we heard that marriage was between a 'man and a woman.'  Now if you ask me that's either a little excessive or a little paranoid, or maybe just a little Christian Crazy.  In fact, most of the hour focused  more on the joys of being a Christian then it did on the business of getting married.  If you're wondering, they are both more then a little excessive in their faith.  I have not seen them, but he has several graphically gory tattoos of the Crucifixion.  Nice.

Waiting in line at the Catering Truck

For reception food they opted for variations of pulled pork, which could have been a tasty end to the afternoon, however the reception hall was on the 3rd floor and the meal was served from a catering truck out in the parking lot.  This entailed taking your plate down 2 flights of stairs to get your food and then carrying it back.  Service was slow.  I am so glad I was related to the bride and got to sit at table number 4, we didn't have to wait too long.  Those guests sitting at the higher number tables (18, 19 and 20) waited almost 2 hours to get their food.  If you wanted a 2nd pulled pork sandwich you had to wait.  The problem was they spent a lot of money on things involved with the ceremony (like embossed programs) and chintzed out on the reception.  If they'd spent a couple hundred dollars less on the 3 tiered cake with edible, gold, filigree roses climbing the side, they could have paid the caterer to bring the food up to the reception hall.  What made it worse was that the prices for the food were posted on the side of the Catering Truck.  Look at the picture above and you can see the most expensive thing you could have purchased, had you just stumbled upon that truck in the parking lot, was $9.  Cheap.  Receptions are supposed to be fun and this one wasn't.  This was a waste of time.