Now that i have stopped laughing hysterically and have wiped the tears from my eyes, I will share my experience.
Nothing as elaborate as any of the stories here but ghetto none-the-less.
My 1st semester roommate from Grambling was getting married. She moved to Florida after graduation so that's where the wedding was to be held. Ft. Lauderdale to be exact. My roommate is a wonderful person and so is her now hubby but the people that came to the event left much to be desired. Mind you, this was in July of 1992. It was HOT and the church had no air conditioning
so the people with Jeri curls were driping...ewww. The ceremony was held in a down-home COGIC next to a pool hall and sports bar.
the ceremony was fine, no struts or bops down the isle by either maids or ushers (thank goodness). but right after the ceremony was complete, we all stood up (congregation) and waited for the wedding party to go down the isle first and then we would follow them downstairs to the reception. Well the grandma that was sitting on my right who was now behindme because we were facing the isle (only one). was trying to push me out the way so she could get to the buffet. As a matter of fact, I noticed everyone was trying to push their way out. So the the MC, yes, they had one too, yelled (not announced) at every one to go downstairs before the food got cold. we get down there and it picnic tables and fried chicken! Did I mention the bride had fingerwaves? and the groom wore a white tux with tails and the service started at 10:30am?
So the MC (mistress and i use that term loosely..) starts yelling at people to sit down, as if we didn't know that
. I came from San Francisco to this shindig so aside from the bride, groom, and one bridesmaid, i didn't know anyone. Not a problem. I sat at a table that had mostly older adults(I was 25 at the time) say 45yrs and up) All the men at my table either had gold on their front teeth or a jeri curl. The women all had drip-drip jeries and had their footies or house slippers on. i prayed no one would speak to me. I wasn't that lucky. So the lady asks me, " So how do you know the bride?" "We were roommates at Grambling University..." and that was the end of the conversation. Paper plates, plastic forks, knives, etc..squeeze bottle catsup and mustard, hot sauce...ugh