Lo and Behold – It’s a Wedding

Marriage begins with a wedding, where two people promise “to have and to hold, to love and to cherish” come what may.

The comfort in a marriage comes from caring for one another, and showing it each day.

The happiness in marriage comes from knowing that the love you share will grow ever stronger as you go through life together.

The blessings of marriage are the fulfillment of your cherished hopes and dreams as your lives unfold, and the realization of the meaning of that beautiful promise “To have and to hold”.

.......................................................................................................................................................................................................

These are the words which bring a couple together, and all too often, couples believe that as long as they love one another, the wedding will go off without any problems. For some couples, this is what happens, for others this is only the start of their problems, and it is happening way before the wedding day!!!!

Everyone loves a wedding. Children dressed in their special clothes, the girls in party dresses with sparkly shoes, and their hair all curled and shiny. The boys in their best clothes, hair slicked back with mothers clucking around them making sure they stay exactly as she dressed them.

All the ladies are “dressed to the nines”, their fingers adorned with gold rings, and their dresses colourful and fashionable. Suits are all the go for the men, although feeling their ties are just a little too tight, and constantly tugging at them. The men are hoping the wedding will be over soon, and they can relax and take off jackets and ties.

This is the dream of many brides and grooms, but not all goes to plan. Some things take precedence over well organised proceedings. Such is the case for Joe and Maggie. They had planned their wedding for months, down to the last detail. One thing they did not plan for was Maggie getting pregnant. No worries, they thought, we will plan it so the wedding comes a few weeks after the birth, giving them time to enjoy their new bundle of joy and rest before their wedding day.

As for the wedding celebrant, this was a very special wedding as it was the first wedding she would officiate at, having only recently been registered as a marriage celebrant. She too had planned the day very carefully, all documents sighted, all paperwork completed, and the ceremony just perfect.

The day of the rehearsal came around, two weeks prior to the wedding day. It is usually a fun day, where the celebrant and wedding party can “iron out” all the bits and pieces that don’t quite fit together; the walk down the aisle for the bride and her attendants, the practice of the very important saying of the vows, exchange of rings, and finally the walk back down the aisle as husband and wife. A prerequisite is that the attendants be at the rehearsal to practice their roles.

On rehearsal day, the celebrant, arriving at Joe and Maggie’s house, was greeted with a very excited couple. It seemed Maggie has some concerns that her baby may come a little earlier than planned, and the decision had been made to bring the wedding forward, so they would be “man and wife” before baby appeared on the scene. She said, of course, no worries, when did they think they would like the ceremony to take place. To her astonishment, they asked if it could be today, instead of a rehearsal, a wedding!!!!!

The only hitch was that Joe and Maggie had not explained this change to the mums, dads and attendants that the wedding would be the rehearsal day!!

She could see this would require a great deal of teamwork to get this pair wed. With a little bit of help and encouragement, this small group of people made up of Joe and Maggie’s parents, bridesmaids and groomsmen would need to come together to achieve Joe and Maggie’s dream wedding, on a much smaller scale than had been envisaged a few months ago.

She was not sure how it could be accomplished, but “hope can move mountains”, they say, so she set about seeing how this magical wedding could indeed become a reality.

She sought out the Maggie’s parents, Jean and Ralph, who had traveled from England for the wedding. The day was extremely hot, and for the English couple, shorts and t-shirts were the order of the day. Jean had bought with her a beautiful “mother of the bride” outfit, and as the wedding was to be held indoors, she knew she would be “as cool as a cucumber” in the exquisite dress she had purchased at the very best shop in her little English village. However, today, there was no way she could stand out in the heat in the couple’s back yard without the beautiful dress melting around her.

Disappointment showed on Jean’s face, her visions of looking exquisite and cool had now been dampened by the reality of a hot backyard wedding. The celebrant could not help but feel a little sad for Jean, and told her, unofficially, that she would be doing another ceremony on the day they had planned, and Jean could then wear her beautiful outfit and be the “hostess with the mostest” mother of the bride!!!! Jean was complacent, and heaved a sigh of relief that in a few weeks’ time, she could indeed look like a ‘”million dollars” in her shimmering dress.

Maggie’s dad Ralph did not really care what he wore to the wedding, he had been a miner in his younger days, and was a “rough and ready” man. If the truth be told, he was more than happy in his shorts and t-shirt. So, the celebrant was happy, problems solved for the bride’s mum and dad, now to tackle the groom’s parents.

The groom’s parents, Bob and Maria, were sitting back quietly, watching the proceedings. The celebrant approached them, wondering what they felt of the change of plans. As far as they were concerned, this was just a minor blimp in the couple’s weddings plans, and they too were happy when she told them another ceremony was to be organised when Maggie and Joe’s bub entered the world. They were not too surprised, as they were used to Joe and Maggie making snap decisions, and were happy to just “go with the flow, and enjoy whatever might unfold”.

The bridesmaids were quietly chatting under the cool jacaranda tree, sipping a cool glass of wine, ready and willing to start this rehearsal, and wondering what all the fuss was about. However, when the celebrant told them what was happening, they were aghast…what about our hair and makeup and fancy fingernails they had planned for the big day, walking down the aisle to the lovely romantic music looking like a million dollars!!!! This was not going to be easy, but to placate them, she suggested they had a rummage through Maggie’s wardrobe, finding some high heel shoes, and lovely lacy shawls to wrap around their gaily imprinted t-shirts and jeans, making them feel very special. She left them, swanning around the back yard in their high heels and shawls, sipping their wine, looking like beautiful fairies under the trees.

The best men were sitting quietly under the trees, enjoying a cold beer, thinking this fuss about a rehearsal was a bit “over the top”. As far as they were concerned, they would just have to stand there, beside Joe, calming him down if need be. They were mates of Joe’s and had just come from a building job they were finishing, with remnants of the concreting job on their clothes, and hair!!!!!! After all, this was only a rehearsal, who would care what they looked like. The best men took it in their stride, and asked if perhaps there were some of Joe’s clothes that they could change into. Yes, no worries, said Joe, and produced two sets of clothes for the men to change in to, although the clothes were a little too big for one chap, and too small for the other, that would have to do!! The celebrant smiled - Laurel and Hardy – eat your hearts out!!!!

Joe and Maggie had contacted their photographer, but to their dismay, he was booked for another wedding. Luckily, the celebrant knew a chap who would be prepared to come along and take the photos. He was a professional photographer, and although he had not photographed any weddings, she would instruct him to ensure the photos reflected a memorable day for the couple.

Inside the house, the neighbours had been summoned to help with a very impromptu morning tea, bringing over the cakes, sandwiches and surprisingly enough, a beautiful cake which would suffice as their wedding cake.

The celebrant heaved a sigh of relief, this wedding would take place today, for her it would be “a baptism by fire”, so they say, but she was a mum and a grandma, so was used to working through any problems and solving them in a quick and quite way. She quickly went over all her paperwork and ceremony, and all seemed in perfect. Although very nervous, she just kept telling herself….you can do this, you can do this!!

Once all the dust had settled, the groomsmen were suitably dressed, and the bridesmaids soothed by promises that they would still be getting all dressed up in a couple of weeks’ time for the Renewal of Vows Ceremony, they were ready to begin.

As the music started, there was not a dry eye in the place. The bridesmaids tottered out first in their borrowed high heel shoes, shawls floating around them, followed by a very heavily pregnant Maggie who waddled out of the house on the arm of her dad. The entourage arrived at the place where they were to be wed and where Joe and his best men were standing. Joe and Maggie had the biggest smiles on their faces, they had achieved what others thought was impossible, and then stood together to be wed.

Somehow the words seemed to flow from the celebrant’s mouth, the wedding ceremony went off very smoothly, vows exchanged, rings on fingers, wedding certificates signed, and off they went to be congratulated by their very important family and friends. As far as Joe and Maggie were concerned, it was a perfect day. By nightfall Joe and Maggie welcomed into their life a beautiful baby girl, Maria Jean, named after two very special mums.

Joe and Maggie did have their Renewal of Vows ceremony two weeks later, which the celebrant officiated at, with fifty of their closest friends, and a very special guest, their newly born daughter. For the celebrant, it was indeed proof that all you needed was a little teamwork with everyone working towards the common goal of making Joe and Maggie’s wedding day one they would remember for the rest of their lives, and for her, it was an extraordinary wedding day, the first of many to come!!