We had a a wonderful, unique experience tonight.

Our buddy Victor (whom some of you know as The Diz evenings on WGCI, and may have seen him in a few pictures around this blog) who sits right next to us at our White Sox games got married tonight.

The ceremony was something to see. First off all, the wedding was at 5pm. On a Sunday Night.

Now Michelle, Victor's lovely wife, had won a special "thing" at a Bridal Fair - she was selected to become a "Buff Bride". She (and Victor) got personal trainers, dietitians, etc to get them in shape for the wedding. Oh, and this whole process was shot by a crew for NBC's Dateline (and it's supposed to air sometime in September). So, let's add in a Dateline crew, plus a crew to videotape the wedding for Victor & Michelle, the official wedding photographer(s) and the place gets a bit crowded.

Now, another aspect of the wedding is that it's actually a Black and White Ball - everyone was to wear black and/or white and Black Tie was invited (which I did - yes, I got a tux for the wedding). This whole thing just upscales the wedding dramatically. And speaking of dramatics, it just begins.

We saw Victor just before the wedding and realized that everyone that was standing up had boutonnières that had gold masks of comedy and tragedy. Odd? The lights in the room went down dramatically and the ceremony started. The groomsmen walked in, all in tuxes, taking One. Step. At. A. Time. The lines the aisle, Then Victor walked in the same way. When he reaches the front, the Groomsmen bow to each other and cross to the right side of the aisle. The bridesmaids enter the same way, each carrying a masquerade mask on a stick. The women are also dressed in black. They all enter, turn to their partner across the aisle. Then men bow, the women curtsy. The walk hand in hand to the front of the room. We then have the regular Ring Bearer, Broom Bearer and flower girls. Then Michelle enters. Holy Cow. If this is a Black and White Ball, the Bride and Groom must different, right? Well, victor had a black tux, red vest, black shirt, red tie. Michelle's dress was all read. And flowing. And long. And gorgeous.

(Now, I have to admit, that for a split second, in the dark, with all of the candles, seeing all the guys in tuxes, all the girls in black dresses with masks, the bride in red... I had this flash that I was at the secret party in the middle of "Eyes Wide Shut"...)

The Ceremony was wonderful, the ministers fantastic. Toward the end of the ceremony, was another piece - they christened their daughter Chloe (who, just like Victor, you would have seen in pictures in this blog from the White Sox games). A bridesmaid took a header and we didn't know it until the minister asked for someone to call 911 (as far as we know, she was OK, even though the Arlington Heights Fire Department came out to make sure).

The ceremony started at 5:45 and was over by 6:30. Time for cocktails and appetizers. The room was on the second floor, but now we had to go to the basement, to a Jazz Club called The Boiler Room. We had free drinks and I never did see the actual appetizers - for an hour and a half. We were finally invited upstairs to dinner at 8pm. The room looked great. The Bridal Party was introduced, and when Victor and Michelle were introduced and entered the room, the first thing that went on in the front was cutting the cake. Again, this looked like a media circus. Then we had the toasts, not only by the best man, but by Victor, his radio on-air partner, and their boss. Eventually we started eating. The soup arrived at 9pm and the entrée somewhere around 9:50.

So we're eating dinner at a wedding reception at 10 o'clock on a Sunday night.

The thing is, the food was great, the room was great. Masks were given out to all of the women in the room (they had little "Michelle and Victor" ribbons on them). Eventually, there was a first dance and as I had thought would happen, Chloe had to join in, and they looked great as a family.

Being radio people, the DJ was great and what people were left were finally dancing at around 11pm)

Well, we had to finally go. This was late for us! We found Victor and Michelle outside on a balcony getting some air. They looked great and just so damned happy!