There is so much to tell, I truthfully don't know where to start. A daughter's wedding day is quite a day in a woman's life. I've been told I filter everything in my life through my "feelings". I guess I do, but for the life of me, I don't know of any other way to experience things. I have never been and probably never will be a person who just witnesses things in a detached way. Maybe I would be better off if I could figure out how to do that, but since it doesn't seem to be in my realm of possibility, you're stuck with the "heart-view" of things. Sorry.
Sarah's wedding day was much anticapated and joyfully planned. She is, as I've said before a beautiful loving girl and Bennie is such a wonderful person that everyone who knows them felt good about this wedding. It was a very happy occasion. They became engaged Christmas Eve of 2003. Bennie (a very very shy person) asked her to marry him on bended knee in front of her entire family (paternal side). Only those that know him could know what it cost him to do this! He had asked our permission to ask her three weeks before. At that time he asked if it would be alright to do it at the family Christmas gathering. I thought it was a wonderfully romantic idea and would be such a surprise for Sarah. But knowing how shy he is, I asked him if he were sure if he could do that. His answer to me was, "I can do anything for her". And do it, he did. With a wonderfully romantic flair. Her grandfather, who is not known to be an overly emotional person, said with a crack in his voice as soon as she'd said "yes", yelled out, "somebody fix that boy a drink". Her brother, Patrick, who is the world's best big brother and adores her said, as he wiped tears, "that was worse than "Old Yeller". There were not many dry eyes in the house that night. It was a celebration for sure.
The wedding was initally planned as a huge church wedding here, locally. She had always wanted an outside wedding. It was her dream since childhood. I so resisted this idea because of the threat of bad weather. I just was afraid that I'd not be able to handle the extra stress of worrying about what Mother Nature would throw into the mix of a day that was already full of stressful details. But she eventually won me over. If she wanted an outside wedding, we'd have an outside wedding. She then decided that she didn't want the big wedding that was being planned. She wanted an intimate wedding with mostly just family attending.Ok, we can do that too. It then was decided that since she and Bennie love the mountains, in particular the Great Smokey Mountains, that the wedding would be held there. Now, for those of you not familiar with The Smokey Mountains, and Gatlinburg, Tennessee, I will fill you in on a little background. Gatlinburg is very well known for it's wedding chapels and quicky weddings. You can get a marriage license and get married in a matter of hours there. It's second only to Las Vegas as the wedding capital of the world. That's a stigma that she really didn't like. She didn't want a traditional "Gatlinburg" wedding. She didn't get married at a wedding chapel (although, there are some beautiful wedding chapels there). We went there in February and found the Park Vista Resort Hotel. It had a beautiful lawn area that was available for weddings. We fell in love with it. We booked it. We found a local florist and ordered the flowers. We searched and searched for the perfect photographer. We finally found one in North Carolina that would travel to Gatlinburg. We loved her portfolio, we booked her. We had a minister lined up to perform the ceremony. Sarah loves classical music. What could be more perfect than strings for a garden wedding. We began to search for a string tio We had one booked. All was well. We then began to book log cabins for traveling family and friends. The plans were made. Mom began to pray daily for a beatiful day with no rain. About a week before the wedding we found out that the string trio (from the Knoxville Symphony) was not going to be available. Can you say PANIC!!! Oh my gosh, what were we going to do? The music was an integral part of the whole thing. It was absolutely necessary to have a string trio. The wedding planner that we were working with on that end set about finding us another one. She called me one day and said, "I'm not having much luck, it seems a member of the symphony is getting married on that same day and everyone from the symphony is going to her wedding. She told me that she had found a group of musicians that would be happy to play for us. But, could we change the music to Bluegrass, since that was what they played? WHAT??? NO! NO! NO! Please keep trying. She called me back a couple of days later...she had found a string trio. They could miss the symphony girl's wedding, but would have to be there for her reception. They could give us an hour tops. BUT, the price went up $150 and we were now goingto be required to provide them with a canopy (tent). OK, whatever...book them. Wedding planner said she would arrange to have the canopy set up that day (Add an additional fee for this, of course).
We all arrived in Gatlinburg on Friday. The weather was beautiful. My prayers continued. Bennie's mom and dad hosted a wonderful rehearsal dinner at a restaurant and we then went to the Park Vista for a run through. Oh my goodness, this thing was suddenly very real to me.
to be continued....
