Wedding bells from Dover to Spokane

I‘ve enjoyed my share of weddings over the course of my adult life. But I’ve never attended two in one afternoon, 85 or so miles apart as the interstate flies. Nor two as different. At 2 p.m. Saturday, my wife and I joined Spokesman-Review colleagues, Marianne Love and longtime Dover residents to watch Mayor Randy Curless marry his daughter, Erica, to Matt Folwell. Erica, of course, is the local government reporter in our CdA office. And a bit of a tomboy/cowgirl. Erica’s one of the few women I know who could pull off a wedding march down a grassy aisle on Dover Beach, wearing cowboy boots under her gown. A boater, of course, buzzed past the ceremony as the couple exchanged vows. So it was hard to hear what was going on. But Papa Curless heard enough to pronounce Erica and Matt married. I gave Erica a hug, kiss and told her how beautiful she looked. Then, it was fast-forward to downtown Spokane for another ceremony at 6, where Doug Clark’s daughter, Emily, and Shane Berry exchanged vows. North Idaho rustic gave way to the Seattle music scene at the Glover Mansion. Emily’s beau was vocalist for a band that disbanded during the summer, The Divorce. Ben Clark, her brother and one of the groomsmen, is the vocalist for a hot band, The Lashes. Her father, of course, is the vocalist for Trailer Park Girls. It runs in the family. Also in attendance were most of the members of The Lashes and the defunct Divorce, along with Ben’s girlfriend, Lauren White, the lead singer for a top Los Angeles band, Rocket. I was struck by how well-mannered all the rockers were, how many tattoos they had, and the music to which they danced the night away: “The Twist,” “Mashed Potato” and other vintage songs. If that doesn’t say the music of my era, and slightly before, was good, I don’t know what does.