such a sweet wedding

About the wedding of Shawn and Emily LaRue

Every wedding overflows with saccharine sentiment, sweet foods and singular touches unique to the couple, including the fall union of my nephew and his bride.
But, from the moment the ushers pointed my husband, an 11-year-old grandchild and I to sit at either table seven or table eight in the all-purpose room, we knew this wedding promised an abundance of unique touches.
Linen draped tables filled the hall from one basketball backboard to the other. Each neatly folded blue napkin of silverware also held a crayon. The table card included a request that guests use their crayon to create a greeting for the couple on their white place mat and leave it in the basket at the reception line.
The granddaughter and I snagged a rainbow of crayons from the carefully arranged napkins around the table and began coloring. She carefully created a happy, childlike scene on her mat. I crayoned a greeting on the back of the table card, then I turned to the adults while she began another picture.
The wedding, lead by three ministers, began with the bride’s and the groom’s families presenting their children in marriage and agreeing to let the couple have their own life together. A video related the story of their love at first sight over the supper table in the home of the groom’s family.
Their union was a celebration of the old and new. We dressed in suits. The musical group, dressed in blue jeans, played favorite hymns and worship songs on guitars and drums. The bride’s family and friends – who prepared and presented the wedding dinner – wore blue flowered dresses typical of the conservative Mennonites and Amish.
The couple lit their unity candle and then stood there laughing. We could not see it, but were later told, they had toasted marshmallows over the candle – reminiscent of a particular event during their courtship.
Having been pronounced husband and wife, the couple went together to the foyer to greet each guest. We left our crayoned greeting in the basket, shook hands with everyone and the line flowed naturally to the buffet tables of steak and potatoes.
The women in matching blue with head coverings hurried around replenishing food and setting up a table for a chocolate fountain. The groom’s mother had baked 12 angel food cakes to be cubed for spearing and dousing with chocolate. Kitchen friends brought other bowls heaped with strawberries, apples, bananas, rice crispy balls, and marshmallows to drench in chocolate. Everyone had so much fun that the chocolate fountain went dry and had to be replenished.
The grandniece at table seven ended her meal with chocolate smeared cheeks and mouth. Only her mother’s quick scrub with a napkin kept it from reaching her party dress.
The couple and their attendants finally made their way back to the head table for the traditional cutting of the wedding cake and toasts from their attendants including a poem the bride’s sister had written about her little sister’s life.
The master of ceremonies asked everyone to go outside and collect the surprise item they would be tossing at the couple as they left.
“Just don’t throw them too hard,” the bride cautioned.
The surprise proved to be more marshmallows.
Running through the shower of pillowy marshmallows, the couple hopped in their balloon covered car with “Just Married” painted on the window and drove off.
As they faded from sight, someone asked for help picking up all the gravel enhanced marshmallows.
It was a sticky, gooey, good wedding … as always.
(Joan Hershberger is a reporter at the News-Times.)


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