A good friend got married this past weekend. It was a beautiful wedding of two people completely in love with Jesus and each other. They meshed two families and two cultures together and did it brilliantly.
My husband and older son were both in this wedding. My husband as a groomsmen and my son as a ring bearer. So leading up to this wedding, I honestly was not looking forward to it. I was happy for the couple to start their lives together, but the me being in charge of two littles on a weekend day from sun up to sun down where they are probably not going to nap but need to be on their best behavior, this I was not looking forward to it.
But guess what? ... We survived. We did really. Not sure how, but we did. Well probably because I do have some great people in my life that did try to help me out and well God was there and he knew it was going to be hard so he opened some doors and he made some bits not be as terrible as I thought they were to be.
So, here are my memories of the wedding. During the rehearsal Friday, Ephraim continuously jumped off of the steps that lead up to the altar. Ben got concerned about his pillow and I fed the children lots of peanut butter crackers. Somewhere in there the wedding party rehearsed but this is what I remember.
To change this moment of dude kid you are not respecting Jesus with your jumping, into Ephraim you and your pure joy for the simple make me smile, was definitely brought about by my husband.
During the actual wedding, Ben did make it down the isle, with the most ridiculous expression on his face and after chucking the ring bearer pillow at me and his brother. So I count that one as a win, even if he wasn't the cute "awe" that everyone likes to get out of kids.
At the receiving line, both my boys loved the bubbles. Ephraim chased them and Ben hoarded all the extra containers of them. I think I had 25+ containers of bubbles by the end of it all. We put a decent amount of them back but I still feel like we ended up with at least 10. But what is better than bubbles right?
In between the wedding mass and the reception we had like 2.5 hours to kill. So what do you do with un-napped children that won't nap but need to be doing something so you don't go crazy. Well we stopped for ice cream, somehow shared one cone between all three of us. Luckily Ben had thrown a fit about being in tux so he wasn't in it if things got messy, and for once in life, I was prepared with an extra shirt for E.
We got to the reception sight, close to 2 hours early. Nothing to do except play in the car, or terrorize the reception hall. I went for playing in the car as long as I could handle it. Half hour later, we went inside. I wandered, and I must have looked weary enough for someone to take pity on me, so a guy at the reception desk on the other side of the facility gave us a guest pass for the hour and let the kids climb on this crazy tree house. Ephraim not being with it from not napping didn't want anything to do with it, but it definitely occupied Ben. I was thankful for that, immensely thankful. Ephraim however, did seem to enjoy looking out at the pool and the people swimming so people watching was what we did for the next hour or so.
When the reception actually started, the kids weren't really any better, but they weren't any worse. Ben managed to be redressed by Keith and enjoyed hiding under tables and chairs for a good while. It wasn't until the meal prayer that he decided to be a train and run up and down the dance floor in his words, chugging. How, he managed to stay quiet while doing this was beyond me, but this apparently made all the groomsmens' day with his antics.
And since it was a bringing together of two cultures, there was a Chinese tea ceremony at the reception. Ephraim took this as his cue to test out the salt water taffy on the tables that was our wedding favor. He of course tried the licorice flavored one, and the proceeded with a 5 minute long "I don't like this" reaction during this super quiet tea ceremony. This made my entire table burst out in the most contained laughter that can be possible when one is supposed to be respectfully quiet.
When the bride and groom made their rounds to the guests, Ben decided to tag along, and since Ben was tagging along, this means Ephraim did too. And honestly, because Mr. Tony is Ben's favorite person besides his daddy in the world, I hope he didn't mind that he was doing so.
Though, I have to say I knew it was time to go when the children had then moved camp to the other side of the reception hall to a bench anchored to the wall and were jumping off of it for entertainment. While the folks at the table didn't seem to even notice, I figured the kids would probably get even more crazy as it got later.
And that was the wedding, from my perspective. I struggled a lot that day, because I had expectations in my mind. And if there is one thing I should know by now, expectations lead to disappointment. If I took last Saturday from a neutral perspective, I would have to say it went just fine. I got to talk to folks I hadn't seen in a while, none of the crazy kiddos got hurt, and two awesome people got to kickstart their lives together.
Remind me to just relax next time there is a big event like this, because ultimately even my little in the background part is in God's hands and not my own. Perspective really does change everything.
On a side note, there was this one point in the chaos that definitely made me smile. Before the bride and groom made it to the receiving line, both Keith and I were crouched down, dealing with the bubble fascinated children. We crossed lines of sight and I automatically thought how much I love my husband. I know its only been 6 years since we said I do, but I definitely love this guy more than ever. Maybe that's why I like weddings, despite the insanity of taking children to them, it reminds those of us who are married to really treasure that person God has given us to get us to heaven.
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