Ever go to wedding reception with a thousand or fifteen hundred people there? Or more?

I used to go to a lot of them when I was a kid. That used to be common. Everyone always planned on 50 or so people turning up that weren't even invited. They were always held either in the large American Legion or the Purple Heart halls. Most are all closed up now.

Used to be the same cooks and the same general menu too. Always ethnic food. It was always a combination Italian/Polish dinner. With all the booze you could drink. The cooks used to be the same women every time. Not one of them over 5 feet tall and round as an orange. Boy could they cook. And it didn't make any difference if the couple getting married was Jewish, Baptist, Protestant or whatever. The food always stayed the same. Italian beef, Polish sausages, mostacholes, mashed potatoes, salad, a vegetable and baked chicken every time. And it was good every time too. I can remember when the cost jumped up from $5 a head to $7.

The wedding used to be in the morning and the party would begin about 3:00 PM. There was no certain time to end. Sometimes they would go until the sun came up the following day.

It was like the whole town was there. At least everyone I knew was always there. Talk about some good times.

Sue and I were married at the Joliet County courthouse by a Judge and us and our friends who stood up for us went to McDonald's afterward.

We went to one last night and there wasn't even 200 people there. And that is considered pretty big these days. Open bar but you to pay for your own drinks. Damn Pepsi was $2 bucks. A beer was $5. I couldn't believe it. And I bet they paid some big money for the dinner too.

Don

I'm told the Serbian Orthodox Church had a reception hall with a bar built into it. And everyone from the church and community came and partied for hours.

One I worked at was in the 70's the bride and grooms parents had grown up in the SF Bay area but lived in Greece. They flew most of the attendees over from Greece so their kids could get married at the Oakland Greek Orthodox Church. Thew a massive party at the old Leamington Hotel, since both sets of parents had had their receptions there. They flew some of the bartenders over from Tramps in London, a couple of the waitresses were from British restaurants too. They hired the Average White Band to play, they had a top ten hit at the time. there were at least 1500 at the wedding reception dinner and around 2500 for the party and dancing. They invited the kitchen staff to the party. They tipped all of us very generously. They stayed for four days then most of them headed back to Greece or England.

In the late 80's one of my parent's college friends kids married a beautiful woman from Peru. Their wedding was amazing. An Archbishop from Peru with half a dozen priests officiated at SF's St's Peter & Paul's church. The reception was held at the Hass-Lilenthal mansion. 3 floors with a different theme and cuisine for each floor. Different bands, very different food. It was exhausting. My folks friend's hubby told his wife that once the costs reach $500k he "didn't want to hear about the wedding anymore. Just send the bills to the accountant." Both set of parents were pretty well off. the lovely couple received a house on the peninsula and a vacation home in Tahoe among the wedding gifts. They're still fairly happily married.

My wedding was down right subdued. it was at the Faculty Club meadow on UC Berkeley campus, dinner & music at the Faculty Club. About 150 people attended. No one gave us a house, not even a vacation house but that's alright.

I was really surprised to discover than most people don't have huge post-funerary catered receptions. Really, it shocked the hell out of me. I mean minimally, a drunken potluck or something at the Lions Club. When my grandfather died, 1000 people showed up to the firehouse for a BBQ.

When my mom's friend (and a major political influence upon me) Mike died, something like 5,000 showed up and stopped-by over the course of three days to the bar he owned to pay their respects to his family. People's political careers in Hartford were ended because they didn't make an appearance.

The bride and groom were both from Ireland, but they were born in the USA. It was one of the best weddings I ever attended. People danced non-stop, they had a 6 piece band and a deejay. The food was delicious and the "craic" was ninety..Oh, and I forgot to add it was an open bar....