There was hardly anything normal about the wedding held Saturday at Mary Jane and Bill Donohoe’s Freeland residence.
Sure, each guest came in response to pretty little invitations. And there was a ceremony and reception that followed — but that’s where normal stops.
This was an “Uppah! Uppah!” wedding. Meaning it was all fake, and all fun. Meant to be in the same spirit as “Tony and Tina’s Wedding” or “My Big Fat Greek Wedding,” guests to this set of nuptials gone mad were encouraged to dress crazy, ad lib like mad, and just have fun. Luckily, no one really got hitched at this ceremony gone wild.
“We’ve had real weddings here before, but this is just gonna be a whole lot of fun. We’ll ad lib and dress up. I just have a great bunch of friends who will go along with the craziness of it,” Mary Jane said Saturday morning.
Ask anyone. It was all Mary Jane’s “crazy idea” to conjure up a wedding day filled with half a dozen brides and just as many grooms, bridesmaids, groomsmen, cousins, second cousins, and people named “Nikki, Nicky or Nickie.”
Shortly after 10 a.m. guests began to arrive to hoots and hollers of “Uppah!” and rushed to over to laugh at who found the more over the top outfit for the day.
Before the ceremony, guests mingled and Norma Boland, in character as “Aunt Vagueopolis,” read palms next to Mona Nelson’s “Queen Lienassis” fortune telling.
Prospective brides and grooms stopped by the “Attorney-out-law” to arrange pre-nuptial agreements, and everyone tried their best at the “guess the bride” booth.
Brides, bridesmaids, and sisters and cousins of the bridesmaids rushed to get ready in the Donohoe’s two car garage that was converted for the day into a bride’s dressing parlor.
Even guests who looked normal enough, like Donna Hood who came dressed to the nines in a sea foam green number fit for a Southern belle’s mother-in-law, weren’t all that innocent. Hood proudly displayed that she was a wanna-be mother of the bride, wearing a tag that read “Two beautiful spinster daughters, you have unmarried sons? Let’s talk!” And a locket she wore bearing the daughters’ pictures was further proof of the attempted sale.
“The Rev. Uppah” Larry Jesmer and real life “Grandson of a Preacher Man” Maury Hood led the ceremony that floated between sentiment and hilarious humor. And right when someone might think things were going serious, “Uppah! Uppah!” broke out and everyone was dancing up a storm.
It was all organized chaos. Donohoe hosted three prefunction meetings to plan outfit selections, activities, gift exchange, booths and entertainment, and of course for a bridal fitting. And Donohoe hopes, this first Whidbey Island “Uppah! Uppah!” wedding won’t be the last.
