A Medora Wedding

After the girls got back from their weekend with Auntie Cheryl, we all got cleaned up and dressed up and drove to Medora for the wedding of my friend and coworker Steph. She and John had an outdoor wedding in Chimney Park on what had early on turned out to be one of the windiest days of the year! Steph had asked for our girls to be gift attendants at her reception and for us to arrive early, which we did . . . and because we were there early, she asked the girls (once we arrived) to hand out programs, too, which they did. So Susan and I took our seats (the usher waved his hand and said, "Sit wherever"--good ushering, huh?) and visited with other nearby coworkers of mine while the girls kept a tight grip on the programs to keep them from whipping away in the wind.

At home the girls posed in these dresses, which Susan made for them! Pretty impressive for a self-taught seamstress, huh?!

The impromptu program attendants and the laissez-faire "usher," my friend and former student, Adam.

We were seated next to a woman at a tinny-sounding keyboard on a wobbly frame, a man next to her hunched over uncomfortably while trying to hold open her sheet music for her. The sound couldn't have been traveling much farther than five or six feet (not necessarily a bad thing, judging by what I did hear--oh, shame on me!), and eventually she just gave up altogether, letting the wind provide the background noise as guests filed into the rows of folding chairs set up beneath the trees.

A few minutes before the service was to start, we watched the pastor drive up in his Camaro, get out, and get dressed in his vestments while standing mere feet behind the kneeler that had been hauled in from some church and set up to mark the altar area beneath the trees. He put his Bible on the roof of the Camaro and forgot it there as he got back in and drove the car several feet ahead, apparently having identified a better parking spot. The congregation gasped as The Holy Book went flying onto the gravel road, and the hunched-over music holder bolted for the road, retrieved the Bible, and delivered it to the pastor, who looked far less concerned than those who had witnessed the event.

Susan and I were seated in the second row on the bride's side, maybe 10 feet from the wedding party once they were all standing in front. Still we could barely hear the pastor giving the wedding meditation or the uncle reading the scripture verses--they had no microphones, and the merciless wind carried their voices up into the cloudless sky and away from our ears. However, even with a late start (by 10 or 15 minutes, in fact), with no vocal solos during the service and no communion or congregational hymns to take up time, things clipped along at a pretty pace, and we were done and filing back out in no time. After congratulating the bride and groom, exiters were given a Colorado spruce seedling--an appropriate wedding favor considering the outdoor setting for the wedding.

The wedding party.

The bead detailing on the back of Steph's bridal gown. Isn't it unusual and beautiful?

"You may now kiss the bride." (Steph and John had already gotten married, it turns out, on February 29 in Deadwood, SD and were hoping to have a justice of the peace conduct today's ceremony to renew their vows and "make it official" in the eyes of their gathered friends and family. When the justice of the peace backed out at the last minute, the Camaro-driving, Bible-disrespecting pastor was contacted due to his being local and available. He uncovered the little we're-already-married-but-don't-tell-anybody tidbit during their solitary session of pre-marriage counseling, and he thought it would be funny to mention it during the wedding meditation. So he did . . . but Steph and John were not amused.)

The reception was on the outdoor patio of the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame in Medora. All the wind that had whistled through the wedding completely died down in time for the reception, and we enjoyed a temperate, beautifully calm yet insect-free evening the rest of the night. The girls were stationed at the gift table at the entrance to the patio, so they were unofficial greeters--and many guests said kind words throughout the night to Susan or me, complimenting us on our polite and pleasant daughters. We enjoyed cake and punch and a cash bar and a buffet of chicken drummies, nacho chips, queso, salsa, sandwiches, fruit and dip, and salted nuts. We sat with my friend and coworker Chris and his wife, Heather, and their kids, Keaton (almost three) and Jaret (eight weeks old) (see this and this). Susan and I each took a turn holding Jaret; and whoever wasn't holding the baby was out dancing with the daughters (the wedding photographer doubled as the DJ for the wedding dance, playing songs ranging from Bon Jovi to "The Beer Barrel Polka").

We stayed until the end of the dance and then got into the Explorer for the return drive. It was a pretty quiet vehicle during the half-hour drive home, lemme tell ya!

At their station, waiting for the gifts to start pouring in.

A long-distance look at the girls that shows the patio setup.

John and Steph upon arriving at the reception.

The wedding party noshing.

Little baby Jaret just waiting for Susan and me to get our mitts on him!