Mary and Scott entered with “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen. Of course.

I showed Scott’s brother and Best Man, Marc, how to use the microphone and where to hold it as he spoke. “This ain’t my first barbeque, sweetheart,” he assured me with a smile.

Marc began his speech with the microphone, then discarded it half-way in. His confident, booming voice easily carried across the room. “Scott grew three feet in high school…except he still weighs the same,” he quipped. “Everyone thought it was weird that Scott would play hide and seek when we were little, and he wouldn’t tell anyone we were playing. He’d just HIDE. They call it weird; I say he was committed.”

Scott must have known what he was in for when he made his brother his Best Man, because he grinned through it all.

Then Marc turned to Mary. “Mary. Sweet Mary. You’re a member of our family now. You really didn’t think that one through, did you?”

Laughter echoed through the room.

It was that kind of a night. Good humor, inside jokes, memories of the past relived and new ones created. A little make-shift karaoke to “Love Shack” (and a damn good Fred Schneider imitation), all if it steeped in love and fun that could only be Scott and Mary. Sweet, unassuming, and absolutely original.

Photos courtesy of Keith Ferris
Poughkeepsie Grand Hotel