First Wedding Today

I have the privilege of marrying a friends mother and beau today. I'm not licensed so I'm not actually doing the legal bit - someone is doing that a bit before our ceremony. But I am doing the vows and blessing before God which I consider to be really important.

I never really wanted to get into the wedding business - because in many ways it is a business. If a couple are in my church and they want to wed and I have serious misgivings what can I do? The church hires me to give spiritual direction and marry. Maybe some days those two things don't line up. So I rather not get into that whole thing.

Its funny that the couple, particularly the bride has left me with very little instructions. They looked over the ceremony and have approved it but there is not procession down the aisle, no readings by family members or any of the extras. And I realised at the last minute with the grooms poor hearing that repeating the vows may be extra stress - so I called and they prefer that I read the vows and they just say "I do". Even the location is a little worrying - not sure if the spot they chose will fit the number of people - I have a back up plan just in case - I just saw the spot last night! And I found some nice paper to put the ceremony on so when I stand there I am reading from an elegant looking booklet rather than a piece of paper - they can keep it afterwards.

So this is different then what I would normally expect and I wanted to make note of it before the event to see how it goes. I'm confident about it - I have expectations that things will be a little confused but I'm confident that I have thought out what those confusions will be! It is very exciting - C and I have not been out to a party in a long time and this is one I actuallylook forward to - I'm usually reluctant to go to these things.