What a {Wedding} Weekend

I love weddings.

I have loved weddings since I was a little girl.  The first one I can remember was my dad's cousin Matt's wedding where my cousin Jennie and I were flower girls.  Since then, I have been involved in lots and lots of weddings, whether as a flower girl, balloon girl, bird seed/bubble distributer, musician (most common), bridesmaid, or bride.  We've done outdoor weddings, beach weddings, church weddings, biker weddings, military weddings, weddings in the middle of a church service on Sunday morning, weddings with AJ the DJ (ahem) - all sorts.  And I love them all.

But this is my first wedding post.  I don't write about them all.  They all don't necessarily make lasting impressions.  But I especially loved this one.  It was so unique, specific to them, and perfect.

My cousin Jennie and her fiance met in Indonesia where they both teach at a Western school.  They planned a simple outdoor Sunday morning wedding, 8:30.  They asked us to lead worship just like we would at church.  I was to lead on two songs (one of which had an Indonesian chorus...yikes) and Rick was going to lead on a few more and then sing a (super cool bluesy funk) song for communion.  It was going to be great.

When we pulled up at 7:30, it was raining.  By the time we got all our stuff out of the car and into the shelter it was POURING.  Can you tell from this picture?

Yeah.  I was anxious about how the rain would affect Jennie's outlook on the day.  But I shouldn't have worried.  She arrived and acted as if the rain was a delightful and unexpected guest at the party!  Refreshing to see someone who really grasps what's important about this day!

The decorations were simple.  There were two bouquets of flowers on a table up front and then those that Jennie held.  What is significant about these flowers is that my uncle, who is an extreme outdoors-man and raised his daughters to be the same, picked and arranged the flowers himself from the surrounding park before the wedding.  Awwwww.

Another interesting and unique thing was that instead of a unity candle, they did a painting as part of the ceremony.  While we sang, my aunt and uncle each painted a portion of the painting with different colors and then Paul's parents did the same.  Then Jennie and Paul took parts of each of their parents' colors and blended them together.  Awesome idea.

Have I said that I love weddings?  I love weddings.  And I loved the guy who married these two.  He is a dear friend of both of them from Bandung and he, understanding that he was talking to science teachers, drew a beautiful illustration of marriage using high school science.  I took a picture of it so I wouldn't have to try to remember.  Take a moment to read it - it really is cool, even if you aren't a nerd.

After they were pronounced man and wife, they took a stroll in the woods and emerged on the other end of the structure where the fiddlers (his sisters) fiddled a merry gig and the little ones blew bubbles.  They released doves, a custom in Indonesia, and Charlie (who LOVED the doves) saw one of the doves drop a feather on the ground.  He ran up, grabbed it, and gave it to Jennie.  It was sweet.

Then we all sat at tables and visited while the caterers set up the breakfast buffet.  The tables were decorated like this:

Paul, Jennie's fiance, is an artist and he made these mugs.  They then filled them with Indonesian coffee and candy.  What a neat idea!  And, knowing they would have little kids around, they busted out the sidewalk chalk.  Nice.

Double nice.

And they ended with a time of open mic.  My favorite was a guy I didn't know, who simply got up and said he had three pieces of advice for Paul and Jennie:

1. Commitment is what keeps a marriage together, but communication is what keeps it alive. The truth, for sure.
2. It's better to be kind than right. My husband has this down pat.  He is right probably 70% of the time, but he only makes sure I know it when it's really important.
3. Focus not on what bothers you, but what binds you.  In other words, be an optimist.

Great advice.

What a beautiful, wonderful wedding!  Congrats to Jennie and Paul. :)