I love a good wedding. Our dear Jackie married Zack; it was a day of soaring highlights, re-connections and robust celebration . Zack and Jackie, ahem!, met in my Shurley Grammar class. They spent another year with me studying Shakespeare. Here is a journal of my reflections.
:: The attendants were all related to the bride and groom. There were more guys than gals, so the procession included the seating of the mothers and grandmothers. It was wonderful to have all the close family included in the official beginning of the wedding.
:: You know music is important to me. The entire family/wedding party came down the aisle to Non Nobis Domine (Not to us, O Lord, but to Your Name give the glory) from Henry V. If you listen to the link, the bride made her entrance around 2:35 where the orchestral fanfare builds. I watched–through a cataract of tears–my people (son, daughter-in-law, grandsons, dear friends) process past me. I will never listen to Non Nobis again without thinking of a radiant bride smiling at the man she loves.
:: Black Chocolate Wranglers. There are benefits to marrying a cowboy.
:: It was a large wedding, ~ 500 guests. The bride’s family emptied their barn and made it suitable for a celebration. (look at the picture below…coming out of my husband’s ear is a chandelier made out of wagon wheels) Family and friends pitched in to set up, decorate, cook food, iron tablecloths, pull weeds, serge fabric, and park cars. It was such a joy to be able to help a family who are normally the helpers.
:: Generational blessing. Every decade in life was represented in the room full of guests. Grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles: extended family were abundant. Babies, babies everywhere! There were easily thirty pregnant moms and fifty babes in arms. Have I said what a blessing it is to be part of a community that loves and values children?
dwell on his love with sweetest song;
and infant voices shall proclaim
their early blessings on his name.
:: I glanced to the back and saw Carson, Johann, and Jamie standing–bouncing, rocking–with babes in arms and Leah next to them standing with her arms resting on her pregnant belly. All these kids were in my classes. They spent endless hours playing flashlight tag, snowboarding, eating pizza and talking about life. Now they live hundreds of miles apart. A sob of gratitude bubbled up. Look at them!
A Living Pencil 
Wonderful! I am so glad you enjoyed this so much! Weddings are a blessing, and big ones are a giant blessing! There are so many babies either brand new or in the works this past year! God is so good to us that way!
Bonnie told us about it today at school…sigh… What a great time it must have been! God bless the Bride and Groom and the mommies and daddies, and the babies and the brothers and the sisters and the grandparents and all friends of the families…as a stone ripples the water in a pond, may His blessing go out from that happy place!
What a wonderful time! You all out in Washington seem to have this wedding thing down pat! I think you could teach us East-coasters just how to put on a wedding—from places to music! Love the review. And LOVE the processional!
Matchmaker, Matchmaker, make me a match….Delightful details, Carol. Thanks for sharing!
Ooooh, I love the toast, and bwahhahahaha about the grammar. Many Years to the newlyweds!
Carol, that’s a wonderful story! And it looks and sounds as though the memory of that day will feed your soul for years to come! I love it!
This was just lovely!
You tell wedding stories so well! I loved that song as a processional. What did they use as a recessional? (Is that the correct word?)