Wedding

Rachel and Matt's wedding was lovely. The processional was Pachelbel's Canon (with strings and organ) -- people from Fort Wayne are NOT allowed to comment on the choice of song! The first hymn and concluding hymn were various stanzas of "Oh, Morning Star, How Fair and Bright." We also sang "Now Thank We All Our God," "In Thee Is Gladness," and the beautiful wedding hymn "Gracious Savior, Grant Your Blessing."

I'm afraid I laughed at one line in the Old Testament reading: the part about two keeping warm when they lie down together. Rachel is the girl with an electric blanket on her bed, 6-7 quilts, and a huge fat comforter. So that struck me as funny. But Pastor brought another part of the reading into the sermon: a cord of three strands is not easily broken. The other readings were the more commonly used Ephesians 5 and Matthew 19.

The sermon was the absolute longest I ever heard Pastor preach. And he could've just kept going, for all I cared.

Matt and Rachel glowed!

The reception became much more a feast than we'd originally planned. I guess I just like to feed people. But then, Matt's family wanted very much to contribute to the reception. So they brought sandwiches and side dishes and more beverages. So we had quite the dinner instead of the original thought of just having cake and maybe some hors d'oeuvres.

Back in January, we weren't sure whether to have the wedding at the congregation where Rachel grew up and had been a member for 15 years, or have the wedding at the congregation where she and Matt have been attending ever since he moved to Milwaukee. Here would've provided convenience for our family. But so so many of the wedding guests were from up in the city that it made sense to have the wedding closer to where the vast bulk of the guests live. There was also the worry about weather if the wedding reception was planned for our backyard like Katie and Nathan's. Turned out that not only was there wind, rain, and chilly temps, but the church roof started leaking bucketfuls in the wee hours of Saturday morning. The kitchen here would've been entirely unusable! So for practical reasons, it was nice to be in Sussex. But then there's something deeper about the couple being married in their own church. I remember at Nick and Naomi's wedding, and how lovely it was that they were married at the church where they'd been attending and where they would continue to attend -- the church where they commune together weekly, the church where their babies would likely be baptized. I never thought about it before, but Pastor mentioned that very very few couples who marry are both members of the same church and actually get married in that church. And there is something meet, right, and salutary about that.

Anyway, we ended up with about 140-150 people for a reception in a large room with cement-block walls. The volume was loud, but it was a pleasant chatter and excitement. Between showers, sometimes the kids would go outside to play. We shoved a few tables aside so there could be a little bit of dancing. However, a boombox doesn't put out enough volume to overwhelm the exuberant chatting, so dancing wasn't a big part of the reception. I was glad for the munchies on the tables. At last summer's wedding, there was plenty of space to play outdoors in the sun with the potato cannon or the foam swords or the croquet. But the weather didn't allow for much football or foxtail this year. The munchies just made it more welcoming for people to sit around and nibble and continue to chat.

Some dear friends asked to help serve at the wedding. They were such a blessing! They made sure the food was set out on the tables, ready to go as soon as people were dismissed from church. They kept refilling bowls and they served the beverages. They fetched the cheesecakes when Rachel and Matt were ready to cut the cake. Not only all that, but they did most of the clean up. Wow! What a gift that made our day of visiting with new (& old) family so much freer and enjoyable!

As far as serving food to a crowd, I think the lesson I learned last year and this year is that you can never have too much fruit salad. Boy, that goes quickly. We didn't actually run out at either wedding, but we ran down the supply low enough that the leftovers were gobbled up within 24 hours after the wedding. The wedding was good for my "cooking ego" -- I got a lot of compliments.

Dead Theologians Society met today at a friend's house. We had some stuff to pass on to Rachel and Matt, so they stopped by the party for a little while. Matt decided to ask what he should call me and Gary now. Even 10 minutes before the wedding, he was calling me by my last name. So we talked about Susan/Gary or Mom/Dad. I don't know what he'll settle on. But when it was time for the kids to go, he came over to me in front of everybody and hugged me and said, "I'm going to say it now just because I can! Bye, Mom!" And he kissed me. Ahhhh, I love this guy!

I don't think it would be possible to have ordered up two better sons-in-law!