Sign of the Times 15

Leaving the typical sign of the times - here is one of those "Here's your sign" things... or maybe it might be more of "You might be a redneck.." thingees. But either way I think it might be a sign of the times. :-)

http://www.macon.com/
Reunited couple's nuptials highlights 13th annual Redneck Games in Dublin
The redneck couple made it official Saturday.
Rawni and Rob, aka "Robo," tied the knot.

A judge from Perry handled the nuptials before offering to read the newlyweds their rights.

Rob tossed his bride's Dixie flag garter belt into a crowd of clinking beer cans. The pair had their first dance to "Hold My Beer," performed live by Lance Stinson Band. Then they dove into the mudhole, hand in hand.

It was beautiful.

Why get married on a stage at the 13th annual Redneck Summer Games at Buckeye Park in East Dublin?

" 'Cause we're rednecks. It seemed like the appropriate place," said the new Mrs. Robert Sprague, "and we get to be on TV."

The CMT channel will air the ceremony this month on the My "Big Fat Redneck Wedding" reality television show. The couple signed up for the program through a WQZY (Y-96 FM) radio promotion this year.

Rawni met Rob when she was a fifth-grader in Pennsylvania. They dated in high school but eventually lost touch, going their separate ways and marrying other people.

In 2003, around the time of Rob's 20th high school reunion, he found her on classmates.com.

She was his date. The high school sweethearts rekindled the flame. They became engaged last October during a race at the Talladega Motor Speedway.

Rawni, who works in wellness at a Warner Robins assisted living facility, said she wasn't going for one special look as a bride.

Her vintage wedding gown, heavily beaded and white, covered a triangle-top bikini in a Confederate flag print and barely exposed the not-new tennis shoes she wore.

Hairdressers from the Mane Craze salon in Warner Robins styled her tresses into Shirley Temple curls that dangled down over her bottle cap earrings.

Connie Mosley, Rawni's maid of honor, and Kerri Short, a bridesmaid, ditched dresses for denim mini-shorts and red and white checkered mid-drifts.

All three women donned long acrylic nails painted in a flag pattern, which matched the bride's bikini and her dumbbell navel ring.

Rawni carried her bouquet of silk red and white roses in an empty Jack Daniels whiskey bottle. Her bridesmaids followed suit, carrying their flowers in Coors Light and Bud Light cans.

"He was always the one," Rawni said about the man she was to marry.

She soon would meet him on that stage, where he stood in a white three-piece suit - vest matching Rawni's bikini - and a white cowboy hat.

Nearly 8,000 people attended the Redneck Games on Saturday, said James Stinson, president of the East Dublin Lion's Club, an event sponsor along with Y-96, WMCG (104.9 FM) and WDBN (107.5 FM).

The games, which poke fun at "kuntry" culture, feature activities such as Bobbin' for Pigs Feet, Armpit Serenade and the ever popular Mud Pit Belly Flop.

Stinson said all proceeds go to local schools, community groups and Lighthouse, a charity for the blind.

Eric Outler won Bobbin' for Pigs Feet, where eight people bobbed in troughs of water for raw pigs feet.

Somewhat small in stature, Outler said the fact that he pulled out 14 feet in two rounds is a big deal.

"Unless you're a big guy, you ain't got no big mouth," he said.

The festival went until midnight. There was a Miss Redneck competition, bands played on and more rednecks became one with the mud.

"I needed a detoxification of my skin," said Beth Lewis, who walked around barefoot after jumping in the mudhole with her two young children.

Lewis said she drove 97 miles from Griffin to attend her first Redneck Games at the suggestion of her uncle.

She said she was proud to be a redneck and plans to return next year.

"Being a redneck means being country and living your life to the fullest with what you have," she said. "It's a good thing."