He Lives

I wish I could use the wedding as an excuse for not writing once in the past five months. I cannot. But since news of the engagement was the last you’d heard from me, let’s pick things up there.

For the most part, I have done what any groom-to-be should do: I’ve stayed out of the way and let Marci run the show. I listen to her go on and on and on about all things wedding related and regularly ask if there’s anything she needs me to do. It seems to have worked out well and it makes her happy.

In general, things have gone pretty smoothly, but there have been a few bumps in the road.

First, we found a great photographer. Three weeks after he and his wife spent an hour selling themselves to us, the called us and told us they had mistakenly double-booked on our date and would be unable to do our wedding. They WOULD however, send two photographers that work for them in their place, and give us a 10% discount.
same…so…crisis averted.

Everything was perfect until about two weeks ago when the second crisis presented itself.

When Marci was in college, she struck up a relationship with the pastor at the church in town. Eventually, she returned home and a few years later that pastor took over the church she regularly attended. Over time, he and his wife became very close to her and she decided that if she ever got married, he would be the one to perform the ceremony.

Then, just over a year ago, due to a number of circumstances, he was asked to leave the church. Although his (now ex) wife stayed here, and remains a very close friend, Marci had a hard time dealing with the void that was left in her heart.

Over time, she had gradually come to accept the idea of her current pastor performing the ceremony. They had also become close and it was som
Needless to say, Marci was not happy. She felt we had not merely been sold a company, but we were sold two people–those two people. Despite their assurances that the other photographers were just as capable, we insisted on meeting them. Meanwhile, the possibility that we might have the “second string” taking pictures at our wedding began to get to Marci. She cried, which reaffirmed my belief that weddings were an unnecessary stress.

Luckily, we loved the other photographers as much as the first two. The photo quality is about the ething she even began to look forward to.

A couple of weeks ago, we learned that he accepted an assignment at another church–the pastor there is returning to her home state to care for a sick family member–and would be leaving July 1–15 days before our wedding. He spoke to us about his decision and told us he would not feel comfortable coming back to perform our wedding. His logic made sense and we respect his wishes.

But that didn’t mean we were happy. Marci did a remarkable job of keeping her composure about it. We adopted the mantra, “SOMEONE is doing our wedding.” We were basically in limbo until the new pastor was appointed, but we talked to the outgoing pastor and the former pastor’s ex-wife and both of them were very happy with the appointment. We finally met the guy last night and went home happy as well.

As you can see from my retelling, it’s pretty complicated. The bottom line is that once again, the world is in balance.

As for the non-wedding-related stuff, there isn’t much of it. I went home to see my family over Christmas, and they are looking forward to coming out this summer for–what else–the wedding.

Work is trying at times, but that’s a story for another entry. Until then…