Thursday, December 16, 2010

A Groomsmen's duties






A Groomsman's duties are many and varied and although I have now served in that capacity for four weddings I have never quite worked out what they should be.

For a start I always thought the groomsman had to look after horses. How he came to look after prospective husbands-to-be beats me, I suppose the poor fellow marching down the aisle needs what support he can get.

Anyway to cut the long story short, I was asked last week whether I possessed a black suit. I said I did. I was then asked, "you know you are one of the groomsmen, right?" A week is rather short notice but my week was relatively clear, so ok.

My first major duty was to ferry an old aunt around but due to various other things cropping up I was relieved of that and instead sent off to the estate to pick up some coconuts. Groomsmen are useful that way.

Driving 30km in the afternoon was not exactly my idea of a good time, but though the traffic was heavy, it was not impossible and I was rather pleased that my airconditioning (fixed at great expense) was working well, and by and by I reached my destination.

I alighted and spoke to the caretaker and got him to start loading the jeep and took in the scenery. Looking down at the old garage/barn in the first picture my mood improved dramatically, there is something about a lot of greenery that can release stress. Drinking a sweet king coconut, taking in the ducks, chickens and guinea fowl gathering around hoping that the owner had returned to feed them, all was at peace and I hardly felt the drive back.

Since then I've bought cocktail mixture (for the reception), shirts (for the groom, best man and groomsmen) and agreed to coordinate some cars.

Ho hum, not exactly earth shattering stuff, but given my reluctance to get involved in overly complicated affairs I think I've come off quite well.

3 comments:

Delilah said...

made me smile :) did you know that traditionally a groomsman has more errrr...interesting duties?

Lady divine said...

that's interesting.... something out of the ordinary I suppose..:)the coconut thingy that is... ;)

So how goes life? Wedding's over I s'pose?

Jack Point said...

Weddings over, thank god. Never thought it would end. Blasted wedding planners and their artificial creations - we were supposed to be taking photographs from 10, in the event we started off at about 11.30 and then it was on non-stop until almost 3pm and then we just gobbled something and had just enough time to get to to the church at 4pm.

Delilah, I thought the bestman was supposed to gallantly step if the groom bolted?