Table Six

So, I attended a wedding for some family recently. Unfortunately, the Mild Fiancée was out of town for a previous engagement, so she couldn't make it. Luckily for me, I was at a table with my siblings, cousins, and family friends. Basically, people I've known for a while and around whom I am very comfortable.  Better yet, these are also folks who are around the same age. So, to recap: similar age, very comfortable around each other, happy occasion, gathered to celebrate.

I knew it was going to be an interesting night based on the beverages alone. For starters, there was a bottle of soda at every table, and this is how someone at our table decided that they were going to drink said soda:

That's Coca Cola in a tea cup. Yup, table 6 was fancy like that

Yes, rather than use a glass, or find a glass, the solution was to use a tea cup. Note the unused wine glass sitting next to the open soda bottle. Now I'm not sure that I would've used the wine glass for soda, either, but I was highly amused by the use of the tea cup.

Secondly, we also had a special "tea" at the table by the time I sat down. I'd seen a few others from our table head to a nearby convenience store, but I had no idea what they were buying. As it turns out, they were buying some of this tea. The kind made from a special Mexican plant:

Agave tequilana, I think it's called

Also, notice that the bottle is empty in that photo. You can see the trusty soda bottle next to it, but there's no hint of silverware or food. There's a very simple reason for that: there were a lot of people partaking in the tea drinking, and the food had not been served yet. Yup, it was that kind of night.

Since there were quite a few people partaking, it didn't take very long for us to go through that first bottle. However, that also meant that there was strong interest in procuring a second bottle. That was especially true because some of our older relatives noticed the shenanigans and asked to join in. One older relative even cleaned his cup so that he could get the full flavor. Like I said, it was that kind of night.

Regardless, we picked up a second bottle, but we decided that there shouldn't be a third trip. So, we ended up with a slightly larger bottle the second time around. At this point, a couple of folks at the table decided that they needed to have a shot-for-shot competition. It's not like they were chugging their agave, but they just kept track of how much they'd been drinking. And if one person had a shot, the other person would have one, too. The best part was the smack talk involved before and during the competition: "dude, you have no shot!" was my favorite (both for the pun and because of the insistence that the competition was outclassed).

Big tea and little tea bottles, for scale. Someone suggested that the Mild Fiancée and I have a "2 liter" wedding as a direct result of this picture

The other amusing thing was that the couple had asked that rather than clink glasses, people sing a song with the word "love" in it. It was a cute idea, and people even got in on it in multiple languages just to add to the fun. Our table, of course, decided that T Pain's "I'm in Love with a Stripper" fit the stated criteria (for the record, this was NOT my idea). Unluckily for us but fortuitously for others, this plan of action never quite materialized. There was an actual microphone in play and an attempt to sign this song, but due to some technical difficulties and a surprisingly long intro, the karaoke attempt was cut short.

All in all, it was all sorts of amusing. The best part, though, was that the Mild Fiancée had asked me to help document the evening since she was missing out on the fun. That's actually why I have the pictures handy in the first place: I was playing photographer and play-by-play announcer for most of the night. By the time she got a chance to check her phone, she must have had something like 30 text messages, including some of the pictures from above. Heck, I even took pictures of some of the decorations.

Should we do anything like this at our own wedding, you'll know why

Never let it be said that I'm not thorough.

All kidding aside, it was a beautiful ceremony and the couple looked great. There were the usual games and everyone had a blast. Table six just so happened to make things all sorts of interesting for itself. If we're all together at the same table again, I'm planning on taking more pictures, just because. It's bound to be an interesting evening.