A Pittsburgh wedding - groom, best man & school board member friend end up in jail

I just happened upon this - and while I've attended plenty of Pittsburgh weddings over the years, this one sounds like it was very, very special.

This is a youtube video of the news report. Great shots of the forlorn bride in her white dress standing at the curb as the new hubby is loaded into a police car. Plus the best man brother of the groom who happens to be a PA State Trooper. And then, best of all, a local school board member friend, extremely bloody after kicking in the window of a car, yelling "I'm HIV positive" to the cops who were arresting him!

None of them were talking and the bride was sure looking pissed off the next day when they were released.

[video=youtube;IyjwFck01as]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyjwFck01as[/video]

Hey, this is Pittsburgh!

Wow!

The most exciting part of any Pittsburgh wedding I've been to has been the cookie table.

Bluesneakers, you've just been hangin' out with the wrong people! I've been to a few where fights in the parking lot either followed or took place during the reception.

Personal best Pittsburgh drunken wedding fight story: I was a newlywed. My new husband was a member of the wedding party - maybe best man, I forget. During the reception hubby sat at the big long wedding party table. I was relegated to a seat among the other attendees, very few of whom I knew.

The men of the wedding party all wore these lovely, rented white jackets. I suppose they were white tuxedos. In any case, eventually there erupted a fight in the gravel parking lot of the local firehall where the reception was held. (Oh, yeah, firehalls are bigtime venues for weddings here. Lots of times the ladies auxiliary members will make the pigs in the blankets and the potato salad.)

I'm sitting by myself at a lonely table - because everyone else is dancing to the DJ - when new husband/best man/whatever comes in through an outside door and as he walks towards me I can see that his white jacket looked as if he had been rolling around in a mud puddle in it. Because he had...

By that point, I had had it with the evening and announced that I was going home, either he could come with me or I'd see him later. He took off that muddy white jacket and handed to me, saying "Well, take this with you, okay? Maybe you can do something with it."

I drove home alone, walked into our small apartment, went straight to the bathroom, filled the tub halfway with water and dumped about a half a bottle of Clorox into the water and then threw in the white jacket. I figured that would get the mud stains out, ya know?

And yes, I did remain married to that husband for some years afterward.

So weddings are basically the parking lot at Heinz Field after a game.

What were they fighting about and did the jacket survive?

Great story, btw!!

Great story, Always Shocked! I am surprised you didn't drive thru the divorce express lane that night. You are a saint!

I have no recollection of what the fight was about. I don't even know who all was in it. But I saw several white jackets that were all messed up.

The jacket? I drained the tub the next morning and hung the dripping jacket on a clothes hanger placed over the shower arm. It took 2 or 3 days for it to dry out, by which time the tuxedo rental place was calling wanting to know where it was.

I refused to be the one to return it. I made him do that.

The divorce, while not by express, did happen eventually. And now that I think of it, between the then bride and groom also.

Another Pittsburgh wedding story:

This one involved a male friend of husband #1. He was marrying a girl from a Polish background. Or at least I think it was Polish. In any case, it was a formal wedding with another fire hall reception. (Lots and LOTS of pigs in the blankets at this one. Oh, and cookies like you've never seen. All the aunts made them.)

Anyway, the bride had told the groom about this tradition at all their family weddings where all the men pay money to dance with the bride. It is one long, long dance and the men actually line up to take a few twirls with the girl and she has a silk purse (I kid you not! Another aunt made this thing.) and the guy puts money into the purse for the honor of dancing with her.

The groom thought this was one of the "lowest class" things he had ever heard of and told the bride "Absolutely not, don't even think of doing anything like that."

So, the reception is going on, everybody eats, everybody drinks, everybody dances, everybody drinks some more, and some more, and some more. Eventually the bride's father goes up to the microphone and loudly announces that the next dance will be the Dance With The Bride dance. The men immediately start getting into a line. And dad starts out the dance with her.

The groom stood aside and watched. It went on for quite a while. The father of the bride looked quite happy. The bride looked nervous throughout. Finally, the dance ended. Then the bride walked across to the groom and handed him the silk purse stuffed with money.

Mr. Groom proceeded to go to the microphone and announce to the guests "Thank you so much. All of this money will be donated to Children's Hospital." The poor bride is staring at the floor and her father is turning bright red. I thought dad was going to come over and slug his new son-in-law! But he didn't.

That's another marriage that didn't make it, by the way.

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Now, come on. Some of you must have a wedding story. It didn't have to happen in Pittsburgh!

Gotta tell you about a strange mid-west town with a wedding tradition. Invitees go to the actual wedding, but the entire town - yep, the entire town - is always invited to the reception. When I attended, local LE was there and watched as teens illegally drank. Just another day in town, I guess.