Here comes the bride

Mark and I drove (he actually did the driving . . .I took the medicine!!) to Huntsville last Saturday for a wedding. The groom was one of Glenn's roommates from his time at Auburn. We give thanks for the friends of Glenn and Lauren and Laura almost every night in our prayer time. They have truly been blessed with a great group of friends. The groom is attending seminary at Duke and his sweet bride is trying to decide what she is going to do next. Mark was laughing at me as we approached Huntsville. Actually, he was probably rolling his eyes . . but he was driving. I grabbed the camera when I noticed that we were approaching the rocket. I still think it is amazing that I can take a picture like this through the window of the car while moving at 70 miles an hour. Look at that sky . . .dark clouds!!!

As we were driving to Huntsville, I asked Mark, "Do you think we will see Deb at the wedding?" Deb is a United Methodist minister and we know her through the Emmaus community. We knew that she knew both the bride and groom because they were her summer interns at Urban Ministry a couple of summers ago . . when their romance blossomed (oh that sounds so incredibly corny but I'm leaving that phrase in here!!). We arrived at the church (early of course for those of you who know us!!) and walked in. A door opened and guess who walked through the door? You guessed it . .. Deb. Since we know Deb through the Emmaus community, we've only seen her in jeans and comfortable clothes. Here she stood in her "preacher's robe" . . .so of course, I had to (yes, I HAD to take her picture). She graciously agreed. Of course, I'm not sure she could have stopped me.

Our sweet daughter-in-law was the "program attendant" (that means she was handing everyone a program!!) She looked so pretty so of course, I snapped a picture of Lauren and Mark. I was so pleased when I uploaded the picture. Mark has a tendency to not smile in his pictures and this picture captured a full blown smile!!

While we were hanging out in the church lobby (I'm not sure if they call it a narthex or not!), Glenn and Levi and Kaylor showed up. Mark is happy to be with his "boys." Glenn is his son, Kaylor is his good son, Levi is his "something or other" son . . .they all have "names."

This is the inside of the sanctuary at Trinity in Huntsville. Isn't it beautiful? Someone told me this week that this sanctuary was badly damaged in a tornado several years ago. If so, they have certainly done a great job refurbishing it. It is gorgeous. You see all those pipes up front? They also had pipes at the back of the sanctuary so the sound was incredibly rich. The bride and groom served communion to all of their guests as their first "act" as a married couple. It was so special because he served his "side" and she served her "side" so it was very personal.

The reception venue was so cool. It is called The Lumberyard. They had a huge tent set up in the open space (good thing because it did rain some.) It was also incredibly cool. If I'm cold, you know it was cold. Some of those girls were freezing to death.

They had a really great band. At one point, the groom's sister and brother took over the stage and microphones. Actually, they were to sing the song for the groom's dance with his mother but the sound wasn't very good. They also sang during the wedding. All three of them (groom and siblings) are very talented.

This was the bar area. Everything was kind of fun and quirky. Lots of decorations (like the hammock and flowers).

This was so cool . . . it was the entrance to the venue. (except many of us came through the "back gate") The bride and groom and wedding party entered this way.

Each table had a different centerpiece made up of "old things." Ours had old books and old tin cans and a bowl full of marbles.

There were chandeliers in the tent . . which I thought was really cool (I need to get a thesaurus because I just noticed how many times I have used the word "cool" in this post)

Every table had an old china plate at each place setting. When you prepared your plate of food, the plates were clear plastic . . .so you could see the pretty china plate. They used the plates sort of like chargers.

This was their first dance.

I'm always the person who is snapping shots but I handed the camera to our sweet boy and he took a picture of his mom and dad.

I snapped a shot of Glenn and Mark - they are my men and I sure do love them!!

Here are a few pictures of the venue . . .there were a couple of train cars that were the "right wall" of the space.

This was the "left wall" - it was sort of like a facade . . of an old general store. They had lights on it and all sorts of fun decorations.

Lauren and Glenn came to visit at our table. We claimed a table as soon as we got there . . .sort of to the back . . .and the folks who joined us at our table were the bride's step-mother and father and the step-mother's parents. I don't know her family at all but everyone seemed to get along . . .at least for that day anyway.

We were getting ready to leave because it is a two hour drive and I needed to get back . . .and Levi was begging Mark to stay and "play." I offered to leave him with these guys if they would bring him back to Birmingham on Sunday . . .but Mark didn't stay. He is looking forward to the next wedding which is in June because we are staying in a hotel and he can stay and "play". Mark loves these guys and they all love him!This was a lovely wedding and reception and we were so honored to be included. Of course, NOTHING will ever top Glenn and Lauren's wedding but it has been so fun to go to all of these weddings over the last year and see how different each one has been.