June 2 Creative Writing Challenge - The Weirdest Wedding I Ever Attended...

Maybe it was only weird because I didn't know anyone except my husband and the groom.  Or maybe it was only weird because it was the only Native American ceremony I'd ever been to.  Or maybe it was only weird because we'd driven around lost for 45 minutes knowing that the wedding wasn't going to start till we got there and that when we finally did get there we would be the reason for the delay.  Or maybe it wasn't weird at all.

My husband flew jets in the Marine Corps.  That's not going to mean a lot to anyone who doesn't understand the mentality that accompanies jobs where your life is literally in jeopardy every time you go to work.  My first hint came on my first day of work at a now defunct Texas military base when, as he was showing me where to pick up my cash box and deposit the day's receipts, my new boss quickly snagged and hid from my view the menu board from the Officer's Mess.  He made the mistake of leaving the room long enough to allow me to peek.  Posted between the roast beef on rye and the tuna melt were the words "Marines Eat More C_ _ _" (and the missing word sure wasn't corn) which sent me straight to the floor in a fit of giggles!!  Oh, I would certainly have to meet the author of that bit of wisdom!!  Not only did I meet him, I married him.  And less than two years later we attended the wedding of the co-conspiritor (why it took two of them to come up with that was a puzzle to me until I found out that they actually changed the menu INSIDE the glass case in the lobby and the other guy was the one who picked the lock!!)  They flew some of the most expensive aircraft in the country.  They were well-decorated and well paid.  They drank like fish, misbehaved like school boys, and partied as if each night was their last.  Because for some of them, it was.

So...  this wedding.  Oklahoma Cherokee Reservation.  I actually called the Office Of Indian Affairs with regard to gifting!!  A very large group of her family.  The white husband and his two white friends.  I've never felt so out of place!!  The bride was a bit short and stocky, but even-so, looked amazing in a dress of solid white animal skin with exquisite beading across the torso and hem.  There was a tepee, a fire, a shitload of fully dressed Native American men who looked like they could and would scalp a white boy if he looked at them cross-eyed, a Medicine Man, smoke from an unknown substance, a pipe that got passed around, and one scared as she could get white girl just going along with whatever they wanted her to.

And it was a beautiful ceremony with the Medicine Man blessing the bride and her family, the groom and his friends, the house being joined, and the clear blue Oklahoma skies.  He did all the things you'd expect (proving that Hollywood sometimes does get it right) straight down to the passing of his hands over his head to guide the unknown smoke over his body.  Our gift (household items I can't recall now) was well-received and brought smiles to all the women in the bride's family.  Their gift to us (which I'll never forget because, one, I'd never been to a wedding where the guests got anything more than a piece of cake and a bag of Jordan almonds, and two, because it was just about the finest thing I could ever have imagined, of itself and through its symbolism) was a Hudson's Bay wool blanket in vivid reds and blues and greens and purples.

As the newlyweds were being led into the tepee (I never knew if they actually spent the night in there) we walked back to our car, my husband laughing quietly to himself.  When I asked why, he said, "I just know he'll find a way to prank me before we get off this reservation."

Didn't happen.  And as far as I know, they're still happily married.  So, like I said, maybe not weird at all.