We had a wedding scheduled at the church yesterday. Eleven o’clock. Around 9:30, as I was just getting ready to leave, I received the first text from Jim. He had received word from the bride that there was a flower delivery coming to the church and someone needed to meet it. He was ready to go, so he hopped in his car and took off. He was letting me know that he had been slowed in some traffic. In his words, “Hopefully flower person will wait.” Little did he know what awaited him …
I
got ready right away so I could get to the church and be of whatever assistance
I could. When I arrived the flower
people had already been there. Some
members of the family were there as well, and they had access to the building key. Corey was there. He and Jim were the music for the event. But no Jim.
No bride. No groom. No member of the wedding party at all, in
fact. The bride’s Mom and Dad were
there. The photographer was there. The clock was ticking.
More
guests began to show up. The
photographers were taking shots of everyone in the building. Seems they had tried to get to the house
where the wedding party was getting ready but couldn’t get through the
traffic. Finally Jim called. The problem was that an eighteen-wheeler had overturned
on the main road that leads from the Western tip of the island to the
church. It was on its side blocking the
entire road. Apparently no one was hurt
badly, but traffic was at a standstill and had been for an hour already. He said he would get there as soon as he
could. Oh, and the wedding party had
been at a house in Sea Isle near him getting ready. They were stuck as well.
Meanwhile,
the church was filling up with more and more guests. The clock was ticking closer and closer to
eleven. Texts were flying back and forth
between the bride and her parents. Jim
was keeping us informed as to progress, or in this case, the lack thereof. Two cranes were on scene. Four wreckers. Police, of course. He asked me at one point if it I thought
maybe it was a reasonable assumption that the workers had taken a lunch break
around ten. Jim was getting a little
antsy. See, he was beginning to
experience a secondary issue that was rapidly escalating into a
no-longer-secondary issue. He had to go
to the bathroom. Some of the folks
around him were dealing with the problem by making their way across the rattlesnake
infested dunes to two porta-potties they spotted over near a condo building. Jim declined that option. He did consider giving up his place in line
to return home and deal with the problem.
I may or may not have texted back some helpful advice. Something along the lines of, “Think about waterfalls
… crashing waves … gently falling rain … a dripping faucet.” He was not amused. He replied, “Niagara Falls is more like it!”
Back
at the church I made an official announcement at 11:01: “This is your official
announcement. We will not be starting
the wedding at 11:00.” I came back in a
few minutes and offered a bag of flaming hot Cheetos or some dumdums and bottle
of water or a juice box to anyone who wanted one. Hey, it’s all I could find in the
kitchen. One little girl took a bag of Cheetos
(not the flaming hot ones). One guy got
a bottle of water for his son. No takers
on the dumdums, though. Sad. The photographer was getting tired of taking
pictures of everyone. They already had
artsy shots of the invitations and our hanging cross and the flowers. I considered offering to let her take a picture
of my hand and Corey’s hand so she could say it was the bride and groom, but
neither of us had a diamond engagement ring on.
She asked if the church had anything else scheduled in the building for
a while. I assured her we were good to
go until around seven when another group arrived for their meeting. But I told her they have always been a
flexible group. We could simply set up a
few more chairs and invite them to join us.
Again … not all that amused at the thought. I tried a second idea. Maybe we could all meet at the accident site,
us on this side and the wedding party on the other. I could holler out the service. They could holler back their “I do’s.” I thought that would be more fun than just
FaceTiming it. Nope. Not an option. Too hard to photograph, I guess.
Josh
called to chat. He asked what we were
doing this fine Saturday morning. I explained
that I was in the middle of officiating a wedding. He hurriedly apologized, then realized that either
there was a really long special solo, or something strange must be up or I
would never have answered the phone. I
explained the scenario to him as best as I could. While I was talking to him, the bride’s stepdad
approached, phone in hand. I asked Josh
to hold on for a minute. The bride was on
the other end and wanted to talk to me. Now,
here’s the issue with that. I was
talking to Josh, and Bluetooth was sending his voice directly into my hearing
aids. I moved the phone down so he couldn’t
hear what I was saying, but I could still hear him and the interactions with
his kids in my ears. Interesting phenomenon. I could hear the bride fine. She just needed some encouragement that we were
praying for the Lord to assist in any way possible with moving that huge
truck. So I dealt with that while
hearing at the same time all about Josh and AnnaGrace’s walk outside. Eerie.
Finally,
sometime after noon, Jim texted again: “Maybe moving.” It was the first sign of progress in well
over an hour, so I announced it to the crowd, most of whom had become family
even if they weren’t before they arrived.
They gave a few cheers and some half-hearted applause. By this time it was a matter of, “I’ll believe
it when I see it.” But it was true. Jim showed up first and frantically began
setting up (after, I am fairly certain, making a trip to the bathroom). The bride and groom arrived soon thereafter,
and we were off.
I
did liven things up a little bit when I added a phrase to the opening
remarks. Something about the “Garden of
Eden was supposed to be perfect – even more perfect than Lambeau Field.” Only football fans will understand the reference. See, they are huge Green Bay Packers fans,
and that is the name of the field where the Packers play. The bride caught it right away. So did someone in the audience. A loud guffaw exploded in the silence. Kind of set the tone that we would be following
the enforced flexibility of the circumstances.
At the end of the service after I announced them to be husband and wife,
the entire wedding party slipped on sunglasses for the walk out. Oh, and speaking of the Packers, When they
were talking pictures after the service, the bride and a friend of hers slipped
on some Packers gear for pictures.
Cheesehead hats and all.
The
music went off without a hitch. Beautiful
as usual, Jim and Corey. Especially
after the service when they were taking pictures. Someone convinced them that it would be a
good idea to play “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.” I have no idea who that encourager might have
been. Kind of a risky move to be playing
a song like that at a wedding, don’t you think?
But the maid of honor and even the bride’s mom were both on board. Several of the guests sang along. The photographer had a hard time keeping the
bride still. I would say it was a good,
fun choice. I couldn’t get them to play
through their coffee house gig song list, though. That would have been helpful for the hours we
spent waiting for the truck to be cleared.
It made for a fitting end to the day, though. They had a team all ready to set the place
back up for church today, and got it done in record time. Quite the Saturday morning, simple wedding …
Proverbs
16:24 says, “Gracious words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing
to the bones.”
Father,
would you walk with Chris and Laurie as they begin their life together? Draw them closer to you. Amen.
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