STEAMY wedding

Saturday there was an excessive heat warning for southern Minnesota. The sun was intense, sizzling. The temperatures were in the 90s. The humidity skyrocketed. The dew point was almost 80 (tropical rainforest worthy). The heat index was over 100 degrees.

And the wedding? 

Outside.

Everyone milled around in the air conditioned reception room until a few minutes before the ceremony, getting ready to brave the heat. Then we all grabbed a bottle of ice water and ventured into the jungle. The harp's music floated on the moist air over the grounds of Indian Island Winery. The guests fanned themselves frantically with their wedding programs. And there were just a few grumblings about the minister's sermon lingering a liiiiitle too long (really, who needs to hear about all the different uses of the word "goodness" in the Book of Genesis when it's 90 degrees outside?).

I was the lucky one - I got the only shade on the property.

(Very smart harpist, for including 

"shade must be provided" in her contract...)

After the ceremony, I played the shortest postlude ever. Pink-faced, glistening guests didn't even wait for the ushers to escort them from their seats; they stood up en masse and were back in the air conditioning within two minutes. Inside there were pitchers of cold water, delicious hors d'oeuvres and, since it was a winery, bottles of chilled wine. (Which, sadly, I couldn't enjoy because my chiropractor talked me into doing a metabolic cleanse program for 10 days. I'm 4 days in. But that's a topic for another post...or not, depending on how things go...).

And then I came home to enjoy a bath and a nice long rest in the air conditioning. Inside. After heat like that, inside is a very good place to be.