August 20 - “Well, that was different”

This was quite the interesting wedding. It was a destination wedding at the San Luis Hotel, so I was only able to meet with the bride and groom once. Not a problem. I do a lot of these. I did get a phone call from the bride’s mom with an interesting request, though. She wanted to know if I could do a service that included God, but didn’t mention Jesus. Interesting. Seems the groom’s parents and grandparents would be offended. Why?  The grandparents are practicing Muslims. The parents are Muslim by birth, but don’t practice any religion. That would explain it. I took it on as a challenge, and a challenge it was. Ultimately, I guess my time spent in creation worked. No one took a pot shot at me, verbal or otherwise. And Jesus did make a cameo appearance, approved by the bride and the groom.

It was pretty easy to tell which side of the families were which. The groom was from Bosnia, (hence the nominal and secular influence. I learned from a groomsman that Bosnia is the largest secular Muslim nation in the world. Interesting thing to be proud of.  Most of his family spoke whatever language that is that they speak in Bosnia. The bride had … well … very American friends and family. 

The service started about 35 minutes late. Not that unusual. I e never been to a wedding that started on time. The bride just wasn’t quite ready. The bridesmaids finally came down, but then she wanted a private moment with her mom. And then she wanted a private moment with her maid of honor. 

Finally, we were ready to start. In a different move, the two Moms walked together down the aisle to their seats. But it was the groomsmen entry that was really fun. They each had been secretly issued (by the bride) a Fanny pack filled with rose petals. Coming down the aisle, they danced and tossed the petals on the air. One guy even did a striptease. Well, of his vest. Come to find out, the bride had offered a $100 bounty on whoever made groom laugh hardest. I think the striptease guy won. He had my vote. 

In the very first part of the ceremony I asked the dad of the bride, “Who presents this woman to be married to thus man?”  He paused for a long time. Then he pulled out his glasses, stared hard at the groom. Then he turned and asked his wife if “this is the one.” She had no idea what was going on, but finally acknowledged that, yes, this was the right guy. Finally, Dad asked the bride in a special, personal way if this was the guy. She assured him this was indeed her guy, so we continued on. The rest of the ceremony, I earlier noted, was pretty uneventful. Well, other than a last-minute substitution of one of the scripture  readers. The aunt who was supposed to read got sick. She was replaced by … another aunt. 

After the ceremony, the party began out in the hall while the ballroom was transformed into a banquet room, and the photographer got his quota of pictures. They served hor deurves (sp??). Fried coconut shrimp. Chicken on a skewer. Crab balls. Something else that looked nasty. Open bar. I had a bottle of water to go along with my fried shrimp and crab balls. 

While we waited for my time to say a prayer before the meal, I was virtually adopted by the Bosnians. One of the groomsmen insisted I sit on the couch with him and talk. Even had someone take a picture of the two of us as if we were best friends. They all loved the fact that I sat with them and listened to their stories about coming to America as refugees. I was fascinated. Oh, and they were quite impressed with my dancing skills …

Gotta say … this ranks right up there with the most unusual weddings I have ever done. 

Romans‬ ‭8‬:‭6‬ ‭says, The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.

Father, be with Emir and Lauren as they do life together in a bit of a different way. Amen.