The Most Unusual Wedding

I have blogged about weddings before, but the one I did last night takes the wedding cake. Actually, I should say the one I did last night and this morning takes the cake, because the ceremony started in 2007 (at 11:30pm), paused to note the stroke of midnight ("You may kiss the bride or whoever is sitting close to you.") and concluded in 2008 with the "I Do's."

The original intent was to pronounce the couple man and wife on the stroke of midnight, but weddings always start 8 minutes late and you never know how long the Bride is going to dance, or how long one's sister-in-law is going to preach - uh, exhort the couple, or how long it takes to serve the audience communion. My hat's off to Kevin for skillfully working in the New Year and the New Family.

I know what you are thinking. I'll get to that in a moment.

The timing was not the only unusual aspect of this wedding. It appeared on the radar last Friday as a very simple wedding with one song to be played. By Sunday morning, it was a multi-year affair with PowerPoint scriptures, 3 songs on CD, 2 congregational hymns, a song leader, the afore-mentioned sister-in-law, a guy playing a guitar and a video count-down. Oh, did I mention the part about showing "Facing The Giants" on the big screens while the pre-wedding dinner was going on in the Family Room?

After explaining that no one was going to be available for the various video aspects of this wedding (with the Holiday, we barely scrapped up enough guys for Sunday) they reluctantly agreed to an audio-only version.

This was the 2nd marriage for this couple. They had married before, stayed together long enough for 2 boys to be born, divorced, essentially remained a couple for the sake of the boys and finally decided they needed to remarry. Kevin and his wife Karen (with 2 boys about the same age) met them while attending Brentwood basketball games; they got to know them, learned of the status of the family and helped counsel them back into a marriage.

Okay. Yes, I did say the Bride danced. Came down the aisle barefoot and in a long skirt and gave us her interpretation of Nicole C. Mullin's "When You Call on Jesus." All four minutes and fifty-seven seconds of it. Apparently she does this often at Shoreline. I think Kevin summed it up when he said to me later. "I'm pretty sure that's the first time that has happened in this auditorium." I have nothing to add to that.

Have a Happy New Year. I'm going back to bed.