give my regards to Mr & Mrs Broadway

There are few occasions in life quite so celebratory as the wedding of friends. One of the joys of the job is that I get to stand before them and guide them through these life-changing moments. It's not only the rather inspiring though often sad gate-keeper stuff I do as people prepare to walk from this world to the next, it's the glorious and wonderful joining of two persons into one. A moment beyond comprehension. A change that flies in the face of reason and which stops the world with its beauty.

Yesterday I stood before Mark & Bianca Broadway and took them through these moments. I saw their faces and their hearts, and heard their promises and their desires. I watched their hands and their futures take hold of each other and for a moment was awestruck again at how wonderful a God we have that grants us lives like these.

My 74th wedding at St Catherine's, for the record. It's moments of note were:

1. The fastest ever walk down the aisle by a bride in the history of the world. She was ready. The bridesmaids, well, they caught up eventually.
2. A seriously weepy father of the bride. Seriously.
3. We had Ephesians 5.21-30 as one of the readings! No, seriously! Mark chose it. I pointed this out, and then took the chance to preach on it. I've never preached on this passage before in any context.
4. Lovely jugs of water on the tables at the reception to go with the wine - which turned out not to be water but gin & tonic. Caught many people out. Rather pleasant.
5. They are from the West Country. This meant that at the evening do, the dancing was, well, far more men than women. Not common in these parts, I can tell you. Or perhaps these blokes just enjoyed dancing.
6. Facebook update from someone on my table: "I'm on a table with the vicar. How strange." Then later: "It's OK, we're talking movies."
7. Had a lovely conversation with one of Mark's friends late in the evening. His version, apparently: "Tried to pick an argument with Marcus: he seriously whooped my ****."
8. Actually, I must say, I had a great time with everyone - Karl, Robin, everyone at my table during the afternoon, the very many folk I chatted to during the evening, it was about the friendliest wedding I've been to in ages. Which reflects M&B perfectly.

And it has been my total delight to help out Mark & Bianca as they have worked so hard to prepare for this day. We did everything we could as a church to make it work for them, including putting on the afternoon reception in the church hall. Today, I found them in there clearing it all up, and I drove them around as they had all kinds of things to do & helped move chairs around & sort stuff with them. Mark starts a new job tomorrow, so no honeymoon for them. We will hit the pub quiz later in the week. If we win, he & Bee will take the prize.

Though frankly, on a day that was low on razzamatazz but high on value, they both already clearly have the prize, and prize it highly.