Wedding Report #1: The Leichliter Celebration

Yes, the rumors are true: I actually did survive my first PHC wedding… I mean the actual ceremony (and especially the reception… ha, ha) were cake compared to the transportation fiasco…

If you’re a reader of the Naomi blog, you know much of the story. Ash, Naomi and I took off at 10:30 p.m., Michigan bound, and we were making awesome time. After bragging about my complete inability to sleep in a car, I had a Red Bull at our first stop and promptly conked out. I’ve never experienced anything like it, and as the girls said, I was NOT a good advertisement for the drink. It’s more like, “Red Bull gives you wings, and it’s a lot softer to sleep on!”

After I regained coherence, we sang praise songs and show tunes through the black morning, across the flat, flat, flatness of Ohio. Toward the end of the Ohio stretch it was my turn to drive, and I was more than happy to oblige. The sun was just starting to peach up the sky as we got closer and closer to the Michigan line. It was the morning of the wedding, and all looked bright and beautiful.

And then we pulled over to fill up the coolant, and the darn thing didn’t start. We were calling AAA, but I knew the car had life yet in it. So I let it cool and then switched on the ignition, gave it come gas and wham – it turned over faster than a centrist Democrat over the nuclear option. So it was on our way again. That lasted for another, oh, hour. We were literally within sight of the “Welcome to Michigan!” sign when, sputter sputter pop pop, the Oldsmobile was all gone.

Well, this was fabulous at 7:20 in the morning, little sleep, and a wedding starting at 1, two hours away. Thank God we made it that far, and I knew we’d make it somehow, but still, so nervewracking… and of course I felt horrible for Naomi, who was understandably upset about the comatose state of her vehicle.

So forty minutes and a tow truck later, we were back in Ohio listening to the not-so-good diagnosis of the car. Josh came down to rescue us. He hadn’t slept in like 48 hours, which put us to shame and made his driving very interesting. We managed to have an hour to get ready for the wedding, not nearly as much as we needed to cover up a sleepless night and stressful morning, but we had made it, and that was what mattered.

Now for the fun part, the ceremony. The attendance was compromised of largely PHC students; the bridesmaids and groomsmen were almost exclusively so. I had expected a little stone church or something, and this was more of a large, somewhat modern (ur I should say 70s) building that was rather large. But that was nice because everyone could be close to the action. A piano soloist played all the standard wedding tunes to warm up, lead into Pachabel’s Cannon. The groomsmen, pastor, and Mark came in from the side of the stage. The bridesmaids started to trickle down, and I’ll admit it, that’s when I started crying. I never had a chance, really. And then the wedding march trumpeted, and there she came, on her dad’s arm, radiant. The great thing about it was, though, that she looked the exact same as she always does when she’s around Mark; they are so meant for each other that, at least at this point, they’re ALWAYS this happy when they’re around each other. And it’s such so beautiful to see. As someone who remembers this as a faraway dream for her back freshman year, it was such an encouragement to see the fruition, even though the whole thing was an almost surreal out-of-body experience. It was the first time two of my friends got married, so give me a break, here. At least I had Josh on one side and Czar on the other to keep me from completely mushing into a pile of goo. It was all very short, sweet, and traditional, very Mark and Erin on all accounts.

And let’s be honest. I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the kiss, because it’s worth mentioning, because he did it right, 100 percent, even capped it off with a kiss on the forehead. To my guy friends, for the sake of your future wives, I hope you were taking notes. I will leave it at that as I’ve probably already said too much *wry grin*…

So then, it was mingle and reception time. The PHC contingent managed to conquer an entire corner of the reception hall and cause absolutely controlled pandemonium the entire time. One of the highlights of the reception was the M.C., the illustrious Ben Frichtl, telling folks to back off of the bell-ringing, because as much as the bride and groom wanted to kiss, they also wanted to eat their dinner. Josh promptly contrived to distract Ben long enough to let Peter go up to the mike and say that the Czar was overturning the aforementioned decree of bell-banning, much to the approval of all present. It was a classic PHC moment.

PHCers were also floating in and out, “taking care” of the couple’s car. They get a B for creativity, that’s all, unless there’s some other surprise I didn’t see. :-P There was also the bouquet toss, which Ash and I joked around at quite a bit, as we naturally are used to playing against each other in Frisbee, so we were automatically in defense mode against one another. It was all for naught, though, as Erin threw that thing with such ferocity that it went all the way to the back wall, and into the closest arms – congrats, Emily, who’s the lucky guy? ;-)

And then we sent them off, together, into the future, the unknown, to establish their own home. It’s craziness. But for them, it was so right, everyone just had to have a giant smile on their face the whole time. At least all the PHCers did. It was about hope, I guess, and I needed a bit of that at this juncture. So thank you, Lord, and bless that new family, establish their home in righteousness and peace. Remind those of us left behind to pray for those who go before.

We had quite a bit of fun that afternoon… or at least I was having fun once I got over my crankiness. We were still trying to figure out HOW we were going to get home to Virginia, we were hungry and some people were hyper… so after some time to change and recoup, we all eventually reconvened at Derby’s grandparent’s farm around sunset, which was beautiful! Michigan really isn’t bad, especially on a late spring night like this one. We had a gorgeous field on which to play Frisbee, and it was just heaven. To run and breathe in the air in a place not fettered by memory. It was freedom. Surrounded by folks I don’t see too much of anymore, especially those out of town… Peter, Josh, Derby, Cannone (yes, Cannone was there!)… yet with them and current PHC folks, still having a common bond, not of studying or of stress, but of friendship based on our common passion for God. And it was so totally cool to rediscover that playing Frisbee on an open field of a blueberry farm, sitting on the back of Frichtl’s pickup, staring up into the moonlit sky. It was sad in that I had to say goodbye to an old friend (bye, Daniel :() but in all, it was one giant piece of okay, for once.

What a blessing.

After some ado, we managed to rent a car in Detriot and head out to Virginia by mid Sunday morning. It was a random assortment of people: Mike Hunsburger, David Dill, Jonathan Cannone and us three girls, but how much fun. I learned that Mike has awesome taste in music, Cannone has a girlfriend (who we met and fed us in PA – that was VERY nice indeed ;)) and Dill is apparently as old as I am, and THAT’S saying something. It was a long ride, but praise God, the car worked, my sinus headache eventually went away, and by 10:30 p.m., just 48 hours after I left the state, I was back in the townhouse, getting ready for bed.

God is good. I’m so glad I got to go. Special thanks to Na and Ash for putting up with me. You’re the two best roadtrippers EVER!!!! We should do this every weekend, except with a real car, and for the fact that I’ve decided I’m NOT driving to a wedding over 5 hours away EVER again… :-P

Anyway, I spent the hour before starting this entry on trying to get pictures from the wedding up. For some reason, the software I installed with my new camera conflicts with the Hello system so it’s not letting me log on and I’m a little upset. So sorry no pictures; if you really want them, leave a post or email me and I’ll send them to you individually. Sorry :-/

So one wedding down for the year, three to go. Time till next wedding: 10 days.

No rest for the weary :-D