Story 30: The Wedding

It was a beautiful September day. The sun was shining, the grass was super green, and flowers were at their peak.

Our venue was a small traditional church in Lawrenceville.

The wedding had come together with the assistance of many friends.

We had little money and what we had went to securing the church venue. We had nothing left for flowers or musicians let alone a reception. Nearly every facet of our wedding ceremony (from flowers to music) was performed with excellence and grace by the generosity of friends that pitched in and utilized their individual talents to help pull off an amazing wedding event.

Our amazing coordinator was my sister, Brenda. I figured there was no better capable person than her to organize and pull off the miracle of our wedding like she did.

Our wedding was performed by my mentor and trusted friend, Larry Reese. He saw our union together before we ever did and walked with us through the ups and downs to get to this day.

My bestmen were my dad and Alex Compton. My fellow groomsmen were Jeff Davidson, Jay Powell, and Nathan Telander.

Karen’s maid-of-honor was her sister, Jessica. Her bridesmaids were Jennifer and Dede.

We began the morning with the reveal of the bride to me in her dress. Karen was spectacularly stunning.

We followed up our time together with the photographer and taking several pictures.

The ceremony began with our parents lighting candles to the piano piece I wrote for our engagement followed by a dance routine by Tony and Donna Traub to the worship song, “The Air I Breathe”.

After that, my dad, Alex, and I walked out the side room with Larry.

The bridesmaids and groomsmen entered during the musical piece by Michael W. Smith which culminated with the reveal of the bride.

I was literally shaking in my shoes. It was a feeling I had never had before nor since. It was a momentous moment and my body was reacting to the epic occasion. As she approached me, I was filled with wonder and amazement.

Both of our parents gave us away to each other.

We exchanged our vows and I surprised her with a special song I wrote for our wedding, “My Vow”. Everyone was in tears (including me) except Karen. She was beaming and smiling. No tears form this girl. SHe was ready for this moment.

Next, good friends, Lester and Holly Rector sang “Because You Loved Me”. The freaky thing was the tape would not work and then when it started to work, it cutoff going into the first verse. Did that stop the singing? Not even close. They continued and performed the piece with perfection without any musical accompaniment. Larry said it best when the song ended, “I think you can all agree with me that we didn’t need the music to ruin that song.”

We sealed our ceremony with a kiss and proceeded down the aisle in celebration.

The reception was a product of perfection due to the diligent hands of true friends, Larry and Alice Trammell. Along with their son, Cliff, they performed the most amazing reception with just a piano and a few mics. Karen and I were lifted up on chairs in true Jewish fashion and everyone danced the ceremonial dances.

Following the reception we exited through a tunnel of bubbles. However, my cousin Nolan had to put his touch on the ending my spraying us with silly string! Brenda kept telling a shocked bride as she walked through the remaining bubbles that it was OK and that it would come out of her dress. She arrived at our white Mitubuti Galant. We got in and drove away with a parade of honking cars.

As we drove around the block, Karen was opening cards that we received as gifts. The hunt? Money. We were embarking on an unpaid honeymoon with no money to paid for it. Most people gave amazing gifts, so the money talley was low. We could not pay for our honeymoon.

After the parade around the block, we arrived back and said goodbye to everyone. I mentioned to my dad that we did not have enough money to cover the honeymoon and I wasn’t sure what to do. He didn’t miss a beat. He took out his credit card and said, “Just put it on this and we’ll figure out the rest later.”

Just another amazing moment of humility and gratitude to God who continued to provide for us at every turn through the kindness of family and friends. When we had nothing on our most sacred day, He came through once again to prove that He was our provider.