the reception
Immediately following the wedding, guests and the bridal party
walked over to the Warren Lodge, a renovated New England farmhouse,
for the cocktail hour. An hour or so later, everyone stepped out
into a festively-lit tent for the reception dinner.
cocktail hour
During the cocktail hour, Katherine and Chris finally got
to say hello to guests. Food was served at various stations throughout
the house. The house itself was decorated with photos of Chris and
Katherine's childhood and courtship, as well as photos of relatives,
friends, and family weddings.
Unbeknownst to many of the guests, several of the family wedding
photos were digital reproductions made by Marc
Overcash from originals too unique to leave the safety
of home. Frances
Overcash kindly used her abilities as an archivist
to arrange the photo displays.
During the cocktail hour guitarist Maurice
Cahen continued to perform and improvise a set of
classical spanish guitar and jazz music.
first dance (top)
After speaking with the guests, the emotional highlight of the cocktail
hour for Katherine and Chris was the first dance, where their friend
Tonya Miller
sang a heartbreaking rendition of Patty Larkin's "Had To Be You
(Deja Vu)."
The song choice was hotly debated ahead of time, because
both Chris and Katherine have loved Patty Larkin's Live
in the Square album since their highschool days, but over
the years they spent apart, Katherine adopted "Valentine" as her
"missing Chris" song while Chris adopted "Had To Be You" when he
felt far from Katherine. The ensuing debate illuminated an interesting
facet of what each brings to the relationship: for Kathrine the
music is paramount, and for Chris it's the lyrics that make the
song. Katherine felt the music and happy energy of "Valentine" perfectly
illustrates how she feels about Chris, while Chris feels the lyrics
of "Deja Vu" say it far better than he could.
In the end, Chris won the toss, and Tonya very kindly worked
up her interpretation of the song - less than two weeks before the
wedding! Tonya has a background in classical jazz, taught herself
guitar, and now writes and performs her own music in the Boston/Cambridge
area. She has just released her first CD: Keyhole. You
can learn
more about Tonya and order a CD from her website.
Here are the lyrics:
Had To Be You (Deja Vu) by Patty
Larkin
Don't believe in deja vu
Don't believe we ever lived before.
But if I did, and if we do,
It had to be you
I'd come looking for.
I know I've seen love float by,
On a whispering wind, and a lullaby.
Like an old sweet song that I once knew;
I never learned the words but I could hum the tune.
Now look whose got me singing 'bout the birds in June;
It had to be you, had to be you.
Got me singing out loud ...
Moonlight shows on this face of stone,
Cold and cracked in the garden, all alone.
I turn away as you walk me home,
Hiding from the mirror of my soul.
Cross my heart; watch the ocean roll,
It had to be you, had to be you.
Ain't never gonna part, no.
Sun comes up in the blink of an eye,
Shines all day, then it's gone with a sigh.
Clouds come in and they catch the glow;
One look at your face and I know,
I'm holding silver, holding onto gold,
And it had to be you, had to be you.
And if you ask me, I'll say 'I do',
To something I already knew,
It had to be you.
father of the bride's toast (top)
After professing to never having given a speech before, and
after sweating it out for weeks ahead of time, Katherine's dad,
Paul Guilbault, gave a toast that left the audience
laughing, crying, and on their feet. He later turned the speech
into the multi-media experience found below. We encourage you to
click on the links in the speech- trust us, there's something for
everyone.
Here are the words he spoke:
Introduction
I am honored that Katherine
and Chris asked me to make this speech. When I asked them
what I should talk about, they said ". . . just talk about the
normal things you usually talk about." That leaves things wide
open:
But I don't think that's what they had in mind.
Welcome
Today the Guilbaults
and the Hasses are surrounded by most of the family and friends
that have been important to us during our lives. Some have traveled
hundreds and some thousands of miles just to be here today. On
behalf of Dennis
and Barbara, Katherine
and Chris, Jeannine
and I - we welcome you all and thank you for your friendship
and support over many years - and for sharing this special day
with us.
The Couple
I want to start by apologizing for Katherine
and Chris being late. Traveling at near glacial speeds, it
took them
years to get here today!
Katherine
first met Chris
in 1988 when she was a fourteen year old freshman at Westford
Academy. Chris, a dashing seventeen year-old, heart-slaying
junior, caught her eye as they interacted with each other at Drama
Club. The attraction was mutual; a friendship was started and
progressed slowly through Katherine's first year of High School.
This, as it turns out, was more than OK with Jeannine and me!
We were really nervoius about this older man. I was mindful of
my
own freshman year of high school at St. Joseph's in Lowell,
and of just how much older the stubble-faced, deep-voiced, muscle-toned
juniors and seniors seemed to me.
Katherine and Chris
remained close over the summer of '89 and were practically an
item when they started the following year at Westford Academy,
she as a sophomore and he as a senior. It was at the Homecoming
Dance that they shared their first kiss and officially began the
journey - albeit slowly - that brings us here today. By the way,
Jeannine and I know about the first kiss because Chris mentioned
it years later; the detectives we had following
them completely missed it!
The Bride
Katherine has been fortunate in that she
has always known what she wanted. In early High School, she
decided to become a Pediatric
Speech Pathologist and that's just what she did. In High School,
she also decided on Chris and what a great choice that was. I
have always been prouder of Katherine
than I've been able to say. Katherine, I feel so lucky to have
you as my daughter. I can't believe how beautiful you look and,
just how fortunate Chris is to have you as a wife.
The Groom
Chris,
we have long gotten over the nervousness we felt when Katherine
first mentioned you. Once we met your family, once we learned
of your integrity and your amazing devotion to Katherine, all
of our concerns vanished. And that was long before we knew anything
about your incredible drive, your staunch ethics and sense of
fair play, and the spontaneous humor
and wit that is so much a part of you. With your parents'
consent, Jeannine and I are proud to welcome you into our family
as our first son.
Advice
Before I propose a toast to our new husband and wife, I would
like to offer a few words of advice.
Chris, consider the words of Oscar Wilde: "Women are meant
to be loved, not understood." Remember than in an argument the
woman always gets the last word. If you say anything after that
it's a whole new argument!
Katherine, never go to bed in the middle of an argument and,
be very diplomatic when you let him get YOUR
own way.
I would like to conclude my advice with a few lines by Ogden
Nash, (1902-1971):
To keep your marriage brimming,
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it;
Whenever you're right, shut up.
The Blessing of the Apaches
I have another short passage I would like to read.
The Blessing of the Apaches
author unknown
Now you will feel no rain,
For each of you will be shelter to the other.
Now you will feel no cold,
For each of you will be warmth to the other.
Now there is no more loneliness for you,
For each of you will be companion to the other.
No you are two bodies,
But there is only one life before you.
Go now to your dwelling place,
To enter into the days of your togetherness.
And may your days be good and long upon the earth.
The Toast
Ladies and gentlemen please stand and join me in a traditional toast to the bride and groom:
May you always be there for each other, partners in marriage as husband and wife, may the sun shine brightly on your lives, and may you always be as happy as you are today. A vôtre santé!
best man's toast (top)
Not to be outdone, Kevin Hass, Chris' brother
and best man, gave the following toast:
[words will go here]
dinner blessing (top)
Angela
Mandalfino, college friend of Katherine's, very kindly
assumed responsibility for blessing dinner and the assembled guests.
Drawing on her Irish heritage, Angela spoke these words:
[words will go here]
dinner (top)
[menu and seating chart will go here]
the cake (top)
Nearly seven years ago Chris discovered The
Icing On The Cake bakery in Newton, MA. Not only did they
make the most delicious cake he'd ever eaten, they got him out of
a Valentines' Day jam Katherine's sophomore year at college when
he needed a last minute present. (She still raves about how good
that cake was.)
At the time they joked that if they were ever married, and
still in Massachusetts, they'd have their wedding cake made by The
Icing On The Cake. And guess what?
music and dancing (top)
After dinner, Katherine and her dad opened up the dance floor by
dancing to a French-Canadian song called "Franc You." Unfazed by
the song's blistering clogger's pace, they were joined by Barbara
dancing with Chris, Jeannine dancing with Kevin, Liz dancing with
Dennis,
 Once
the dancing had been officially started, guests crowded the dancefloor
to the sounds of Sinatra, Letters to Cleo, the Vinyl
Avenue String Band (local Boston favorites), and best of all,
the bluegrass phenomenon that is Dave
Tweedie! Dave fiddled and sang his way through several songs,
including June Apple, which was a special wink to Chris
who had heard it, shall we say, more than once, as Dave honed his
fiddle-skills during the years they roomed together at Davidson
College. (Dave now plays professionally with the Ocracoke, NC-based
Molasses
Creek. They're working on their fifth CD, tentatively called
"An Album of Silly Songs.")
For the rest of the evening, ___ the DJ, kept the music upbeat
and danceable, and the crowd obliged by making the dancefloor their
own. Anyone interested in a dynamite DJ, contact:
the bouquet (top)
In a departure from tradition, all married couples were invited
to the dancefloor, and then couples were excused based on how recently
they had been married. (Strangely enough, Katherine and Chris were
the only ones who had been married less than a day.) The couple
who had been married the longest received Katherine's bridal bouquet,
but everyone else got to enjoy the sight of the couples dancing,
and speculation ran high as to which couple would win.
When the music stopped, the couple who had been married the
longest turned out to be Uncle Phil and Aunt Carol Kay Johnson,
who had almost sat out the dance!
the last dance (top)
The music of the evening tended towards foot-tapping bluegrass,
both modern and classic, and Chris couldn't resist suggesting "You
are My Sunshine" from the O'Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack
as the last song. His mom sang it to him when he was young, (didn't
everyone's?) and it seemed a fitting way to end the evening with
a smile.
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