Local Woman Marries Local Man

When I started working at DSU, there was a student employee named Maralee in the unit in which I worked. I got to know her pretty well due to all the time she spent around the office and all the time we all spent together on major projects, such as new student orientation. She graduated at the end of that first year and got a job teaching in the local parochial school system, which employed Susan at that time. So Susan spent a year with Maralee as a co-worker. Thus we were invited to Maralee's wedding today to her long-time boyfriend and fiancé, Klint.

They got married in Queen of Peace, a beautiful Catholic church just on the other side of the Catholic high school four houses to the north of us. When Susan got home, we all walked to the church and were seated near the front. Maralee is a music teacher, so it was no surprise that there were about a dozen musicians in the wedding, including a brass ensemble, various vocalists singing solos and multi-part numbers, and people on keyboards and bass guitar. It was a tasteful and Christ-centered wedding . . . and the assisting priest was a friend of mine in high school! He was a year younger in school and played on the basketball team and in the band with me. Now he's a priest in Belfield. Small world!

Maralee and Klint light their unity candle.

There was a substantial hiatus between the end of the wedding ceremony and the start of the reception activities at a local hotel/convention center (the same one where Susan and I had our wedding reception and dance, by the way), so we hung out at home for a while before heading back out for the evening. We enjoyed a complimentary beverage from the bar (courtesy of the married couple's parents) and nuts, mints, and punch before the meal of tossed greens, pasta salad, buns, cooked carrots, mashed potatoes and gravy, and dee-licious roast beef with wedding cake for dessert.

The bridal party were a lot of fun at the reception. The maid of honor and the best man each had funny stories to share before making their toasts to the bride and groom. One person made Maralee and Klint take off their shoes and hand one shoe to the other and stand back-to-back to take a quiz. Each question asked them "Who is more likely to . . ." or "Who is better at . . ." or something similar, and to show their answers, Maralee and Klint had to hold up the shoe that corresponded with their selection: either Maralee's white shoe to mean her or Klint's black shoe to mean him. They couldn't see which shoe the other was holding up, so it was funny for us to see whether they both held up the same shoe or whether they disagreed on who was the better cook, the better conversationalist, the one who made the first move, the one who will be in charge of the checkbook, etc.

Early in the evening, people started the annoying clinking of glasses with tableware to get the couple to stand and kiss. Maralee and Klint at first obliged, but then Klint made the announcement that, this being his and Maralee's wedding, they were allowed to make the rules for kissing. In order to get them to kiss, someone had to sing a verse from a love song containing the word "love" ("And the Barney theme song does not count!"). With so many musicians in the room, there was no shortage of singers or love songs! The entire bridal party even joined forces a few times! Faithful readers will not be surprised to learn that the three Moberg daughters even made their way to the front to sing "A Bushel and a Peck," a performance that resulted not only in a bride-and-groom smooch but in much applause, ooh's and ahh's from the crowd, and several compliments thereafter.

The tables were decorated simply but tastefully.

Maralee and Klint enjoyed the evening--in part, I'm sure, because of their fun bridesmaids and groomsmen!

This is what a well sung long song resulted in. Well, actually, a couple times after a love song performance, Klint and Maralee said they were "giving" the kissing opportunity to someone else. Once they had her parents kiss after a song, and another time they had his parents kiss. Sweet!

Suzanna, Hillary, and Abigail sing "I love you a bushel and a peck and a hug around the neck . . ." to the applause of onlookers (the groomsmen are behind them, and the bride's mother is in front of them).