The Wedding
Shortly after the proposal
Nancy: Perry I have a question for you. What are we going to do for the wedding? Ours will be the third wedding in my family this year and my parents will not be able to provide any help for me.You are going to school and my job pays very little. Where will we get the money for our wedding? And where we will we have the ceremony? The church I attend is a basement and your is huge and well, I don’t want to be married in either of them.
How can either of our families be able to attend our wedding? Mine are farmers and you know what that means, they will have to find people to do the milking while they are gone. And if we go to Grygla will your family come?
I love you, but I would like to have a nice wedding in a place that looks attractive and where both our families can come.
Perry: Nancy what if we can find another place here in the cities? Both of us have family here. What if we can find a nice church? If you think that will work I know of a church near here. It was the church my parents attended when I was born. I visited it once a few years ago and it is a nice building. The people were friendly and maybe the pastor would agree to let us use the church.
Two days later –
Nancy: Perry I can’t believe it. The pastor knows your parents. They were his youth leaders when he was a teenager. He didn’t even hesitate to say yes and was even willing to do the counseling and help with planning.
Perry: Yes, that was amazing. When I visited the church a few years ago he was not the pastor. And did you hear what he told us? He has served as a missionary to Sierra Leone. Maybe he can help us with learning about being missionaries.
Three weeks later –
Nancy: So much is happening so quickly. I have enjoyed our counseling sessions. I have learned so much and am even more convinced that God wants us together.
Perry: I agree. I was surprised that this last meeting he invited us to dinner at a restaurant. That seemed a bit unusual.
Nancy: Me too but I appreciated it so much. He wanted us to know that he believed we were ready to be married. That was so important. We have only known each other for less than three months and the setting and his words brought so much peace about getting married so soon.
Perry: That and the fact that he offered me a job as an assistant pastor even before we are married. So, what do you think we should do? Should I accept the job?
Nancy: Oh yes, absolutely. I am already so happy at this church and to have a chance to serve with you would be a dream come true. Yes, absolutely, yes.
Perry: Nancy remember your questions about the wedding? Look what has happened. We have found not only found a place that is easy for our families to come to, but we have found a church family to be part of. There will be some challenges. We still don’t have a lot of finances for a wedding and a honeymoon.
Nancy: Yes, so many of my fears have been answered. And I believe we will find a way to care for all of the rest. It may not be a fancy wedding, but it will be special. I have some ideas about how to involve our families in several areas. I think they will be glad to work together and help us.
Perry: Well let’s get started with the planning and see what they can do and what we will have to take care of.
NOTE: The wedding went great. Both families helped in so many ways. Because of travel issues we ended up doing the rehearsal in the morning, a rehearsal lunch, and then jumped right into the wedding. God gave us such a wonderful start to our life as husband and wife.
Question – What is it that makes a wedding truly special?
For me, it is the people and the newly forming relationships between 2 families, especially the bride’s and groom’s new connections with sisters and brothers-in-law, besides the in-law parents. My husband was the oldest of 8 children, so it was amazing to feel hugged, loved, and accepted by them all. They were pretty excited their big brother was getting married! He had 3 brothers and I had 3 sisters, so it was an even match for bridesmaids and groomsmen. Naturally, there was at least one mishap to chuckle about. My husband was so energized that he was up early mowing the lawn at our apartment complex and then left for the church which was a 75-minute drive without the ring! When it came time for the ring ceremony I was puzzled by the ring he slipped on my finger, as I knew it was not what we had picked out. He quietly whispered, “I forgot the ring.” He had borrowed his mom’s! So, it was these unique details to our wedding that made it special and different from someone else’s.
We were very fortunate there were no mishaps. Just a really great time with family and friends. My cousin did try to spike my drink with hot pepper sauce but I found out in time to avoid it.
I think I remember your wedding, but did Paul Todd ( my husband) do your wedding flowers?
I believe he did. I think my mom did some silk flowers as well for some part of the wedding.