Thursday, July 16, 2009

Wedding Chaos

Summer is the season of weddings. My career as a minister has made weddings and wedding events a part of every summer for more than 30 years. I have conducted more than 360 weddings and one thing is always predictable - the unpredictable.

If you ever watch America's Funniest Video's you notice that most of the funniest clips are from weddings. This is not surprising to me. Only on rare occasions has any wedding that I have been involved with gone smooth. There is something about the combination of a nervous bride, a bored groom, and a temporarily insane MOB (Mother of the Bride) that results in varying degrees of chaos. Some of what happens is just funny and everyone laughs and enjoys the unexpected surprises. Other problems are more serious; like the bride who was late to the wedding - an hour late and did not tell anyone where she was! On one occasion, their was a fist fight in the parking lot between the old boyfriend and the groom - not good. One wedding started with the groom fainting and literally falling to the floor as the bride was coming down the aisle. I could go on. The other stories will be in a book that I will write someday about weddings entitled "Stay Away from the MOB!"

I find comfort in the fact that the first recorded miracle in the gospels is at a wedding. (John 2) Jesus turns the water into wine. Most weddings would go smoother if someone was present who could perform a couple of miracles. In this story, Jesus saves the day because the worst thing that could have happened is for a host to run out of wine. Urged by his Mother, Jesus turns a disaster into a genuine celebration to remember! By the way, Jesus did turn the water into wine, not grape juice, which is what I was told by my dear but misinformed "teetotaler" parents. I don't think grape juice would have been so joyously received by the wedding guests.

Getting married is very popular these days. Some people like it so much they do it several times in a lifetime. One woman told me that she had out lived three husbands but was in the market for a good man - she had just celebrated her 90th birthday when she shared her hope for the future. It would be my luck that the groom or bride would "pass on" during the ceremony.

No wonder Jesus never got married and Paul advised people to be single.

All kidding aside, being married is the great joy of my life - the girl who said yes more than 35 years ago has made my life a dream! Marriage I love - weddings send chills down my spine!

Just thinking, Steve

1 comment:

  1. That's a great post. Nothing major from our wedding day, but our pianist did start to play the recessional before we had even said our vows... our soloist was walking up the stairs to sing for the unity candle part and the piano player just broke out intensely playing. The only thing that finally got her to stop was the coordinator running down the side aisle and tapping her on the shoulder, getting her out of the "zone" she was in! I thought my mom (MOB) was going to freak out when I saw her face, but then the minister said, "Well, someone is even more anxious than Jeff for this ceremony to be over!" Everyone laughed- Great memories!

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