One Wedding Down, the Big One Yet to Go

 

My niece, Rachel, got married on Friday, so that’s one down and one to go. I didn’t have to do anything for Rachel and Göran’s wedding other than show up, so it was the easy one. As the mother of the groom, however, I will be much more involved in John’s wedding.

My brother and his family don’t farm, but when he retired from his last church, he and my sister-in-law bought a farmhouse and the outbuildings that came with it. When Rachel and Göran decided to have an outdoor wedding on the farm, they knew that there was plenty of room in the barn and other buildings if the weather didn’t cooperate. Fortunately, though, it did. The sun beat down and made it rather warm when the service started, but it soon cooled off and the weather turned out to be ideal.

The full Camp contingent, including my soon-to-be daughter-in-law, was in attendance. We had a good visit without the rush that is likely to overwhelm us the next time we meet.

My brother performed the mostly traditional ceremony. Rachel and Göran wrote their own vows, as well, and it was clear that they understand what it takes to make a marriage work.

Although the ceremony and the bride’s dress were on the traditional side, not everything was. My sister-in-law grew up on a farm and is a farm girl through and through. She knows how to drive a tractor and there was one in the yard, so when someone dared her to chauffer the bride and groom around, she did, driving them along the road that leads to the farm. It was one of many wonderful photo ops.

Rachel and Göran are among the few people who actually make a living as performers. In fact, they met playing Mr. and Mrs. Banks in the musical version of Mary Poppins. So instead of the traditional couples’ dance, they performed “Everything” by Michael Buble.

The buffet was set up in the barn and the dancing was there, too, but we ate outside and enjoyed a beautiful sunset.

The wedding and reception were delightful, but they are only the beginning.

My wish for the happy bride and groom lasts forever.

May God bless your marriage.

Wedding Feast or Famine

 

In Roland and my families, weddings seem to be feast or famine. Our daughter, Caroline, got married on July 1, 2006. One of Roland’s sisters was married the year before, but it had been over a decade since any other weddings.

After Caroline and Pete’s wedding, we had another long dry spell until one of Roland’s nephews got married in 2022. Last year was quiet, but it looks like there will be two weddings in 2024.

We had a strong hint at Christmas, when John brought a girl home for the first time, bringing her all the way from North Carolina. Although it is hard to get to know anyone in just a couple of days, we loved Christina at once. She is a strong Christian and a lovely person inside and out. John chose well.

My niece Rachel also brought her boyfriend over for a gathering of extended family just after Christmas, and we liked him, too.

On February 25 (a Sunday), we received a call from Rachel telling us she had gotten engaged the day before and was getting married at the end of August. Then, two hours later, John called to say that he had gotten engaged the day before, as well. That’s his and Christina’s engagement picture at the head of this post. No date yet because they’re still working on their plans, but I expect it to happen sometime this year.

John is 37, and some mothers might have tried to push their children into marriage by that age, but that was never my goal. Marriage is sacred, and without the right partner people are better off single.

I’m glad John waited for Christina.

The Missing Ingredient

 

Two weeks ago I attended a nephew’s wedding. We weren’t sure we were going to make it because the location could only be accessed by crossing a railroad track. A freight train was stopped at one of the two entrances, and we had no way of knowing whether the train was long enough to block the other entrance, too.

Fortunately, we were stuck behind other cars also headed to the wedding. Eventually the front one turned around, the next one followed, and so on. I assume that somebody in the front car heard via cell phone that the other entrance wasn’t blocked. In any event, we followed, too, and we made it with a few minutes to spare.

The bride is a geologist whose previous job involved environmental work on Lake Michigan, so she wanted to hold the ceremony in a gazebo overlooking it. The weather cooperated, and the traditional secular ceremony went well. But I was disappointed because it was missing what I consider to be the most important ingredient in any marriage. There was no mention of Christ.

Congratulations Mike and Amanda. I wish you a long and happy marriage. But even more, I wish you a Christ-centered one.

That’s what helps the best marriages survive.

__________

I didn’t get any photos of the ceremony itself because there were too many heads in the way, so the one at the top of this post was taken by my daughter, Caroline Camp Ill.