When a couple and I talk about their wedding ceremony, I always remind them that no matter how hard we try to plan every detail, something will happen that will create a memory unique to their wedding. Just as rehearsals rarely start on time, weddings normally don’t go 100 percent as planned.
Like the time I officiated a wedding in a country church in North Georgia. The maid of honor dropped the groom’s ring and it started rolling across the hardwood floor, picking up speed as it approached the furnace grate. Someone caught it just in time.
Then there was the toddler ring bearer who carried the real rings on the silk pillow. As I was beginning my remarks, I looked over and the little guy had the pillow to his face and the groom’s ring halfway in his mouth, slobbering all over the pillow. I tried to get the maid of honor to look over, but her eyes were on the bride. I was concerned the ring would come loose and end up in his throat, right in the middle of the ceremony.
We came to the exchanging of rings, and I asked the groom to take the ring and place it on his bride’s finger. So the maid of honor took the pillow, attempted to untie the ribbon, but the little silk ribbon was soaked. The firm knot the aunt tied to secure the rings combined with saliva to make an impossible situation.
She wrestled with the knot, and we waited, and she struggled, and we waited, she looked exasperated and finally I looked over to the best man and asked, “Do you have a pocket knife.” No.
Then I asked the bride, “Do you want me to see if anyone has a pocket knife?”
About that time, the best man stepped forward, took the pillow, strained a few seconds and finally ripped apart the ribbon. The rings were free. From now on, I will carry a pocket knife just in case.
Recently, I participated in my son’s wedding as the co-best man. When he asked me to be in his wedding, he said, “I want you to be my co-best man, but I don’t want you to have anything to do with the bachelor party.”
The wedding was held on a farm north of Milledgeville. Jonathan put me in charge of setting up communion. We purchased bread and grape juice, and that morning, broke bread and divided it into four baskets. Thirty minutes prior to the ceremony, I poured grape juice into four stem-glasses into which the bread would be dipped. Then we carefully placed the elements on two tables behind each section of folding chairs.
As people gathered, it became obvious that we needed to set up more chairs. So several guys created a new back row right by the communion tables. I walked up and moved the first table back about four feet, made sure it was stable and walked over to the next section and moved that table. When I turned around, I was horrified to see that the first table had fallen over, the baskets were on the ground and the two glasses of grape juice were spilled.
It was the last minute, the wedding party was lined up ready to march in, the bride was about to make her appearance, and I sprinted across the field, into the farm house kitchen and grabbed the remaining grape juice. Someone met me, I handed off the juice and we were ready to go when we came to communion time.
The left side of the congregation never knew their bread had fallen on the ground (the basket was covered, and we lost only five pieces), and since people had their backs turned, they didn’t witness this near-disaster.
However, some of the wedding party thought this communion fiasco was hilarious. I ran to get back into line for the processional just as it was time to start. The bride was beautiful, my son was handsome, and they had a sweet, touching wedding.
And, fortunately, there were no additional bloopers.
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Dr. David L. Chancey is pastor, McDonough Road Baptist Church, Fayetteville, Ga. The church family gathers at 352 McDonough Road, just past the department of drivers’ license office, and invites you to join them for Bible study at 9:45 a.m. and worship at 10:55 a.m. each Sunday. Visit them on the web at www.mcdonoughroad.org.
