It was
wedding time again yesterday. One of the
young ladies who grew up at Seaside was getting married at the Gartein Verein
venue. There were a few “interesting
developments" at this one.
First
of all, the rehearsal was held at noon the day of the wedding. Kind of unusual there, but if all 14
attendants could be there, then who am I to disagree? Well, 13 of 14 wasn’t too bad. None of the three flower girls were there,
however. I guess they were all
considered flower girls. One was about
the right age, maybe five or six. The
other two looked to be at least in their late teens. They ended up doing fine once we
started.
One
thing the bride’s parents (Seasiders Eric
and Beth) had realized was that because we have moved away from daylight
savings time, it would be getting dark around the time we needed to start the
wedding. I told the bride’s mom just to
make sure the best man had a flashlight with him. Then if I couldn’t see, he could stand next
to me and shine his light on my book.
Then if he felt the service was running too long, he could just turn off
the light and we would be done. A little
officiant pressure there. They had
already scrambled, however, and with strategic placement of lights and
lanterns, and by offering a hand-held flashlight to every guest, I could see to
read the ceremony just fine.
The second
issue they had not foreseen. As we were
talking at the rehearsal I mentioned a wedding I had done at that venue where a
high school football game was being played right next door. A look of near-panic crossed Beth’s face as
she realized it was Friday and it was football season. Friday Night Lights and all. They jumped on the internet in search of a
football schedule, and to their horror, a Ball High home game was indeed
scheduled for that very night. Now, fortunately,
the wedding was scheduled to begin at 6, and the game didn’t start until
7. We should be fine as long as we started
pretty close to on time. Fast forward to
wedding time. Everyone was in place,
ready to begin, when we got word … the brides grandparents were lost somewhere
on the Island in the maze of our two one way streets. Could we possibly wait for them? I asuured them that we could wait. I mean, what’s the worst that could
happen? We could be right in the middle
of the ceremony and have to stop and stand for the National Anthem. We could handle that. After all, it was the day before Veteran’s Day.
They finally arrived, and the only competition I had was the occasional
pregame announcement over the public address system. Well, there was also the little explosion of raucous cheers when the guys
finally made their way down the stairs to begin the ceremony. It came from behind us … from the
bridesmaids. All ten of them plus the
bride. Quite the announcement of beginnings.
Wouldn’t you say?
The
wedding itself was really pretty. Since it
was full on dark by the time we started, the lights made for a really nice
ambiance. The music, however, ranks
right up there with my all-time favorites.
Being from Galveston, the bride wanted an Island feel for the ceremony,
so she went on the internet and located someone who could play … the ukulele. And as it happened, the ukulelist she found
was none other than my uke teacher from the classes I took. He is an amazing player and pretty good
singer to boot. And while we waited for the
grandparents to arrive, he played an impromptu concert for the crowd. I guess it would be appropriate to mention
here that he and I were adorned for the occasion with real-flower leis draped
across our shoulders.
Oh and
one final note about the day … one of the bridesmaids was a guy. He even wore the flowery little crown in his
hair like the girls did. He tried to walk
down the aisle carrying a bottle of beer, but my esteemed wedding coordinator
assistant (read here, Chris) would have
none of that. She even went to each of the
girls and made them spit out any gum they were chewing. Very funny young man. He told me his parents were pastors in the Valley. He took a selfie with me to send to them to
show he connected with a pastor at the wedding.
He also said his cousin was somewhat of a celebrity. Eric and I were talking about the Astros (he’s a huge fan, too), and the World
Series hat that I had just received in the mail. And this fellow interjected that his cousin was
now Carlos Correa’s fiancée. As a result
he had all sorts of Astros paraphernalia he was hawking – “just out in the trunk
of my car … just twenty dollars.” As tempting
as it sounded, I decided to hang onto the one I ordered. Wouldn’t want to deprive other of his
clientele who were no doubt waiting with bated breath for his arrival.
Jude
24-25 says, “To him who is able to keep
you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault
and with great joy - to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and
authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore!
Amen.”
Father,
be with Sean and Melissa as they start out on a new phase of their journey. Draw them toward you. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment