Reverend for a day

Having never officiated at a wedding before, I had no idea the experience would be so intensely joyful! There's something about standing between two people in love, and serving as an instrument in solemnizing that relationship, that was absolutely exhilarating.

Of course it helped that we've known this couple for decades, and that we were surrounded by family, but still -- the occasion was delightfully romantic, incredibly fun, and ... well... just... amazingly wonderful!

It was not without its challenges, of course -- no wedding is. Having laid out all the food on the dining room table prior to our guests' arrival, we went out to greet them and show them the decorations on the deck and then came back to find our dog had eaten most of the cheese from the cheese platter my daughter had so carefully prepared. (Given that he's diabetic, we were a little concerned about his health, but there were no after effects other than our mourning the loss of some truly amazing gourmet cheeses!)

The day was cloudy and thunderstorms were expected, so we were watching the weather report closely and delayed putting up these wonderful Japanese lanterns, hoping to mount them after the rain had passed. But there was a dinner scheduled at a local restaurant following the ceremony, so eventually we decided we could wait no longer and hung the lanterns -- which of course meant the rain came down in buckets, several lanterns were destroyed despite our efforts to save them, and the beach wedding we had planned happened under a makeshift awning on our deck instead.

But the occasion was full of joy and laughter in spite of it all, the ceremony went off without a hitch, the groom managed to sneak in a joke about "honor and obey," and a good time was had by all.

We've been fortunate to make a lot of wonderful new friends over our years in the Northwest, but these old friendships that endure over decades of time touch our hearts extraordinarily deeply. I was honored to have the chance to share my home with such wonderful souls, and to be able to participate in the ceremony was a blessing I'll never forget.