Licensed to Wed

So, I got my first wedding under the belt (or robe, whatever) last weekend. Young couple, not from the church. I'm sure there will be many more to come, as our church is the favorite place in the community to get married. There will always be the challenge of whom to do weddings for and how much to control the ceremony. Real pastoral care and theological questions with real people. Anyway, in the end, I would call the whole experience a success...but at times, I wondered.

It started out with no one there at 3:30, when all the wedding party was supposed to show up. The wedding was to start at 4:00, and I was a little nervous that everyone was getting ready off site and then just showing up to the church with half an hour to go. As I continued to look over the service, the guys finally showed up about 3:45. After I talked with them for a few minutes, I went to check on the congregation, and none of it mattered, cause no one was there yet! Five minutes til wedding, empty sanctuary!

So, I went back to my office, and noticed the parking lot full of people. First problem solved, I went and opened the sanctuary doors and people started to come in and sit instead of stand outside and visit in the parking lot. Still, no women from the wedding party...

For the next half hour I felt like a messenger, walking around to check on different people. I had to show a guy how to run the sound system, who didn't show up until 4:00 himself. I continued to look for the bride and the rest of her party, who showed no signs. About 4:10 the maid of honor finally showed up, unfortunately she hadn't seen the other ladies and thought she'd be the last one there. I talked with the groomsmen. I kept checking with the groom, who got a phone call from the DJ down at the reception hall and was locked out....

So while an uncle ran to drop off the keys for the DJ, the bride finally showed up almost an hour late (4:20). It was great, now we could begin. I went out to talk with her, but wait...still missing a bridesmaid, and the flower girl wasn't there yet because she couldn't find her shoes.

I went back in to report to the guys...and we kept waiting. I went back out to talk with the bride, who I figured might be a little flustered. That was when the ring bearer (a 2 1/2 year old) decided to throw the pillow with the rings attached down the steps into the rose bushes in front of the church. As I'm climbing through the rose bushes, trying not to get my suit stuck, and fish out the rings, I wondered how you'd describe it in the job description. It was all worth it when I got that pillow and brought the rings safely up to the bride, who gave them back to the ring bearer, and he went straight back to the edge and threw it back over.

10 minutes later....the bridesmaid finally showed up, and the flower girl! She decided to go barefoot, and it appeared everyone was finally there. I gave the ladies a couple minutes then went out to see if they were ready to begin.

Only thing, the uncle (of the bride), who had traveled from two states away, wasn't back yet from handing the keys off to the DJ, so we waited for a few more minutes.

I don't even know when we finally started, but once the ceremony finally began, things went pretty well. Except the sound guy started the wedding march in the middle of the first bridesmaid walking down the isle, I dropped my book of common worship at one point in the middle of saying something, the groom forgot the words in the vows promising to be a "loving and faithful husband" and had to ask me to repeat the words again, and the ring bearer took advantage of his opportunity to come forward with the rings at the proper time by running around in the front of the sanctuary, trying to climb up by the communion table to blow out the candles.... it only took two of us to corral him back to his seat.

But as I said, after it was all over, it was a success. Everyone was very laid back the whole time, the couple got married in the end, I built a good relationship with them and I learned alot doing my first wedding as a pastor.

When I was a youth pastor, I used to sit around with some seasoned pastors at In'N'Out once a month and talk about life in ministry. I remember several great wedding/funeral stories among the many lessons I learned from these wise leaders, and I can't wait to have a full stash myself to share with some young youth minister one day. Life in ministry is definately always interesting.