The Wedding

I marvel at how serene and pleasurable my children's weddings have been. Careful planning beforehand pays off--not mine primarily, in these cases--as does taking care to make the service God-honoring and worshipful. I like the celebratory atmosphere of the reception too. And a lot of people work hard to make the event run smoothly. Hilda's parents planned and prepared for 500 people. I don't think quite that many were present, but it was a big crowd.

People who were at the wedding already know most of what is contained in this post, and not everyone will be interested in all the details. That's OK.

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Joel and Hilda's wedding was a family-friendly affair. That is, their family came from far and wide in a gesture of loyalty and friendship, and many of them participated in the wedding.

Hiromi gave the welcome and opening prayer, my father had the opening meditation, and Hilda's father preached the sermon and performed the ceremony.

Hilda's sister Yolanda was matron of honor, and her husband Jared, who is one of Joel's good friends, was a groomsman. Angelo, Hilda's brother and Joel's friend, was best man. Shane and Grant were the other groomsmen.

Shane read Scriptures during the worship time that included songs from the Taize community, with the readings interspersed. He also led a congregational song.

Hilda’s mother, Susanna, and I attended the guest register, with Hiromi and David helping when they were not occupied elsewhere. It was a wonderful way to see and greet everyone who came, without them feeling obligated to shower us with congratulations, etc. A good thing, since parents aren’t the main ticket item at a wedding.

Joel's youngest local cousin, Diana, and Hilda's young cousin, Ruthie, handed out programs. A crew of four Miller boy-cousins took care of the gifts--Bryant, Andrew, Joseph, and Dietrich.

Among the servers were most of the other local cousins--the Masts and Joe Yoder's young folks swelling the ranks.

My brothers Marcus and Anthony and Joe Y. helped usher.

Hilda's Uncle Wilbur led the mealtime prayer at the reception.

I think all of Hilda's aunts and uncles attended. David comes from a big family, and some of them came from Iowa, Texas, Minnesota, and Arkansas. Susanna's siblings live in IN, and made the trip. Some of her married cousins traveled a long way to be here also.

Joel's uncle Saiji and his grandmother from Japan did not attend, but his Smith (Iwashige) aunt from Sterling did.

Hilda's Beachy grandparents came from Indiana, and her Yoder grandma from here was present.

Most of my siblings were present for the wedding–all except Clara. Anthony came from VA, Caleb and their two oldest children from PA (and Memphis where my nephew is in college), Dorcas and her family from NC, Ronald’s family from SE Kansas, and Carol’s family from the KC area. It was a lovely gathering.

We remembered how tentative the possibility of Mom’s presence at the wedding seemed last winter when Hilda and Joel announced their engagement. Then, we “milked” the prospect of a wedding for all it was worth to help give Mom a reason for recovering. And she was there, able to enjoy the wedding and the family events of the weekend. What a delight!

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Joel and Hilda served people iced tea as they entered the reception hall. They did this instead of having a formal receiving line.

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The rehearsal dinner was a fun occasion. We had invited Hilda and Joel’s aunts and uncles and grandparents, along with some of the relatives who came from out-of-state, plus the people who had attended the rehearsal. My sister Lois, and my sisters-in-law Rhoda and Judy had helped the day before to do the prep work for the meal. They helped serve and clean up afterward too. We prepared for about 120 people.

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Dorcas brought my dress, ready-made, from Colorado, and I had the pleasure of slipping into that silky purple dress with no sewing-hassle memories. Since my sewing machine is still at the repair shop, it was a good thing there was a backup plan for making the dress. I never thought of this possible daughter-in-law perk when Shane married Dorcas, who loves to sew, and offered to make my dress.

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Grant wore a suit that fit him perfectly–from someone that is neither very short nor very fat. It was custom-made for its owner in Romania. He found the suit several days before the wedding.

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The ladies in the wedding party wore lavender, and the servers at the head table wore purple, as did Susanna and I and Renita and her baby. The remaining server young ladies wore black. All these colors were repeated in the decorations in various ways.

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Hilda’s brother Angelo, who was best man, made his flights without a problem and arrived from Sudan the night before the wedding. This was a good thing since one leg of the trip has flights leaving only every two weeks.

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Hilda's friends Norma, Lana, and Rose were bridesmaids. Rebecca and Ruby were attendants–friends who would also have been bridesmaids if the number could have been expanded.

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The reception coordinators were returning from a trip to New York, and, because of flight delays, didn’t get to Kansas till 4:30 AM the day of the wedding. They did their job as planned.

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The high school students where Hilda is teaching helped with the serving. They had been paired off randomly, with perhaps a few tweaks to head off potential awkwardness.

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Two older couples with whom Hilda associated during her Copeland teaching days attended from Canada. A large group of people from Faith Builders where Hilda graduated were also present.

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The wedding food was delicious--every bit of it--mashed potatoes, chicken breast with a flavorful creamy sauce, green beans with yummy seasonings, Italian garden salad (I think this is what it's called.), Susanna's home-baked European-style bread, and a colorful fruit-and-sauce-topped cheesecake for dessert.

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The wedding day was mild and pleasant. The following day it rained much of the day.

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Joel and Hilda headed for South Texas for their honeymoon. They plan to return within the next few days, and will be unwrapping their wedding gifts on Thursday evening. After that, Hilda will return to school teaching for a few final weeks, and Joel will need to bury himself in studying for the Level 2 CFA exam in June. He's been lamenting this necessity, but it seemed preferable to waiting till after that to get married, especially given the fact that wedding and test preparations would probably have needed to happen simultaneously with that scenario.