Wedding Trip

Well, we're back! We had a great trip and a great time! We left early Friday morning, and arrived a little past lunch time. We stopped at Uncle Billy and Aunt Bonnie's house for a while to visit and talk about what was included in what Trissy and I were supposed to do. Aunt Bonnie had made Trissy a little book with a wrist strap that had all her 'duties' as a "Bride's Assistant" in it that was so cute! Jenae (our cousin that got married) went ahead and gave me her camera, so that I could have it to take pictures at the rehearsal that night. We visited a little longer, then 'us travelers' went over to the hotel and, after getting settled, we just "crashed" for about an hour before getting ready and going to the church for the rehearsal. The naps felt great, and we were glad later that we'd taken time to rest!
A little bit about the people 'behind the scenes': The C. family have been good friends with Uncle Billy and Aunt Edna for years. They have eight kids, 4 and 4, and are hoping to start a family business 'doing' weddings - the older boys are into video and photography, the girls cook, sew, and decorate, and the parents oversee and make sure everything runs smoothly. So they wanted to do Jenae's wedding at no charge! Uncle Billy is legally blind, and they really didn't have enough money for a traditional wedding, even a small one. They told Jenae they could buy her dress, and that was pretty much all they could afford. Then the C. family, and an army of other kind friends and church members stepped in, and literally did everything else! Jenae is an only child, and her best friend is an only girl and they consider themselves 'sisters'. She is already married and has three kids (I think it's three), and they are pretty well off. She and her husband love Jenae to death, and went all out giving her showers and paying for a majority of the expenses to give Jenae a beautiful wedding!

Anyway, so at the rehearsal, Trissy and I got to be friends with the two oldest C. girls. They are so sweet and truly seem like "ladies". We sat together at the rehearsal dinner, and became fast friends!

Jenae's husband, Dane, is a wonderful Godly man, and also comes from a large family. He is the next to oldest, under the only girl, Cavanna. He has five younger brothers who are evidently prone to pranks :) - Jenae was a little worried that they would mess up the house as a joke (instead of the car), but said that Cavanna's husband Ian (she and one of the other brothers are married already) promised he would hold them back. I really liked Ian and Cavanna. They have three kids and have been married for several years, and seem like such wise, Godly people. It was cute to watch them during the wedding, 'cause Ian was a groomsman and Cavanna was a bridesmaid, and they kept smiling at each other across the stage at different parts during the ceremony :).
This is totally random, but I wanted to mention this: A large swatch of Ian's left eyebrow was pure white. He is dark haired, and the effect was very striking. Mom said it was a birthmark of some kind. I have never seen anything like it before, but it was neat looking! Have any of you ever seen something like that?

At the rehearsal dinner, everyone was asked (if they wanted to) to share a story about the bride or groom. Several did, and many of the stories were wonderful testimonies! My grandmother told one of when Jenae was little, that they had gone into the post office together, and she was talking to the clerk. Jenae started tugging on her dress and saying, "Tell her about Jesus! Tell her about Jesus!" One of Dane's brothers shared that Dane had been the one to lead him to Christ.

After the dinner Trissy and I got to help with the clean-up! The kitchen was busy with a bunch of the church women, the C. girls, and Dane's mom and sister all bustling around, putting food away, wiping tables, and washing dishes. The atmosphere was one of cameraderie and fun though, not at all stressful, and we had a ball! They seemed to be glad for the extra hands too :) !

We got back to the hotel and fell into bed. The next morning I worked a little while on writing out my thoughts for Jenna's Joy Challenge, until breakfast, then getting ready to head over to Aunt Bonnie's to help Jenae get ready (she decided to do her hair and that sort of thing before going over to the church), and take pictures of the proccess!
Mom drove us over there, then went back to the hotel to help her parents, my grandparents, get ready to go to the church.
When Jenae was as fixed up as she was going to get before going to the church and getting dressed, Aunt Bonnie drove us over there, stayed to help Jenae into her dress, then went back to the house to help Uncle Billy get ready.

The wedding was scheduled for two in the afternoon, and for me the next few hours are a blur of running little errands, getting lost (it's a huge church building, and very easy to get lost in if the first time you were even there was the night before!), snapping pictures, sore feet (I had to wear high heels - YUK!), laughs, flowers, and a delicious ham sandwitch about 1:30!

Finally, two arrived, and I slipped into my seat beside Aunt Bonnie. Yes, I got to sit with the Mother Of The Bride! Jenae wanted me to be close so I could get pictures during the ceremony.
It was a beautiful wedding. Uncle Billy had a tremendous headache, but he was able to preach (he's a preacher and a Christian counselor), and did an excellent job! He preached on forgiveness, and explained that the reason many marriages don't last now-a-days is because one or other, or both, of the couple are simply not willing to forgive. It was so good!
He did something else that I had not seen done at a wedding before, but that I thought was a wonderful idea. He charged the wedding party, the groomsmen and bridesmaids, that they had a right - indeed, a responsibility - that if they ever saw or knew of anything that was going on in the marriage that was not right, that they, as witnesses of the marriage, were to go to the couple and lovingly confront them about whatever the issue was. I thought that was pretty neat!

There are lots of other details I could share, but for the sake of time and space, I'll refrain ;) !

I did want to mention though that instead of marching out to the traditional "da, da, da dun dun da da" song (sorry, can't remember the name :\ ), they used "Love Is Not A Fight" off of Fireproof! :D

I'll come back and finish this a little later, maybe even finish it in another post... my eyes are getting tired :) !

Bye!