Thoughts on the Wedding

I have reflected on my feelings about my oldest son's wedding. He is a man now without a doubt. He has a wife. He could become a father and everyone would be happy for him. He has a family separate from ours.

I loved the way he and Jordan made the wedding ceremony their own. He welcomed everyone to the wedding himself. He expressed his gratitude to everyone for being there. He used a quote from The Empire Strikes Back in his wedding! He talked about the scene where Harrison Ford's character was about to be dropped into the carbonite and Princess Leia said to him, "I love you." and he responded, "I know." This was not a very romantic line and I was wondering how he was going to work the quote into something positive and appropriate for a wedding. He spoke of how Jordan knows that he loves her and he knows that Jordan loves him.

Craig also did a great job of officiating. The part that I thought was most touching was when Craig explained that he had asked John and Jordan to write love letters to each other and bring them to the wedding. He said that the letters were not for their wedding day but rather for one of those rough days that come to almost all marriages. They should take these letters out and read about the love that brought them to their wedding day. I thought it was a wonderful idea. Craig also had a little surprise for them. He had asked John and Jordan to tell him what symbol would represent their relationship. John had said a wolf because they are strong, monogamous animals that protect their families. Jordan had said a rubber band because it is flexible and stretches out but always returns to its original shape. Craig had a bag with a stuffed wolf and a rubber band ball. I thought that was interesting.

The Chapel at the American Village was a beautiful place for the wedding. It was bright and beautiful. The ceremony went very smoothly with only a few small snafus, a ring being dropped, a reader nearly falling down the stairs, and the coordination of music and entrance of the bridesmaids and flower girl, something I didn't even notice but was important to Kim, Jordan's mother, who had worked on the music with the musicians and vocalist.

The Barn was the perfect place for the reception. It suited John and Jordan's personalities much more than the ballroom would have. The florist had made the Barn beautiful with the yellow table clothes with green bows on the chairs and table toppers. Actually, the colors could have been opposite, I can't remember, but it was beautiful. There were green hydrangeas and dried vines intertwined in the rafters. The wedding cake was beautiful. The groom's cake was a three-dimensional R2D2. They entered the Barn to the Imperial March from the Star Wars movie. There was a light saber toy on the table with the groom's cake. It was too cute. They had a sort of Star Wars themed wedding with the mention in the ceremony, the R2D2 cake, and Imperial March music.

Jordan was breathtaking. It brought tears to my eyes when I saw her in her wedding dress. I was in the "bride's room" for over an hour where the discussion was about borrowing hair spray, moisturizer, shoes, green eye shadow, and dresses. I then went to the "groom's room" where the talk was of football and complaints about why they had to be there so early since they had to wait for the girls to get ready and John couldn't come out because he couldn't see the bride before the wedding. John was a little stressed out because he couldn't print the letters that he had written for Bill, Jordan, and me at his apartment because someone had tied up the printer. He finally got in touch with Gustavo who printed them for him and brought them to the wedding.

John gave his groomsmen a monogrammed flask filled with whiskey. They had been tasting a bit, but no one was intoxicated. I didn't know until Sunday that John had also given Steven a flask with whiskey. I'll have to speak to him about that. I have no idea if Steven also "tasted" from the flask, and there are some things I don't think I really need to know.

I got to spend a few minutes alone with John before the wedding. I really enjoyed those few minutes with him. I think he teared up a few times, as did I, like when I told him how beautiful Jordan was in her wedding dress and when I told him how proud I was of him. He looked very handsome in his tux. He sent me on a couple of missions to deliver his luggage to Jordan's car, find his boutonniere, and retrieve envelopes and the wedding license from his car.

Everything went so smoothely. It was HOT. They had 3 golf cart type of vehicles that we could call to take us from building to building to keep us from getting all sweaty. It didn't really stop John, David and Bill from getting sweaty. During the ceremony I passed a monogrammed tissue, from a packet that Jordan had given me, so he could wipe the sweat off his face. I gave the tissue to Zac, the groomsman closest to me who passed it down the line of groomsmen to John. He said thank you later. Bill got really sweaty when he was trying to get Bebe into the Chapel. I wiped the sweat off of John's head and forhead and tried to dry his hair a little after the ceremony before we took the pictures. I don't know if I was successful, but I hope it helped.

During the ceremony there were several times that I cried a little. When I saw that Jordan's dad was crying as he escorted her down the isle, I had to look away for a minute. I was afraid he would not be able to answer the question, "who gives this woman?" I also leaked a few tears when John handed Bill and me letters during the ceremony. I didn't read it until Sunday. It was not the tender, personal letter that I anticipated and I didn't shed a tear when I read it. He even admitted in the letter that he was running out of time when he wrote my letter. Oh well. I shared a few private moments with him before the ceremony.

I have one regret about the wedding day. I wish I had gotten the photographer to take a picture of all of our family with Daddy and Uncle Walter, Delores and me, and her kids and my kids, and her grandkids. We may not have that opportunity again.

The weather got really nasty after the reception. Fortunately J and J got away before it started storming, but they did get into it on their way to the Ciza house in Alabaster. The weather was really weird on my drive home. The sun was shining to the west and it was raining so hard I couldn't see and I went through hail three different times.