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By Guest Columnist Toby Nix
Several months ago, a friend from work asked me if I would serve as a groomsman in his wedding. I immediately said yes. It’s quite the honor.
I’ve played guitar for a few weddings over the years, but I’ve only ever been a groomsman twice before, for two of my brothers. I’m not sure why none of my friends have ever asked me. I have friends who are married.
Maybe they’ve seen me try to dress all fancy before and wanted to spare me the embarrassment. You can be in the wedding band and not all dressed up.
Either way, I was excited to be a groomsman for my buddy. The fact that he was marrying one of the kindest ladies I’ve ever had the pleasure to meet made it even better.
Skip ahead to the rehearsal dinner the night before the big day. We ran through the wedding once or twice. I was the last guy in line so all I had to do was look at the guy ahead of me, and when he started walking I was to count four steps and walk behind him.
They must have known how good I am at math because that’s about the limit that I can be relied on to correctly count. I was pretty confident I was going to nail my role. Worst case, I would just blame the guy in front of me for doing a stutter step or something.
When we got to the rehearsal dinner and were almost done gorging ourselves on the delicious food the couple had for us, my buddy stood up and got the room’s attention.
He went through each groomsman, had us all come up one at a time. He would tell the room a quick story on how we met, then tell why he selected the gift that he was giving us. He would then proceed to give us our personalized groomsman gift.
I don’t remember what I gave the groomsmen at my wedding. I’m pretty sure it was pewter and I’m pretty sure it was engraved. But I don’t think I put much thought into it. Certainly not the amount of thought my buddy had put into all of ours.
After he was done with us, he called his soon to be mother-in-law up. He told a beautiful story about her and presented her with an equally beautiful gift.
The entire evening wrapped him up perfectly. In what was his and his fiance’s moment, he went above and beyond to make sure his friends knew what they meant to him. I am thankful they let me be a part of their special day. Their beginning.
The wedding the next evening turned out to be the most fun I’ve had in a long time. Which leads me to my final question.
How long is an appropriate amount of time for us to ask them to renew their vows so we can have a repeat of last weekend? Are we talking weeks or months? I’m not afraid to ask.
Toby Nix is a local writer, guitarist and investigator for the Coweta County Sheriff’s Office. He is the author of two books, “Columns I Wrote” and the newly released “A Book I Wrote.” He can be reached at tobynix@yahoo.com.